MOTOR RACING OFF ROAD AT ANAHEIM : Millen Wins on a Rough Night

For all the crashing, banging, tumbling cars and fist shaking that went on Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium, one would have thought it was the final race of the season and everyone was going for the championship instead of opening night in the Mickey Thompson Off Road Gran Prix season.

Rod Millen, after coming from last place to win the first heat in his new Toyota truck, won the 12-lap main event of the feature Grand National sports truck class wire-to-wire before a near-record crowd of 60,105. It was a clean sweep for the former world rally champion from New Zealand, who also won the second truck heat.

Six cars went upside down during the final race, mirroring the events of the long evening.

The carnage on the baseball diamond--covered with 700 truckloads of clay-based dirt--looked more like a destruction derby. It took four restarts to complete eight laps in the first heat as a series of rollovers, crashes and stalled equipment littered the nine-turn bump-and-jump course.

Once officials got one start after another sorted out, Toyota’s Millen came from last to win over his teammate, veteran Ivan Stewart. Nissan’s Roger Mears, elder statesman of Bakersfield racing family, finished third.

“Everyone out there was just too aggressive,” Mears said. “It seemed like every one of us was all too red-eyed, too aggressive for our own good.”

Mears son, Roger Jr., said, “It was a freeway’s worst nightmare out there.”

Bill Marcel, president of the Thompson Entertainment Group, and Steve Orth, chairman of the rough-driving committee, lectured the drivers after the race, warning them not to repeat their aggression in the remainder of the program.

“Orth said there were so many rough-driving infractions that he couldn’t choose one from another,” one driver said.

Millen also won the second heat on a gift after more rough driving caught up with defending series champion Walker Evans and Stewart. Stewart was chasing defending champion Evans on the final lap when the two tangled, two turns from the finish, and both stalled. This permitted Millen, who was cruising along well behind in third place, to take the victory.

Evans, who crossed the finish line second after the two trucks untangled, was moved back two positions and Stewart dropped one by the rough-driving committee. After the race, as the trucks were returning to the pits, Evans rammed his Dodge into Stewart’s Toyota and drew a $500 unsportsmanlike conduct fine. Evans’ mechanic, Randy Anderson, was fined $250 for charging after Stewart, shaking his fist and shouting.

On a more friendly note, two second-generation Mearses made their racing debut.

With his father, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears, on hand, Clint Mears, 19, began his career in a superlite, against a field that included his 15-year-old cousin, Casey Mears.

When they tangled in mid-air after coming off a jump together, it was heart-in-the-throat time for the fathers, Rick and Roger.

“That was some race for their first time out,” Rick Mears said. “That’s racing (tagging in mid-air) and after the race, you should have seem them chattering at each other.”

Clint and Casey were running fifth and sixth when they tangled and were still running that way on the final lap when Casey flipped on his side.