MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : Coliseum Events Are Moving to Late Afternoon

Concerns over holding late-night events at the Coliseum have caused promoters of the Camel Supercross season finale and the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix to move up starting times for both events to 4 p.m.

The Coors Light Challenge, the 16th and final Supercross event, also has been moved from Saturday night, June 20, to July 11. The off-road race will remain on its original July 18 date.

The two events will be part of a week-long Drive for L.A. Motorsports Festival at the Coliseum, said Gary Campbell, president of the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group.

With one race remaining--Saturday night in San Jose--before the Coliseum finale, the Supercross championship race is the tightest in history. Only six points separate defending champion Jean-Michel Bayle of France and third-place Jeff Stanton, a two-time former champion from Sherwood, Mich., in their battle for the $100,000 winner’s prize. Bayle has 290 points, Damon Bradshaw of Charlotte, N.C., 287 and Stanton 284.

The July 18 off-road race will be Round 5 of the nine-race Thompson series. Dates for later events were announced as Sept. 26 for Denver’s Mile High stadium, Oct. 3 for Las Vegas Silver Bowl and Oct. 24 for Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The date for a Kansas City race is pending.

Ron Bishop, who runs a motorcycle shop in Escondido, has raced in every Baja 500 and Baja 1,000 off-road race.

Saturday, when the 24th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500 starts at 6 a.m. from Ojos Negros, Bishop will be astride his 500cc Husaberg, a Swedish-built four-stroke bike.

“I’ll be keeping the record going,” Bishop said. “As near as I can find out, I’m the only competitor who has been in every 500 and every 1,000. This is my last year in Class 40 (for riders 40 years old or older). Next year I get in Class 50. I’ll be a rookie then.”

Bishop was 24, living in Lancaster, when he and a friend first heard of a proposed race from Tijuana to La Paz in 1967. It was the original NORRA-sanctioned 1,000.

“Like everything else, things were different back then,” Bishop recalled. “Before they put in the trans-peninsula highway in 1974, the course you raced was the only road there was. Now the highway has made easy access for rider changes, pit crews and repair trucks. Back in the early days, NORRA used to supply all your fuel as part of your entry. No more.”

Bishop also deplores the two-year-old rule that allows for as many as four riders per bike.

“It takes a lot of the challenge out of it, and it takes some doing to find four riders you’re comfortable with. They’ve cut the 500 this year to 334 1/2 miles to allow for the four-wheelers, so it’s not going to be a big deal to ride the whole thing by myself.”

Bishop has won several class championships, starting with a victory in 1972. Others followed in the 1981 500 and the 1985 1,000.

Several old-timers have been attracted to the SCORE-sanctioned race this year, including Ivan Stewart, Roger Mears and Parnelli Jones. Stewart, running a limited schedule, is defending champion in his Toyota truck. Mears, whose desert racing career was cut short when Nissan withdrew from all but stadium racing, has entered a privately owned Nissan.

Jones, a multi-Baja winner in the 1970s, has returned to drive Bill Stroppe’s Ford Ranger as part of the Rough Riders team.

“The Baja 500 I remember best was back when Stroppe and I were in the Big Oly Bronco and we flipped three times during that race,” Jones said. “Every part of the Ford was crunched up, but we won overall. Coming into the finish line, Ray Brock, who was then editor of Hot Rod Magazine, took one look at the Bronco and said, ‘If that’s the winner, I’d hate to see the loser.’ That, for me, is Baja.”

Motor Racing Notes

INDY CARS--Lingering injuries from the Indianapolis 500 have caused several driver changes for Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix on the new Belle Isle circuit. Paul Tracy will replace Rick Mears on Roger Penske’s team, Teo Fabi will sit in for Mario Andretti in one of the Newman-Haas cars and Brian Bonner has switched from Dale Coyne’s team to A.J. Foyt’s team.

STOCK CARS--The Winston Cup makes its only trip to California this weekend with the Save Mart Supermarkets 300 at Sears Point Raceway, north of San Francisco. Davey Allison, the current points leader, is defending champion in the 300-kilometer (187 mile) race over a 2.52-mile road course laid out in the Sonoma valley. Also on the two-day program is a Southwest Tour event.

Sportsman cars of NASCAR’s Winston Racing Series will return to Saugus Speedway Saturday night with Gary Sigman holding a narrow five-point lead over Doug Renno. Also on the program will be street stock oval and Figure 8s, Grand American modifieds and hobby stocks. . . . Sportsman, pony stocks and bombers will race Saturday night at both San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway and El Cajon’s Cajon Speedway. Mike Scheidecker will be going for his fourth sportsman victory at Orange Show. . . . Late models and dirt races run Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway.

SPRINT CARS--California Racing Assn. drivers will make a rare appearance at an asphalt oval Saturday at Mesa Marin Speedway in Bakersfield. Points leader Lealand McSpadden will skip the event, but entries include defending CRA champion Ron Shuman and veteran Chuck Gurney. McSpadden has 1,101 points to 835 for Brad Noffsinger and 830 for Rip Williams. . . . Dennis Rodriguez, who underwent lengthy surgery for a bruised lung and broken collarbone and shoulder after an accident at Eldora Speedway last month in Rossburg, Ohio, has returned home to Fountain Valley but is facing a long recuperation before returning to the track.

MIDGETS--United States Auto Club western regional cars will run a 30-lap main event Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. The three-quarter midgets also will run in a 20-lap feature.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--National champion Mike Faria leads all Southern California riders with 11 main event victories as weekly racing continues Thursday nights at Lake Perris Speedway, Friday nights at Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Saturday nights at Speedway USA in Victorville and Wednesday nights at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

DRAG RACING--The return of Don (Big Daddy) Garlits to competitive racing after an absence of several years has been ended because of an eye ailment. Doctors have advised Garlits, 60, that he can not withstand the sudden deceleration at the end of a 290 m.p.h. run because of the injury to his left eye. Former funny car champion Bruce Larson will drive the new top fuel dragster that Garlits built to assault the 300-m.p.h. barrier.

POWERBOATS--Tom Pappas of Santa Barbara, driving a 38-foot Scarab called Imperial Palace, will go for his third consecutive victory Saturday in the 12th annual Race of Sight off the Marina del Rey jetty. Pappas won at San Diego and Ventura in the opening races of the Pacific Offshore Power Boat Racing Assn. Racing will start at 10 a.m.