MOTOR RACING : Sprint Cars to Finish the Season at Bakersfield

The California Racing Assn., which ran 32 of its 53 sprint car races at Ascot Park and 49 of them on dirt tracks, will close the season Sunday on the high-banked asphalt of Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway.

In the closest competition of the CRA’s 46 years, both the driver and the owner championships will be at stake in the 30-lap main event.

Two-time defending champion Ron Shuman of Tempe, Ariz., holds a 15-point lead over Rip Williams of Yorba Linda for the drivers’ title, but in the owners’ race their positions are reversed. Frank Lewis, president of CRA and owner of Williams’ No. 91 car, leads Andy Morales, owner of Shuman’s No. 1, by 26 points.

The unusual circumstance came about last March when Shuman crashed Morales’ car in a heat race at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix and borrowed another from Rick Sites of Tucson to drive in the rest of the program.

“I think I picked up 41 points that night, some from qualifying Andy’s car, but most from driving Sites’ car in the semi and finishing eighth in the main event,” Shuman said.

The Morales racing team, which was started more than 50 years ago by Andy’s father, Alex, is seeking its eighth CRA championship. The Morales’ Tamale Wagon won in 1959 with Chuck Hulse, 1963 with Bob Hogle, 1967 with Hogle and Bill Vukovich Jr., 1968 with Hogle, 1975 with Bobby Olivero, 1978 with Rick Goudy and 1989 with Shuman.

Lewis’ only previous championship came in 1987, when Mike Sweeney and Walt Kennedy shared the ride.

With 60 points available at Mesa Marin, the $10,000 bonus in each division is at stake, as is the $5,000 in appearance money for the championship car at next year’s races.

Shuman, who left the nomadic life as a World of Outlaws driver three years ago to campaign with the CRA--the only non-winged sprint car racing body in the country--likes the idea of finishing the season at Mesa Marin.

“It’s better than ending up with a 50-lapper like we did before this year,” he said. “The season used to end at the Peabody, and you can lose a lot of points in 50 laps. That’s 100 points, and if you drop out of that one, you can drop out of the standings.”

Shuman, 37, plans to return to the CRA next year, win or lose, with the Morales team.

The makeup of the 1991 schedule is the major concern among CRA officials. With Ascot closed, 32 racing dates will have to be found.

“The way it looks right now, we’ll probably run 40-some races next year, including 14 in the Midwest,” Lewis said. “We are expanding our spring trip to three weeks, and we’ll hope for better weather than we had this year.”

The CRA had nine races scheduled for its barnstorming trip last May, and five of them were either rained or snowed out.

Next year’s season will start Feb. 2, at Manzanita, the same weekend as the Copper race at Phoenix International Raceway, where United States Auto Club dirt cars, supermodifieds, midgets and stock cars will be racing for three days.

“We felt that would be a good time to start because the town will be full of race drivers and racing fans,” Lewis said. “Then we’ll go to El Centro for a Saturday night-Sunday afternoon doubleheader. After that, dates are still being worked out.

“The season will be a mix of Southern California, Northern California and Arizona races, with maybe one or two in New Mexico plus our Midwestern tour. We won’t have a home track like we had at Ascot; we’ll be more a traveling circuit. We can’t really replace Ascot--unless the Agajanians can find us a new one.”

CRA standings: 1. Ron Shuman (Tempe, Ariz.), 4,479 points; 2. Rip Williams (Yorba Linda), 4,464; 3. Brad Noffsinger (Huntington Beach), 4,387; 4. John Redican (Chatsworth), 4,147; 5. Steve Ostling (Bellflower), 3,795; 6. Billy Boat (Phoenix), 3,235; 7. Verne Sweeney (Lomita), 3,092; 8. Bob Meli (Temple City), 2,889; 9. Jerry Meyer (Chino), 2,815; 10. Cary Faas (Yorba Linda), 2,780; 11. Robbie Ferguson (Harbor City), 2,768; 12. Ron DiDonato (Riverside), 2,677; 13. Lealand McSpadden (Tempe, Ariz.), 2,613; 14. Billy Felts (Rialto), 2,592; 15. Mike Sweeney (Phelan), 2,066.

Briefly

STOCK CARS--Dale Earnhardt will establish a motorsports money-winning record when he collects his $1,089,726 bonus for winning the Winston Cup at the NASCAR awards banquet Friday night in New York. It will give him $3,083,056 in race track earnings this year. The record was $2,383,187 by Bill Elliott in 1985.

An open competition sportsman and street stock show will conclude the Imperial Fairgrounds season Saturday night in El Centro. Sportsman drivers will run two main events, with the second one using an inverted start from the finish of the first. Racing will start at 6 p.m.

MOTOCROSS--The 15th annual Women’s Nationals will be held Sunday at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino as part of a regular CMC racing day. . . . The first event of the Coors/Kawasaki winter series at Ventura Raceway is scheduled for Saturday at 4 p.m.

MOTORCYCLES--Doug Domokos, the wheelie king, will perform at the International Motorcycle Show Friday through Sunday at the Anaheim Convention Center. . . . The American Road Racing Assn. will close its Formula One Gran Prix sprint season Dec. 15-16 at Willow Springs Raceway.