MOTOR RACING : Sports Car Drivers Get Chance to Rally

The two most popular forms of automobile racing in Europe are Formula One and international rallying.

Both are follow-the-leader racing, the difference being that rallying is by design. Formula One has become that way this year as Nigel Mansell has led from flag-to-flag in all four races except for one when his teammate led briefly.

Like soccer, neither European favorite has caught on in the United States. Formula One promoters gave up last year and canceled the U.S. race in Phoenix, which left this country without a Grand Prix on the world circuit for the first time in 21 years.

There is no world rally in the United States, either, but the Subaru PRO Rally series serves as a national championship sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America.

The Rim of the World Rally, scheduled this weekend in the Angeles National Forest west of Palmdale, is Round 3 in a 10-race series and has what will probably be the strongest field of the year. Rim organizer Paula Gibeault expects more than 50 entries, up from last year’s 45 teams.

Rod Millen, a four-time PRO Rally champion and one of the world’s foremost rally drivers, and navigator Tony Sircombe will be making their final U.S. appearance of the year in a four-wheel drive Mazda 323 before heading for the Asia-Pacific series.

“The Rim will give Tony and me and the car a real shakedown,” Millen said. He won the Prescott Forest Rally two weeks ago in Arizona, but the Rim will be his only other U.S. run. Millen has also won the last three Mickey Thompson off-road stadium truck races in a Toyota pickup.

With Millen-Sircombe not contesting the national championship, major interest in the Rim of the World rally centers on Chad DiMarco, the defending national champion from Huntington Beach in a Subaru Legacy, and Paul Choiniere of Burlington, Vt., the 1990 champion, in an Audi Quattro.

DiMarco, 32, was introduced to rallying by his future father-in-law, Kenneth (Doc) Zimmerman, a longtime rallyist, when he was a student at UCLA.

“Doc was competing in Washington, and I went along to watch and help service the car,” DiMarco said. “That was 1978, and it looked like so much fun that I bought an old Fiat roadster convertible and started going to local rallies.”

By 1985, DiMarco turned professional in the Bridgestone PRO Rally series and in 1986 was named rookie of the year at the Pikes Peak Hillclimb after a second-place finish in the production division.

Erick Hauge, who was the SCCA national champion as a co-driver in 1976, became DiMarco’s navigator in 1988. The pair put their Subaru Legacy in the winner’s circle three times last year and clinched the series championship with a fourth-place finish during a blizzard at the Maine Forest Rally finale.

This year, in two events, DiMarco-Hauge finished second at the rain-shortened Big Bend Bash in Texas and dropped out because of suspension problems at Prescott, Ariz.

In a PRO Rally, drivers compete over a series of unpaved roads that they have not seen. The faster cars start first, at one-minute intervals, with the winner determined by elapsed time. The Rim of the World rally is about 100 miles, broken into 12 stages.

“The Rim is by far the tightest and slowest event we run all year,” DiMarco said. “The roads are so narrow, mostly ridge-top fire roads, that we won’t average much over 35 m.p.h. In most rallies, we average 60 to 70. Horsepower isn’t so important here, it’s more traction and handling and durability.”

The rally will start at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Ramada of Palmdale with four night stages. It will resume Saturday with eight stages, most on the ridges above Leona Valley. There will be a four-hour dinner and service break from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday at Lake Hughes.

Briefly

MESA MARIN--Bakersfield-area fans will have one of the busiest weekends of the year this week with racing Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon. Friday’s program, starting at 7 p.m., will feature United States Auto Club western regional midgets, late model stocks and Winston West qualifying. Saturday night, the NASCAR Southwest Tour 200 will start at 7. A doubleheader Sunday, starting at 12:30 p.m., will have a Southwest Tour vs. Northwest Tour match race and the Winston West 300.

MIDGETS--After their Friday night visit to Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway, USAC cars and drivers will be at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino on Saturday night. Three-quarter midgets also will be part of the Orange Show program.

DRAG BOATS--Mission Foods Nationals, fourth event of the International Hot Boat Assn. season, will be held Saturday and Sunday at Castaic Lake, north of Valencia. Feature event will be the top fuel hydros with rookie Dave Promintz of Fresno and Kyle Walker of Houston battling for the points lead in 220 m.p.h. boats. Promintz set an IHBA elapsed time record of 5.24 seconds last month at Puddingstone Lake in San Dimas.

POWERBOATS--More than 35 of the West Coast’s leading offshore racers are expected to compete Saturday in the Ventura Channel Dash for D.A.R.E. It is the second race in the Pacific Offshore Power Boat Assn. season. Favorites include Bob Nordskog, 78, a former POPBRA champion, and Tom Pappas of Santa Barbara, winner of the year’s first race last month in San Diego.

STOCK CARS--Sportsman cars of the Winston Racing Series will race Saturday night at Saugus Speedway. Also featured will be pro stocks, mini stocks and a Figure 8 race.

MOTOCROSS--The Coors Light Motocross Series returns to the Ventura Raceway Saturday. Class 10 1-2-1600 Buggies and superlites will be featured.

MOTORCYCLE--Racing is scheduled for tonight at Lake Perris Speedway and Friday night at Costa Mesa Speedway.