MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : In a Crisis, Evanses, Stewarts Close Ranks

Walker Evans and Ivan Stewart have been chasing one another across the desert and through stadiums in big racing trucks long enough to develop a bond of respect--and for each to have sired second-generation drivers.

Evan Evans and Brian Stewart, the sons, became close friends as they tagged along with their racing fathers from Baja California to Riverside, Las Vegas and the Coliseum.

Brian Stewart was the first to gain notice on his own, winning off-road rookie-of-the-year honors in 1987 while driving a Ford pickup for the late Charlotte Corral, on the same team that had launched his father’s racing career. Evan Evans came along in 1989 to win four races in a production Jeep Cherokee and lead his class in the High Desert Racing Assn./SCORE off-road series.

Then an accident occurred that caused the Evans and Stewart families to become even closer.

Evan crashed while riding a motorcycle near his home and suffered neurological damage that left him paralyzed below the waist. Walker Evans, who runs the Dodge Motorsports off-road team in addition to driving, selected Brian Stewart as his son’s replacement.

Brian responded by helping Evan score vital points, and then drove all but the first 20 miles of the Baja 1,000 to secure the Class 6 (production car) championship for young Evans, who also was named Off-Roadsman of the year for his feat.

This year, Brian Stewart, who bears a noticeable resemblance to his father, is driving for Evans’ team in his own name and is enjoying success in the big pickups, racing against his boss, Walker Evans, as well as Robby Gordon and defending Class 8 champion Frank (Scoop) Vessels. After five of eight races, Stewart has 130 points to 106 for Gordon, 105 for Scott McMillin and 98 for Vessels. Evans, a nine-time Class 8 champion, is eighth with 75 points.

Brian Stewart and Walker Evans will be at Willow Springs International Raceway this weekend, driving their blue-and-white Dodge Ram 150 trucks in the Jeep Desert Championships--a successor to the old Riverside world off-road championships. Also in the race will be Nissan’s Steve Millen, who will be driving the same truck in which he won the Pikes Peak hill-climb, and Roger Mears.

It will be Stewart’s debut in a stadium atmosphere, although Willow Springs’ two-mile course offers more room for a driver to stretch out than do the cramped quarters of a football stadium.

“I’d like to do some stadium racing next year, and this is a good opportunity for me to get some experience,” Stewart said. “Walker already has a driver (Glenn Harris) for the stadiums, but I might be able to find a spot on another team. Robby (Gordon) drove for different teams last year and had no problems.”

Gordon, whose success in winning the Mickey Thompson stadium series and most of last year’s major off-road desert races led to an invitation from Ford to join its factory sports car team, drove a Ford truck for Jim Venable in the desert and a Toyota as Ivan Stewart’s teammate in the stadiums.

Ivan Stewart, who is the overall points leader in both desert and stadium racing this year, will skip the Willow Springs race, because it does not count toward the season championship in either category.

Before the season started, Walker Evans and Dodge Motorsports Manager Dick Maxwell had advice for Brian Stewart.

“We don’t want you to go out and try and go fast right away,” they said. “We want you to build up to speed, be consistent and finish every race.”

Stewart took the advice and was second in the Baja 500 and third in the other four races. Consistency has paid.

“I think I’m ready for a win,” he said. “I proved to Walker last year that I could win in his Comanche. Now I’ve got to do it in the big Ram 150.”

Brian Stewart’s outings last season bordered on the bizarre.

His first race as Evan Evans’ replacement was the Nevada 500. Evans, although hospitalized, was listed as co-driver, so when Stewart started the race, Evans received starting points. However, things got complicated in the fuzzy regulations of off-road racing when Stewart approached the finish line nearly two hours ahead of the second-place vehicle.

If he had continued across the finish line to win--without Evans having taken over the wheel--Evans would have lost his starting points. So, Stewart detoured around the finish and drove the Comanche to the pits for an official “Did Not Finish,” thereby getting much-needed starting points for Evans.

The theory was that as long as there was some distance remaining, in which Evans could have driven, he was technically deserving of the points even though he was incapacitated.

“It was really messy, but it wasn’t my fault,” Stewart said. “I wanted to do what was best for Evan, and that’s what we did. Things worked about a lot better in the Baja 1,000.”

For that race, the season finale in which Evan needed to drive to assure himself the season championship, Walker Evans installed hand controls in the truck, enabling his son to drive the first 20 miles. Then Brian took over and drove the remaining 980 to clinch the title for his friend.

“It was a terrible way to get a ride, taking over from a friend who got hurt, but it made me feel better to help him win the championship,” Brian said. “Things have really worked out for me, learning to drive from my dad and then having Walker teach me even more. No one could have better instructors.”

When he’s not racing, Stewart is breaking into TV movies as a stunt driver. He has performed in several episodes of “Matlock,” which he says is nearly as hair-raising as bouncing a 4,000-pound truck over rocky and rutted desert roads.

Also at stake at Willow Springs during the two-day off-road festival will be the pit-crew championship of the Independent Desert Racers Assn. Dennis Chizma of Simi Valley and Jon Nelson of Hemet are defending crew chief champions. Chizma headed the Challenger crew in the open-wheel category, and Nelson won the manufacturers’ class with Vessels’ truck.

SPRINT CARS--After scoring a double last week when he won the Sander Engineering match race series and the California Racing Assn. main event, John Redican will try for a different double Saturday night when the second heat of the Budweiser Challenge series is held as part of the 30-lap CRA main event. Redican, 45, beat defending champion Ron Shuman in both events last week to close within 65 points of leader Brad Noffsinger.

WATER-SKIS--More than 100 of the world’s leading water-skiers, headed by defending champion Kurt Schoen of Mesa, Ariz., will compete Sunday in the 42nd annual Catalina ski race from Long Beach Harbor. The mass start for the 62-mile race to Avalon and back will be at 8 a.m. with the best viewing areas at the Viscount Hotel or Pier J, Long Beach Harbor.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Southland riders Shawn Moran, Ronnie Correy and Rick Miller will ride Sunday in the Intercontinental Final at Fjeldsted, Denmark, hoping to make it to the World Final on Sept. 1 at Bradford, England. . . . British League rider Billy Hamill will make another appearance tonight at Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium and Friday night at Costa Mesa’s Orange County Fairgrounds before returning to England to ride for Cradley Heath. . . . National champion Bobby Schwartz will celebrate his 34th birthday Friday night at Costa Mesa.

Speedway fans contributed $1,700 last week to help pay medical expenses of Steve Eklund, 35, a former Grand National champion who suffered head injuries in an accident during the Albuquerque Mile on June 17. Eklund remains in a coma in a San Jose hospital.

STOCK CARS--When Joe Jezulin finished second in a NASCAR mini-stock main event last Sunday at Ascot Park, it ended his season. Joe, whose father, Chuck Jezulin, races in the same division, reported for football Monday at Cal State Long Beach.

David Phipps, former three-time Saugus Speedway champion, will be out to win his fourth consecutive Winston 100 in Saturday night’s double points race of the Winston Racing Series at Saugus. . . . Winston Racing Series competition is also scheduled Saturday night at Cajon Speedway and Sunday night at Ascot Park. . . . Dirt cars will race a Senior Citizens Night program Saturday at Santa Maria Speedway. . . . Orange Show Speedway will hold its annual Bomber Summer Championships Saturday night.

MOTOCROSS--The Trans Cal Nationals series will open Sunday at Barona Oaks, near Ramona, in San Diego County. . . . CMC racing will continue Friday night at Ascot Park and Sunday at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

INDY CARS--Three more teams will have Chevrolet Ilmor engines available next season. They are Dick Simon Racing, with Scott Brayton driving; Bettenhausen Racing, with Tony Bettenhausen; and Jim Hall’s new team, with no driver named yet. The Chevy engine has won 37 of the past 39 Indy car races, including all nine this season.

DRIVER OF THE YEAR--NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt, winner of the American driver-of-the-year award in 1987, is the halfway leader in balloting for 1990 honors. Earnhardt drew eight first-place votes among the 10-member panel of racing reporters. He was followed by Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Arie Luyendyk, Mark Martin and Derrike Cope.

NECROLOGY--Ettore Maserati, founder of the famed racing car company that bears his name, died last week in Italy. He was 96. Maseratis won the Indy 500 in 1939 and 1940 and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1953.