MOTOR RACING : Drivers Honor Jones and Try to Beat Him

Norman (Bubby) Jones is hoping for one more flourish in a successful five-week run when his peers in the California Racing Assn. sprint car ranks both honor him and compete against him Saturday night at Ascot Park.

Although the featured driver this week easily could have been Billy Boat, who scored his first Ascot main event victory last Saturday, Jones’ runner-up finish was also significant, showing that at 49 he can still challenge the likes of Boat, 24, and others half his age. To celebrate Jones’ hot streak, early arrivals at Saturday’s race will be given an autographed photo of the former two-time CRA champion.

He is in the midst of a streak reminiscent of his heyday in the early 1980s when he and retired Dean Thompson dominated the local sprint car ranks for five seasons.

Ol’ Bub, as he is known around the track, came out of a two-year retirement this season to drive a Clark Drake-built car owned by Larry Henry, a lifelong friend who grew up with Jones in Danville, Ill., before moving to California.

Jones and Henry scored their first victory of his comeback during the CRA’s annual Midwest Tour, when he won at Vermillion Speedway in his old hometown on a program honoring him. In addition, he was the top point-winner on the tour despite admitting that he was far from being in top shape after his long layoff.

Jones started his streak with a third place in a 30-lapper on June 30, then won the Firecracker 50 for the third time on July 3, and he has been second in the last two main events.

Although his streak is impressive, it is only the latest in a distinguished career. In the 1970s, Jones and Rick Ferkel of Ohio were the forerunners of what is now known as touring racers. They were on the road all summer, taking on all comers on their home tracks and usually coming out on top.

In 1977, Jones gave up his nomadic existence to compete in the United States Auto Club sprint car ranks. He posted 22 USAC victories, including 11 in 1979 when he led the point standings until the final race of the season before losing the championship. He also competed in the 1977 Indy 500, finishing 21st after starting last.

The next year, he came West to drive in CRA competition, and is second in career victories with 79. Thompson retired with 103.

Jones also set a one-season CRA victory record with 18 in 1983--the first of his two consecutive championship seasons--after finishing second three years in a row behind Thompson. Oddly enough, his first Ascot victory did not come in a sprint car. It was in a midget in 1975, when he won the Turkey Night Grand Prix. He is one of only three drivers to win both the CRA championship and the Turkey Night midget race. The others are Rick Goudy and Ron Shuman.

Jones’ streak is frustrating the four-man group fighting for the title he twice held.

Shuman, the defending CRA champion, finished third last Saturday night, with Jones’ brother-in-law, Rip Williams, fourth and current points leader Brad Noffsinger fifth. They are three of the contenders for the 1990 championship, along with John Redican, the early-season leader who has been plagued by problems lately and failed to finish again last week.

Expected back this Saturday is Lealand McSpadden, a longtime rival of Jones on the nation’s speedways.

STOCK CARS--There is a three-way battle for the points lead with only 12 points--six positions on the track--separating Dennis Wooldridge (254 points), Ed Hale (244) and Larry Lyon (242) heading into Round 15 of the series Saturday night. Street stocks, pony stocks and Grand American modifieds also will compete on the program. . . . Sportsman, hobby oval and figure-8, jalopies, outlaw mini cars and a destruction derby will furnish the action Saturday at Saugus Speedway. . . . Marcus Mallet will try for his seventh win of the season in Sunday night’s pro stock action at Ascot Park. Bomber oval and figure-8s plus mini stocks and a destruction derby will complete the program. . . . Stock cars will compete Friday night at Ventura Raceway. . . . A 200-lap Winston West race set for Aug. 25 at Las Vegas International Speedway has been deleted from the schedule and the date given to a rain-postponed event at Eureka, Calif.

DRAG RACING--The Nostalgia Drag Racing Assn. will hold its Santa Ana 40th-anniversary meet Saturday and Sunday at Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale. Competition will be in nitro burners, super stocker hot rods, flatheads, junior fuelers, altereds and gassers with all machines 1966 vintage or earlier. Expected top fuel entries include “Digger Dan,” driven by Dan Horan; “Nitro Warrior,” with Mike Boyd; “Red Turkey,” with Jimmy Boyd, and “Barely Married,” with Bob Hallock. Qualifying runs are scheduled Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. Racing starts at 10 o’clock Sunday morning.

MOTORCYCLES--Mike Faria of Colton will try to repeat his sweep of last Thursday night in tonight’s speedway races at Ascot Park’s South Bay Speedway. His sweep included three handicap races from the 30-yard line and the scratch heat, semimain and main event. It was the second time this season that Faria won six races. The other time was at Inland Speedway in San Bernardino. It was Faria’s first victory at South Bay since he won the Speedway Challenge TV series in late June. Bobby Schwartz, Phil Collins and Steve Lucero are Faria’s leading challengers. . . . The second half of the speedway season will begin Friday night at Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa with a special first division handicap and scratch format, along with the return of wheelie king Doug Domokos and an appearance by the PCH skydiving team, which will make a night jump onto the race track. . . . The Continental Motosport Club will hold its regular Friday night motocross races at Ascot Park. More than 300 amateur and professional riders are expected for the California Racing Club’s Grand Prix races Sunday at Glen Helen OHV Park in San Bernardino. Racing will be held on the three-mile off-road and motorcross course.

MIDGETS--USAC three-quarter cars will perform at Ventura Raceway Saturday night. Points leaders Jay Drake, Gary Schroeder, Cory Kruseman and Wiley Miller are expected to continue their fight for the season championship in the final showing of the TQ’s before the 1990 Ventura County Fair program on Aug. 18. Schroeder, who swept last weekend’s doubleheader at Oildale and Ascot, will be after his third straight main-event victory.

PIKES PEAK--The off-road racing father-and-son team of Roger Mears and Roger Mears Jr. of Bakersfield will compete in the 68th annual Pikes Peak Auto Hill Climb Sunday. The senior Mears is a past winner, while his son will be making his first start in the “Race to the Clouds.” The elder Mears will race in the stock car class, driving a Camaro for Gary Miller Racing. The younger Mears will compete in the open-wheel 1600cc class in a Wells Coyote owned by John Galant.

SPORTS CARS--Nissan teammates Geoff Brabham and Chip Robinson will continue their fight for the International Motor Sports Assn. GTP class championship in Sunday’s G.I. Joe Camel Grand Prix at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Ore. Brabham leads Robinson, 148 points to 127; however, both finished behind Juan Manuel Fangio II, who gave Dan Gurney’s Toyota team its second victory of the year at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., two weeks ago.