MOTOR RACING : Roots Are in Southern California, but Drag Racers Are Ohio-Based

Jerry Eckman, Bill Orndorff and Dale Eicke, three grass-roots drag racers who learned their trade on the San Fernando, Lions, Irwindale and Orange County strips when Southern California was the mecca of hot-rodding a decade and more ago, have combined forces to challenge for the No. 1 position in the pro stock division.

But they have had to move to Ohio to do it.

Eckman, driving the team’s yellow Pennzoil Pontiac Trans Am, qualified fastest in all three pro stock sessions last week before rain washed out the final round of the 30th Chief Auto Parts Winternationals at the L. A. County Fairplex in Pomona.

The National Hot Rod Assn. has rescheduled final eliminations for Saturday, starting at 11 a.m. A special practice session, from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday, will give teams an opportunity to shake down equipment.

“The delay gives us more time to savor our position,” Eckman said from his home in Ventura. “It might give the opposition more time to improve their situation, but, on the other hand, it might give them more chances to get things fouled up.”

Eckman qualified on Saturday at 7.29 seconds to take the No. 1 position for the first time in his NHRA career. Favorite Bob Glidden, an Indiana veteran who has won the Winternationals seven times, was a surprising fifth at 7.331 in a Ford Probe.

A crowd estimated at 40,000, which was a record for a non-final round, attended Saturday’s time trials.

Eckman failed to qualify nine times last year, a disappointment that led to the team’s decision to move to Ohio.

Eicke, the engine man, attended L. A. Polytechnic High and Trade Tech College, but moved to Granville, Ohio, in 1984 to work for race driver Butch Leal. Orndorff, the car owner, grew up in Oxnard and lived there until recently, when he sold his TV and appliance story in Camarillo to move to Ohio.

“It makes sense to have the team headquartered back there because you can come and go from races much easier than you can from California,” Eckman said. “Our biggest problem last year was that we blew an engine up early in the season and, with races nearly every week, we were never able to get it repaired properly and get back on track.

“This season, we decided to get serious and have Dale (Eicke) prepare our own Pontiac engines instead of buying them and having them done outside. I think what happened last week at Pomona proved our point, even though we didn’t have the engine ready until Monday and I hadn’t sat in the car for three months before the first run at Friday.”

Eckman, 47, who graduated from Van Nuys High and Ventura College, started bracket racing in 1958 in a ’52 Ford at the San Fernando Drag Strip. After serving with the Army in Germany as an interpreter and in Vietnam, Eckman resumed racing in partnership with old friend Orndorff. To maintain his racing habit, he worked as an oil field superintendent in Kern County.

He and Orndorff moved up to professional racing in 1980. In 1987 Eckman won an NHRA event, the Summernationals, for the first time, and in 1988 he scored his greatest victory when he upset Glidden in the final of the Winston Invitational, a pro stock all-star meet in Atlanta that brought together the 10 leading drivers of the year.

The $30,000 purse was the highest in pro stock history at the time.

“Glidden has never forgiven me for beating him that day, and he’s been beating on me ever since,” Eckman said. “Maybe the tide has turned for us, though, and we’ve broken out of our slump. We have the power now, thanks to Eicke and Pontiac, and now it’s up to me.

“If you don’t have power, there’s not much a driver--any driver--can do. Without it, driving doesn’t come into play. I feel like we’re ready for Glidden now, for all the guys for that matter.”

One way in which Eckman is different from Glidden, Bruce Allen, Joe Lepone, Warren Johnson, Darrell Alderman and other top pro stock drivers, is in his transporter. Others have enormous 18-wheel rigs to haul their cars and equipment, but Eckman moves his car in a little trailer.

“It looks kind of like an old medicine wagon compared to the others,” he said. “But that’s good because it might work on their minds, seeing us doing so well without all the fancy stuff. We’ll probably get a truck and tractor, but at the moment we’d rather put all our resources toward improving the engine and the performance.”

SPRINT CARS--The California Racing Assn. will begin its 44th season in a most unlikely place Sunday--on the high-banked asphalt oval at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield. It will be the first official CRA race not on dirt since 1977. Defending champion Ron Shuman heads a field of CRA veterans against Indy car drivers George Snider, Rich Vogler and Billy Vukovich III, who wish to take advantage of their asphalt experience in the CRA wingless cars.

Winged machines will move into the spotlight next week when the World of Outlaws opens its season Friday and Saturday nights at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale before heading for Ascot Park and the season-opener for the Agajanian family track Feb. 23-24. Making it a full weekend of racing for San Joaquin Valley fans, the CRA will follow the Outlaws with a second Mesa Marin program on Feb. 18.

MOTOCROSS--Old-timers Jeff Ward, Rick Johnson and Jeff Stanton, who won 14 of the 15 races last year, will make another attempt to stem the challenge of youngsters Damon Bradshaw, Jean-Michel Bayle and Jeff Matiasevich in Round Three of the Camel Supercross Series Saturday night at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium.

Bradshaw, 17, won the opener on a Yamaha at Anaheim Stadium before 66,141 and repeated on Saturday night at the Houston Astrodome in front of 42,648. Johnson, a resident of El Cajon, will be seeking his fourth consecutive victory before his hometown fans. He finished sixth and 15th in Anaheim and Houston.

OFF-ROAD--The opening event of the Miller Off-Road Challenge, which was postponed by rain and snow last week, has been rescheduled for Sunday at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino. Rory Holladay, Greg George and Eric Arras are favored in the main event. It is the first of a five-race series.

SPORTS CARS--Robby Gordon, the precocious off-road driver from Orange, made his debut in sports cars a winning one when he, Calvin Fish and Finland’s Bob Leppaienen drove a Mercury Cougar XR-7 to victory in the GTO class of the 24 Hours of Daytona. It was the first time Gordon, 21, had driven in a race on pavement. He drove 12 of the 24 hours and the team finished fifth overall.

Bart Kendall drove a Mustang to win the opening round of the Sports Car Club of America’s Toyota Super Production Grand Prix series at Willow Springs. It was the first victory for a Mustang in the three-year-old series. Shane Lewis of Lancaster won the opening Formula Ford race in an SCCA regional championship series.