MOTOR RACING : James Can Watch Fruit of His CRA Labors at El Centro

When any sporting event is named after a person, it is usually after he or she has died and the promoters or sponsors want to keep the memories alive.

The Walt James Classic, an early-season feature of the California Racing Assn. this weekend at the Imperial County Fairgrounds near El Centro, is different. James will be there, just as he has been for the past three years when the races were held in Phoenix, and as he was for many years before that when he was a driver, an official, schedule maker, president and general handy man for the organization.

James was there on Labor Day in 1946 when the then-named California Roadster Assn. ran its first race at Carrell Speedway, in South Central Los Angeles.

“A lot of the guys with hot cars, guys like Babe Ouse, Jack McGrath, Manny Ayulo and Andy Linden, formed a club to go racing,” James said. “Most of us had been running on the dry lakes or on streets. There had been some serious racing down Washington Boulevard, out near Sepulveda.

“My brother and I had been racing in San Bernardino, on a half-mile track at Third and Waterman. We used to call it the ‘Ash Can Derby.’ There wasn’t even a grandstand. The Ruttmans, Troy and his old man, ran with us. Troy would drive out from Ontario, take the headlights off his street roadster and race.”

Ruttman won the Indianapolis 500 in 1952.

In the early 1950s, the increased popularity of television kept racing fans at home nights, and many tracks and racing organizations folded. The CRA was close to going belly up in 1950 when James was elected president.

“I was in the hospital in Fresno when I got the word that I’d been named president,” James said. “I had both my legs broken in that accident where Bud Winfield (founder of the Novi race car) was killed, and I was in the hospital two months. While I was recuperating, I called promoters and lined up eight or nine races, so when I got out, I was ready to go racing.”

He took over the floundering group and served as its president for 20 years, building it into one of the country’s strongest weekly racing organizations. Along with the late J.C. Agajanian, James laid the groundwork for Don Peabody, Gary Sokola and now Frank Lewis to carry on as presidents of the non-winged, open-wheel sprint car program.

In 1957, the California Roadster Assn. became the California Racing Assn. when the organization voted to drop the roadsters and run sprint cars only.

“What really saved us was the building of the Los Angeles Speedway, and then Ascot after Carrell Speedway closed, so we had a good half-mile track to run on near L.A.,” James said. “Then we sent a lot of guys, guys like Parnelli Jones, the Rathmann brothers (Jim and Dick), Ruttman, (Jim) Hurtubise, Ayulo, Pat Flaherty, who went to Indy. One year, there were 20 of the 33 (drivers) at Indy from the CRA, and that helped our reputation.”

In 1970, James left the CRA to develop and run Indian Dunes, one of the first and most successful motorcycle riding and racing parks in the country, for the Newhall Land and Farming Co. He stayed there--around the corner from Magic Mountain--for 17 years, until the park was closed to make way for industrial development.

“We ran 80,000 motorcycles at Indian Dunes our last year, and with a budget of $700,000, we still made money,” he said proudly. “The land value got so great, about $2 million an acre, that it just wasn’t feasible to tie up 600 acres with motorcycles.”

James, 68, has not retired, however. Far from it. He runs a bulldozer during the week for a construction company, and on weekends he is usually at a race.

He reorganized the defunct Western Racing Assn. in 1983, after it had been out of business for 24 years, to make it into a vintage racing organization.

“We have nearly 60 registered cars, all pre-1948 race cars, and we hold races and parades and have fun. We’ll be at El Centro on March 16 to run with the USAC (United States Auto Club) midget show.”

This weekend’s Walt James Classic marks a return for the first time in three years for the CRA to the three-eighths-mile clay oval near El Centro. Racing is scheduled Saturday at 7 p.m and Sunday at 1 p.m.

The 45th annual season began last week with Verne Sweeney, a fourth-year driver from Lomita, winning his first main event at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. Two-time defending champion Ron Shuman did not start because his Morales Bros.’ Tamale Wagon failed to fire.

MOTOCROSS--Rick Johnson, the winningest rider in Supercross history, will make his final hometown appearance Saturday night when he rides his Honda in the American Motorcyclist Assn.’s Camel stadium series in Jack Murphy Stadium at San Diego. Johnson, who grew up in El Cajon and lives in Encinitas, has won three of the past four San Diego races. He has announced his retirement, effective at the end of the 1991 season. . . . Round 4 in the seven-race Coors/Kawasaki series is Saturday afternoon at Ventura Raceway.

INDY CARS--When the CART Indy car season opens March 17 at Surfers Paradise, Australia, there will be at least two new faces in the lineup. Ted Prappas, 35, of Los Angeles, will drive for the Long Beach-based P.I.G. team, and Mark Dinsmore, 34, of Greenfield, Ind., will be Frank Arciero’s newest driver. Each is a former Formula Atlantic champion, Prappas in 1989 and Dinsmore last season.

RACING ART--Motorsports photographer Jesse Alexander of Santa Barbara, whose work features Grand Prix racing during the era of Phil Hill, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jimmy Clark and Stirling Moss, is exhibiting his pictures for six weeks at the Fleur de Vin restaurant in Pasadena. The showing was last seen at the famed L’Art et L’Automobile gallery in New York.

STOCK CARS--The countdown to the Daytona 500 will begin Saturday with front-row qualifying for the Feb. 17 race. Five cars in the race will be painted to represent the branches of the Armed Services involved in Operation Desert Storm. They will be driven by Alan Kulwicki, Army; Mickey Gibbs, Air Force; Greg Sacks, Navy; Dave Marcis, Coast Guard; and Buddy Baker, Marines.

SPORTS CARS--The California Sports Car Club will hold its first national championship program this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway.

HALL OF FAME--New inductees into the Motorsports Hall of Fame include Art Arfons, Dean Chenoweth, Dan Gurney, Tony Hulman, Junior Johnson, Joe Leonard, Don Prudhomme, Wilbur Shaw, Roscoe Turner and Al Unser.