MOTOR RACING : Roger Mears Visits an Old Stadium Friend

Walker Evans and Glenn Harris, driving Dodge Dakota pickups, showed last year that Ivan Stewart and Toyota could be beaten in the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix stadium truck series. Now, Roger Mears & Son are hoping to bring Nissan its first Manufacturers’ Cup championship.

Mears, in a new truck, and Roger Jr., in his dad’s old truck, will open their bids Saturday night when the Thompson series makes its annual season debut at Anaheim Stadium. Toyota had won eight consecutive championships before the Dodge breakthrough last season.

“We’re pumped. We tested last week and we can’t wait for Saturday night,” the elder Mears said from his garage in Bakersfield. “The new truck is 500 pounds lighter, with more wheel travel in the suspension, and is really quick. Usually when you build a new truck, you spend a lot of time on new car blues, but this new one ran great right out of the box without touching a wrench to it.”

Mears, the 1985 series champion, has a simulated stadium track adjacent to the 10,000-square-foot garage, where he keeps 12 full-time employees busy building and maintaining his Nissan trucks.

“Our track is sort of a composite of all the Mickey Thompson courses, with all the bumps, corners and jumps you can expect during a race,” he said.

Mears is the defending champion at Anaheim. He also won at Denver’s Mile-High Stadium and finished third, behind Evans and Stewart, in last year’s standings.

“Anaheim is one of my favorites because it has lots of room, lots of options and it’s an easier track to pass on than most,” Mears said.

“We’re going after the manufacturers’ championship this year, now that we have two solid trucks. We have decided that one driver must try and go for the front at all times, sort of be the rabbit, and the other driver should be consistent and make sure he finishes every race for the points. I’m going to be the rabbit, and Junior is going to try and be the finisher.”

The younger Mears, 27, has yet to win a main event, but he won heat races last year at Denver and at the Rose Bowl. His best main-event finish was a second at San Francisco in 1990.

“I had a real old truck last year, and all I could do was putt around trying to keep up,” Roger Jr. said. “Now I’m going to be in a newer old truck, and a proven one, so I hope to get more high finishes. I drove it for the first time Monday, and I couldn’t believe the difference. I’m excited about Anaheim.”

The senior Mears, who won his class in five of eight desert races last year, including the Baja 1,000, is cutting back to two of those events because Nissan pulled the plug on its desert racing program. Also dropped were Spencer Low, Sherman Balch and Scoop Vessels.

“I’ll run the two Baja races, the 500 and the 1,000, because my other sponsors want the exposure, but that will be it, except for the stadium races,” Mears said.

Dodge has broken up its winning team for the 1992 season. Brian Stewart, Ivan’s son, is replacing Harris as Evans’ teammate. Brian drove an ultrastock last year, winning the final event in Oakland, but has never raced a stadium truck.

“I’ve raced against Brian for years in the desert, but this is the first time in a stadium,” Ivan Stewart said. “I’m not sure how I’ll react going into that first corner.”

Evans won the driving title last year with 492 points to 401 for Stewart, 390 for Mears, 375 for Toyota’s Rod Millen and 350 for Ford’s Rob MacCachren.

Two other members of the Mears clan will make their stadium debuts Saturday night. Casey, 15, Roger’s youngest son, and Clint, 19, son of Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears, will race Conoco-sponsored Triple E Superlites fielded by Mike Lovelle. Rick Mears won the first stadium off-road race held, in 1979 at the Coliseum.

Motor Racing Notes

RALLY--Danny LaPorte, former world motocross champion from Redondo Beach, finished second, 24 minutes behind Stephan Peterhansel of France, in the motorcycle division of the 7,800-mile Paris-to-Capetown Rally that ended Wednesday. Hubert Auriol of France won the car division, driving a Mitsubishi Pajero.

DRAG RACING--Joe Amato, the National Hot Rod Assn.’s first four-time top-fuel champion, and Pat Austin, who took over the late Gary Ormsby’s top fueler after Ormsby died of cancer last year, have entered this weekend’s Coors Hot Rod Championships at Firebird Raceway near Phoenix. Others entered in this test for the Winternationals at Pomona include Kenny Bernstein, Don Prudhomme, John Force and Mike Brotherton, who is replacing Frank Hawley in Darrell Gwynn’s top fuel dragster.

HALL OF FAME--Wally Parks, founder of the National Hot Rod Assn., heads a group of 10 inductees into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at Talladega, Ala. Others are Alberto Ascari, Louis Chevrolet, Andy Granatelli, Peter Gregg, Louis Meyer, Eddie Rickenbacker, Kenny Roberts, Curtis Turner and Rodger Ward.

HONORS--Harry Oxley, co-founder with Jack Milne of the speedway motorcycle program in Southern California, received a workshop achievement award at the RPM Promoters Workshop in Reno as “a pioneer in motorcycle racing promotion.” . . . Sleepy Tripp and Jay Drake will be honored as U.S. Auto Club western regional midget and three-quarter midget champions, respectively, during a Saturday night banquet in Long Beach.