MOTOR RACING WINTERNATIONALS : For Jack Clark, Speed Down the Line Has a New Meaning

When Jack Clark signed a three-year, $9-million contract to play baseball with the Boston Red Sox, he decided he needed a hobby--one he could turn into his livelihood when his baseball days were over.

He decided he wanted to own a top-fuel drag racing team and campaign a 4,000-horsepower machine that can cover a quarter-mile in less than five seconds at speeds nearing 300 m.p.h.

“I’ve been a drag racing fan as long as I can remember,” Clark said Friday as he watched the crew prepare his new car for this weekend’s National Hot Rod Assn. Winternationals at the Pomona Fairplex. “My dad used to go to all the races--Irwindale, Lions (Long Beach), Bakersfield, Ontario and right here in Pomona--and I always went along.

“Don Garlits was his sports idol, and he was mine, too, before I even played Little League baseball.”

Clark would like to sit in the car himself, but common sense and the terms of his Red Sox contract forbid it.

So he brought Tom McEwen, drag racing’s legendary Mongoose from Fountain Valley, out of retirement to drive. McEwen, 54, has not driven competitively since 1987 and has not driven a top-fuel dragster since he won the old Smokers March Meet in Bakersfield in 1972.

“There is really no comparison between then and now,” McEwen said. “I ran about 225 (m.p.h.) in 6.40 seconds when I beat Carl Olson on the old Famoso strip. Last week, in a test at Bakersfield, I did 276 in 5.05. That was big-time fast, faster than I’d ever run in my life.”

McEwen had a comfortable 5.171-second run Friday at 272.14 m.p.h. and moved into 11th place after two rounds of top-fuel qualifying. Two more rounds today will set the 16-car field for Sunday’s eliminations.

This curious partnership of the millionaire baseball player and the pioneer funny-car drag racer began when Clark played with the St. Louis Cardinals. Team owner Gussie Busch sponsored race cars and Clark’s childhood interest in racing led him to the funny car team campaigned by Kenny Bernstein.

“I became good friends with Dale Armstrong (Bernstein’s crew chief), so when I felt it was time to get into racing I called Dale,” Clark said. “He took me to Jerry Moreland’s shop in Anaheim where I met Tom (McEwen).”

McEwen, after phasing out as a competitive driver four years ago, had built a nitro funny car that he called “the world’s fastest ’57 Chevy,” which he drove in exhibitions. He kept the car at Moreland’s.

“At first, all he wanted was a car to run three or four races early in the year before spring training,” McEwen said. “I wrote down some numbers, $700,000 to $900,000 for a few races, but I told him that it would be difficult to keep a crew with a program like that. They needed to work full time.

“He said, ‘Let me think about it,’ and I figured that was the last I’d hear about it. About a month later he called and said, ‘I want to do it. Let’s go for the whole season.’ By July we were talking every day, sometimes two or three times a day. We were starting from absolute scratch.”

Eventually, Clark bought a new Al Swindahl car for $40,000--without an engine--from Larry Minor, one Minor had left over in his garage in Hemet when he dropped Shirley Muldowney from his team. McEwen lined up three members of Gary Ormsby’s 1989 championship crew to work for Clark, but they couldn’t start until November.

“It was a real cloak-and-dagger situation for a few months,” McEwen said. “Three of Ormsby’s guys wanted to get out on their own to see what they could do without Lee Beard (Ormsby’s crew chief), but they were in the middle of a championship season and couldn’t leave until after the Winston Finals (in late October). Mike Green, who was Ormsby’s chief mechanic, is our crew chief, and Chuck Schifsky, our chief mechanic, was one of Ormsby’s crew, too.”

In three months, the Clark crew went from an idea on paper to a two-car team ready for the NHRA season. In the process, Clark had spent about $1 million, including $450,000 for an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig to haul his two cars.

“I wanted everything first class, I wanted a team that could win, but I also wanted to have fun,” Clark said. “I’m still a fan. After Tom ran today, I stayed out and watched all the other cars run.

“I wanted a veteran team, the same as I would in baseball if I were an owner or a manager. I wanted guys who had known what it was to win championships.”

Clark will be with the team for three races--the Winternationals, Arizona Nationals in Phoenix and Supernationals at Houston--before heading for the Red Sox training camp in Winter Haven, Fla.

“During the season, I might catch a qualifying day when the Red Sox have an off-day and I’ll be around for the last two races,” he said. “Unless we make it to the World Series,” he added, grinning.

Notes

Warren Johnson of Duluth, Ga., set a Pomona Fairplex and Winternationals pro stock record of 190.39 m.p.h. Friday in his ’91 Olds Cutlass. Johnson also holds the National Hot Rod Assn. record of 192.18 m.p.h. Johnson broke the track record of 190.23 by Darrell Alderman set in last year’s Winston Finals and the meet mark of 189.127 by Bob Glidden in 1988.