MOTOR RACING : Sprints, Midgets to Double Up

The Pacific Coast Nationals, featuring California Racing Assn. sprint cars and United States Auto Club midgets in two doubleheaders, will be run Friday and Saturday nights at Ascot Park.

Sprint car trials are set for Friday, and there will be a 50-lap main event Saturday with Ron Shuman, Brad Noffsinger, Rip Williams and John Redican battling for the championship.

The midgets will race in main events both nights, with Shuman and Noffsinger doing double duty against such veterans as two-time Turkey Night Grand Prix winner Chuck Gurney and former USAC champions Ron (Sleepy) Tripp and Kevin Olson.

Most of USAC’s top drivers will be at Ascot for a final tuneup before the Nov. 22 Turkey Night race, after which the track is scheduled to close.

STOCK CARS--Winston Cup veteran Ken Schrader, one of racing’s most versatile drivers, will step down from the superspeedways to drive tonight on Cajon Speedway’s three-eighths-mile paved oval. He will be in a new Chevrolet Cavalier in the third annual Great Western Classic for Grand American modified cars. The 30-lap main event will close the Cajon season.

Schrader also will race in the Southwest Tour’s Goodwrench 300 Nov. 3 at Phoenix International Raceway. The Fenton (Mo.) driver had won seven races at Phoenix--four in midgets and three in championship dirt cars.

Also in that Phoenix race will be 1988 winner Jim Thirkettle, who will be coming out of a year’s retirement to drive the Joe Ordoqui-Larry Walker Camaro.

The final race of the Coors Silver Bullet series will be run Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

MOTORCYCLES--An American Trials Assn. meet will be run Sunday at Stoddard Wells, near Victorville. The course is off I-15 at the Bell Mountain exit. . . . The 10th race of the 11-race Kawasaki series will be held Saturday night at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

LAND SPEED--Cars driven by Nolan and Rick White of San Diego and Al Teague of Temple City will attempt to break the wheel-driven record of 409.27 m.p.h. in a SoCal Timing Assn. meet this weekend at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The record was set in 1965 by Bob Summers in the Summers Bros. Goldenrod. Both Nolan White and Teague bettered 400 two weeks ago.

RALLY--The father-son team of Lloyd and Tom Gano will drive the first electric racing car, a 1903 Columbus-Firestone, in the Chevrolet Greatrace West. The 990-mile classic-car race will start today in Reno and finish Sunday at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Former Indy 500 driver Jeff McPherson will drive a 1919 Chevrolet 490.

FORMULA ONE--The peace pact between defending world champion Alain Prost and new champion Ayrton Senna didn’t last long. It ended before they got through the first turn of the first lap last Sunday in the Japanese Grand Prix. In fact, neither made it.

Prost got the jump on pole-sitter Senna, and when Senna tried to find a hole on the inside the two collided. The crash automatically gave the championship to Senna because Prost had to win to stay in contention for the series finale Nov. 4 in Adelaide, Australia.

The puzzling thing is why the Japanese officials did not throw a red flag and have a restart. When Benetton-Fords, driven by Nelson Piquet and Roberto Moreno, finished 1-2, it must have intensified the disappointment Michael Andretti felt when he had to reject a bid to drive one of the cars next season. Andretti had to turn it down because of a commitment to Carl Haas and Paul Newman, his Indy car owners.

MISCELLANY--The late Mickey Thompson will be honored Sunday by the state legislature as part of California Off-Road Vehicle Day. . . . Bernie Longjohn, manager of Los Angeles County Raceway, was honored by the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce for operating the 1990 business of the year.