MOTOR RACING : From the Outset, It’s Another Race to the Turnstiles

Political commentators and analysts make much of “early returns,” using them to project the winners in an election year.

If early returns are any indicator this year, motor racing is in for a highly successful campaign. Big-money sponsors might be difficult to harness for individual teams or events, but spectators are apparently ready and willing to spend money on tickets.

Two events last month at Anaheim Stadium, a Mickey Thompson off-road race and a Supercross motorcycle race, showed a substantial increase from 1991. The trucks and buggies attracted 60,105, up from 54,119 a year ago; the cycles drew 63,266, up from 56,029.

The Winternationals, opening event of the National Hot Rod Assn. drag-racing season, were attended by 103,500 during a four-day period last week at the Pomona Fairplex, an increase of about 1,500 from a year ago.

This apparently is a continuation of a trend that began last year. According to figures compiled by Goodyear, attendance at 15 major North American racing series showed an increase of nearly 500,000 spectators in 1991, an average event increase of 2.2% from the previous year.

Next on motor racing’s major league schedule is the Daytona 500, centerpiece of the NASCAR Winston Cup stock car racing season. Reserved seats--approximately 100,000 of them--for the Feb. 16 race have been sold out since March. The major event of the NASCAR season is its opening race.

Interest has been heightened this year by the prospect of a Ford-Chevrolet battle for supremacy that could be a throwback to the factory wars of the 1960s.

Dale Earnhardt won his second consecutive Winston Cup championship last year, and his fourth in six years, in a Chevrolet. Ernie Irvan, Derrike Cope and Darrell Waltrip have won the last three Daytona 500s in Chevrolets.

But Ford is on the move. Fords won the last four races last year, and the four fastest cars in winter testing--and 10 of the top 11--at Daytona were Fords. Only Kyle Petty, in a Pontiac, was able to break into Ford’s domination.

Bill Elliott was in the fastest Ford, but for the first time in his career it wasn’t the family-prepared car. During the off-season, Elliott left Harry Melling’s team, which was headed by Bill’s brother, Ernie, to join Junior Johnson’s two-car effort. Sterling Marlin, who had the second fastest test speed, is Johnson’s other driver.

Elliott ran 193.340 m.p.h., well below his track record of 210.364 set in 1987, the year he went on to win his second Daytona 500. Marlin was only a tick behind at 193.092, the only other driver above 193.

Qualifying for the two front-row positions in the 500 is scheduled for Sunday.

Elliott’s joining up with the legendary Johnson, a former driver who has owned six Winston Cup championship cars, is only one of a number of intriguing elements in this year’s Daytona lineup.

Richard Petty, a seven-time 500 winner and stock car racing’s greatest hero, has announced that this will be his final season as a driver. Every stop this year will be part of a Richard Petty fan appreciation tour as Petty, 54, tries for victory No. 201 in his Pontiac Grand Prix.

“I’ve been racing for 34 years, and along the way I’ve picked up my share of fans,” Petty said. “I didn’t want to just climb out of the car and say, ‘That’s it, I’m not going to drive any more.’ I couldn’t do that to my fans, so we’re going to race one more year to give me an opportunity to say thanks to my fans.”

Petty has not won since July 4, 1984, when he won the Firecracker 400, but it hasn’t prevented fans from making him racing’s most popular personality, much as Arnold Palmer’s status has remained in golf.

Joe Gibbs, coach of the Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins, will switch hats and make his first start as a Winston Cup car owner with Dale Jarrett as his driver in a Chevrolet Lumina.

“I think I’m going to be as excited when that car comes into Turn 1 at Daytona as I’ve ever been in my life,” Gibbs said when the team was announced.

Earnhardt, winner of five championships, 52 races and more than $15 million in 13 seasons, still has not won the Daytona 500. He has come close. A deflating tire cost him the lead less than a mile from the finish two years ago, and winning it has become an obsession to him.

“I don’t want to be retired, sitting in a rocking chair somewhere next to Darrell Waltrip, and have to listen to him tell me I never won the Daytona 500,” Earnhardt said.

Speedweeks at Daytona, the annual orgy of speed leading to the 500, will begin Saturday with the Busch Clash, a made-for-TV sprint for the previous year’s pole winners, plus a wild-card entry, this time Chad Little. In the 20-lap Busch, cars race for 10 laps, or 25 miles, and stop with the leader collecting $25,000. Then they line up in reverse order and race another 10 laps, this time with $35,000 to the winner.

It’s over about 15 minutes, but the payout is $290,000, making it one of the richest miles-to-dollar purses in racing.

Briefly

MOTOCROSS--Damon Bradshaw will go for his fourth consecutive Supercross victory Saturday night in the Coors Light Challenge at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium. The teen-age Yamaha rider has won successive races at Houston, Anaheim and Seattle. He has never won at San Diego, where he suffered a broken foot two years ago to end a similar winning streak. Defending champion is Jean-Michel Bayle, also the series winner.

STOCK CARS--Grand American modified race cars will be featured Saturday night in the Desert Valleys Racing Assn. main event, the Budweiser Modified Shootout, at Imperial Raceway in El Centro. It is part of the California Mid-Winter Fair.

INDY CARS--Kevin Cogan, still sidelined with injuries suffered in last year’s Indianapolis 500, will miss this year’s race. It would have been his 12th in a row. The Palos Verdes veteran will undergo further reconstructive surgery Feb. 19 at Centinela Hospital. . . . Vince Granatelli has closed his Phoenix racing shop for lack of sponsorship, leaving Arie Luyendyk, winner of the 1990 Indy 500 and two CART races last year, without a ride. The Dutchman is expected to drive for Chip Ganassi, however, as Eddie Cheever’s teammate. . . . Bruce Leven’s Bayside Motorsports team has also bowed out, leaving Jeff Andretti on the sidelines. . . . Dominic Dobson has signed with Concept Motorsports to drive a Lola-Buick in this year’s Indy 500.

MISCELLANY--Cary Agajanian, former president of Ascot Park and renowned attorney for racing interests, has been named to the board of directors of the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States, the international sanctioning body for American racing interests.

NECROLOGY--Tony Kennington, 85, one of the last riding mechanics in the Indianapolis 500, died Sunday in Indianapolis.