MOTOR RACING : Thompson Is Confident He’ll Close Gap

When Danny Thompson gets behind the wheel of his Chevrolet truck Saturday night at the Coliseum in the latest round of the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix, he knows he will be facing an uphill fight in his battle to overhaul Team Toyota’s Ivan Stewart, who holds a 45-point lead.

But uphill battles are nothing new to the 40-year-old son of the series originator, who has managed to build a very competitive racing operation in the costly Grand Sport truck class with considerably less backing than some of his competitors.

“I am somewhat used to being an underdog,” Thompson said. “But when it comes race time, we are usually very competitive. Sure, it’s tough to take on the heavily backed teams, but this is as close as I have come to winning a championship in this series, and I’m going to give it my all.”

Although his team is small, Thompson believes that he and crew chief Mike Donovan have worked together so long, they are able to communicate well and make as many changes as are needed.

“Mike and I pretty much know what has to be done and we just keep tinkering until we get it right,” Thompson said. “I’m sure we work harder at the track than most of the guys do, but we are getting it better and better all the time.

“I am proud of what Mike and I have accomplished and I am certain that our competitors know we are legitimate contenders. I think at the beginning of the season, everyone thought we were just lucky. But we showed them how serious we are.”

Thompson also thinks that because he concentrates on stadium racing, rather than competing in a combination of stadium and desert events, his team is able to stay focused.

“We have only the 10 stadium races to prepare for, and it gives us the time to do the refinements and the testing that we couldn’t do if we also competed in the desert,” he said.

The Coliseum event, longest and fastest of the stadium races, is the perfect spot to close the gap on Stewart, according to Thompson.

“We’ve been real close a couple of times to taking the series lead,” he said, “and if we hadn’t had fuel-pump problems at the last race in the Rose Bowl, we would really be close, 18 points instead of 45.”

A faulty fuel pump cost Thompson a victory in the main event and kept him from sweeping the truck races, as he had already set the fastest qualifying time and had won both truck heats.

Through six events of the series, Thompson is the leader in fast times with three, and he also has won the most heats--four--but has only one main event victory, at Phoenix. Stewart has won three of the six races, with Jeep’s Walker Evans, who is third in the standings, taking the other two.

While Thompson is trying to win his first championship, Stewart is trying to be the first driver to win both the stadium series and the desert series. He leads the latter by 50 points.

In addition to Thompson, Stewert and Evans, other strong contenders in the truck class include Roger Mears and his son, Roger Jr., in a pair of Nissans; Stewart’s Toyota teammate, Jeff Huber; Ford drivers Dan Esslinger and Rod Millen, and veteran Glenn Harris in the second Jeep entry. Five additional classes--Super 1,600 buggies, UltraStock, Superlite, four-wheel ATV and UltraCross motorcycles--will also be on the program, which starts at 7:30 p.m.

For Thompson, victory at the Coliseum would have special meaning. It was there that his dad started stadium off-road races in 1979, a program on which Danny won a heat.

“I know I am not alone in wanting to win at the Coliseum,” Thompson said. “All the drivers feel it is the race to win, and also, I will be performing before a host of Chevrolet brass (which could lead to increased help for him in 1991).

“Yeah, it puts more pressure on, but I have always been able to handle pressure pretty well.”

SPRINT CARS--Although he has yet to earn a main event victory this season, Rip Williams of Yorba Linda continues to be a serious challenger to leader Brad Noffsinger as the California Racing Assn. sprinters return to Ascot Park Saturday night in a program that also will highlight automobiles from the 1950s. Williams has 24 top-10 finishes in 28 starts and is starting to press runner-up John Redican. In his latest effort, last Saturday night, Williams finished third behind Noffsinger, who increased his advantage to 18 points over Redican. Bubby Jones, who led the first eight laps, held on for second place over Williams, his brother-in-law. Ron Shuman, the 1988-89 CRA champion, was fourth in the 30-lap race.

STOCK CARS--With only six nights of sportsman division competition left this season, defending champion Will Harper continues to lead the points race going into Saturday night’s program at Saugus Speedway. However, he is only 29 points ahead of the 1989 rookie of the year, Larry Krieger, 227-198. And only 18 points separate third-place Craig Rayburn (190) from No. 7 Dave Phipps (172). In between are John Cran (182), and Keith Spangler and Pat Mintey Jr. (tied with 173). Oval and figure-8 street stocks, mini stocks and an ego challenge complete the program. . . . Ed Hale and Dennis Wooldridge will start Saturday night’s sportsman class program at Cajon Speedway even with 242 points apiece. Street, bomber and pony stocks will also race on the three-eighths-mile paved oval, with a destruction derby closing the program.. . . Saturday night’s racing at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino will feature street stocks, pony and bomber stocks. . . . Stock cars also will race Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

MIDGETS--Russ Gamester of Peru, Ind., the United States Auto Club champion and 1990 series leader, will race in Sunday night’s Western States Series event at Ascot Park against leader Sleepy Tripp and defending series champion Robby Flock. Gamester will drive Terry Caves’ midget out of Fresno. Another surprise could be Page Jones, younger of the two sons of former Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones. With P. J. Jones, his older brother, competing in an ARS race at Toronto, Page, 17, will take over the wheel of the family car and try to duplicate his June 30 victory over Tripp at Las Vegas. Tripp reversed the results at Carson City, Nev., with Jones second. Last Saturday night, Tripp recorded his seventh victory of the series, at Saugus. Jones also will drive a three-quarter midget car on the program; he is fifth in the TQ standings.

MOTORCYCLES--Bobby Schwartz, on a comeback at the track he dominated the previous three seasons, will try for his second scratch main victory of the month on tonight’s speedway program at Ascot Park’s South Bay Speedway. His chief rivals figure to be Mike Faria, a five-time winner at South Bay this year, and England’s Phil Collins, the other winner in the Ascot series this month. . . . Friday night, the speedway racers will move to Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. . . . The Continental Motosports Club will hold its weekly motocross races Friday night at Ascot Park.