MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : CRA Is a Picnic for McSpadden

Lealand McSpadden doesn’t run for championships. He takes racing one week at a time, running wherever, in whatever race presents itself--sprint cars, midgets, dirt cars, supermodifieds, you name it.

This year he may win the California Racing Assn. championship for non-winged sprint cars in spite of himself. Although he has yet to run a pavement race in the series, McSpadden holds a 220-point lead as the season heads into its second half.

“I’m still not running for the championship,” McSpadden said. “I’m running for wins, but I won’t be running all the (CRA) races. I’ll be doing some other things, too, like running some USAC (United States Auto Club) Silver Crown champ dirt car races. When it comes November and the season is over, we’ll just tote up the points and see how we made out.

“I try to support the CRA as best I can, but that’s not my whole priority. I like to pick and choose where I race.”

The 46-year-old Tempe, Ariz., machinist, who races weekends for a hobby, will be at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale Saturday night for the richest CRA race of its season. The 40-lap main event will pay $5,000 to the winner.

McSpadden will be in Frank Lewis’ Shaver-powered Gambler sprint car. Lewis is also president of the CRA.

Since Ascot Park closed Thanksgiving night of 1990, the CRA has been a floating organization looking for a home. It appears that the revamped Bakersfield Speedway may be the place.

“It used to be awfully small for sprint cars, but they’ve enlarged it to about a full third of a mile and made it a lot easier to race on,” McSpadden said. “They extended the back straight out about 50 feet and now cars can run two abreast. I know it’s better for the drivers, and I’m sure it’s a lot better for the spectators, too.

“I think if we could run there two or three times a month, we’d get a lot of the old Ascot crowd back. For dirt track racing, Oildale’s about as close as you can get in Southern California. I hope somebody builds a track again in the Los Angeles Basin, but I’m afraid by the time they build one, I’ll be retired.”

The CRA has run two races at Bakersfield this year and McSpadden won both.

Of 20 main events, McSpadden has won eight--no other driver has won more than two--and has 1,101 points to 881 for former two-time champion Brad Noffsinger, 836 for Verne Sweeney and 830 for Rip Williams. Defending champion Ron Shuman, who won his first main event two weeks ago at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, is seventh with 545 points.

“Ronnie (Shuman) didn’t go on the tour back East, so he’s not up there, but if he starts running regularly he’ll be there at the end of the season,” McSpadden said. “He is so consistent, he scores points nearly every time he shows up. Like last year, he didn’t win any more races than I did, but he won the championship with his consistency.”

Three of McSpadden’s victories came on the CRA’s 10-race Tour of the ‘90s, which took the West Coast sprint cars to Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. He also finished second three times.

“It was a real good tour, both for us and the CRA,” McSpadden said. “It’s a good rivalry, and it’s growing into a big deal--sort of an East vs. West thing. Both sides have an advantage, and it makes us come out about even. We’re racing on their tracks, in their backyard, but we’re racing our style cars, with no wings. All the racing they do the rest of the year is with wings, so it makes for an interesting show.”

Each side won five races this year.

While he was on tour, McSpadden slipped over to the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis the night before the Indy 500 and won the Hoosier Hundred dirt car race, his first in that type of car. Earlier in the year, he also won a USAC midget race at Ventura Raceway and another at Yuma.

Two weeks ago, when the CRA raced on the pavement at Mesa Marin, McSpadden took the weekend off to have a picnic with his family and friends at Lake Roosevelt, about an hour’s drive from his home in Tempe.

“When you’ve been racing as long as I have, and you have a weekday job, it’s nice to go spend a weekend with the family once in a while. Some times, it seems like I’m working or racing seven days a week, every week.”

Motor Racing Notes

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Former national champion Bobby Schwartz has been suspended for two weeks for “unsportsmanlike conduct” after an incident at Glen Helen Park last week. However, Schwartz left Wednesday to race in England, where the suspension does not apply. . . . Three Southern Californians, Sam Ermolenko, Ronnie Correy and Rick Miller, advanced to the Inter-Continental Finals, semifinal round of the world championships, last week at Coventry, England. Billy Hamill fell and suffered a broken wrist and dislocated shoulder. National champion Mike Faria also failed to advance to the next round, Aug. 9, at Bradford, England.

Faria, who leads all riders in Speedway Racing Assn. competition with 13 victories, returns to local tracks this week and will compete tonight at Lake Perris Speedway, Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa and Saturday night at Speedway USA in Victorville.

STOCK CARS--Seven of the top NASCAR drivers, including five-time champion Dale Earnhardt and current points leader Davey Allison, will test Monday and Tuesday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in what is being called a preview of a Winston Cup race there in the near future. Others expected for the Goodyear tire test are Ernie Irvan, Darrell Waltrip, Kyle Petty, Mark Martin and Derrick Cope. . . . Sportsman and street stock cars of the Winston Racing Series will run Saturday night at Saugus, Orange Show and Cajon Speedways. . . . Late models and dirt cars will run Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway.

OFF ROAD--Chevrolet has pulled the plug on the sponsorship of Danny Thompson’s stadium truck, so the off-road veteran will make his final appearance July 18 at the Coliseum in the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix--the series that his late father founded in 1979. . . . La Rana Desert Racing will hold the Lucerne Valley 250 Saturday with the start-finish line at Anderson Dry Lake.

MOTORCYCLES--Team Suzuki of Lake Elsinore won its sixth consecutive national endurance victory last Sunday in a Western Eastern Roadracers Assn. event. . . . Miller High Life road races are scheduled Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway.

MOTOCROSS--Jeff Ward, who announced his retirement in midseason after undergoing surgery, will return to make his final appearance July 11 in the Supercross season finale in the Coliseum. A postponement of the Coliseum event from June 20 apparently gave him time to heal. . . . The Starwest Supercross Park, a new motorcycle racing facility, will have its grand opening Saturday. The track is located in the Lake Perris Fairgrounds, near Moreno Valley.

GTS--Newport Beach’s Steve Millen won his third race of the Exxon Supreme Series GTS class at the Grand Prix du Mardi Gras in New Orleans on Sunday. Millen also drove his Nissan 300ZX to victory at Mid-Ohio and Miami earlier this year.