The Son Also Races : Four Fathers Share Knack for the Track With Offspring

Names like Andretti, Allison and Unser head a list that is as long as a Memorial Day race in Indianapolis and stretches all the way to the neighborhood NASCAR short track.

As long as there is auto racing, it seems as if one can bet a lifetime power train warranty there will be fathers and sons following in one another’s tread marks.

Last season, Lance Hooper of Palmdale became the fourth member of the Hooper family in the fourth consecutive decade to win the Sportsman division championship at Saugus Speedway.

Wayne Hooper started the streak by winning the Sportsman title in 1968. Ray Hooper Sr., Wayne’s brother and Lance’s father, followed with a title in 1970, and Ray Hooper Jr. did the same in 1982.

“You grow up all around it and pretty soon that’s your world: racing,” Lance Hooper, 25, said. “When I was growing up, I couldn’t wait until I was 16 so I could race. When all the other kids were going out and playing after school, I was going home and working on the race car.”

Yet Hooper, like many sons of race-car drivers, has only picked up where dad left off. Seldom are father and son found racing door handle to door handle on the same track, in the same division, on the same night, in the same main event.

All of which makes for unusual and interesting racing this season at Saugus Speedway and Ventura Raceway, where four sets of fathers and sons are doing just that.

Bill and Ron Bartels, Cliff and Jim Tietz, Leonard and Steve Rowe, and Ed Fuller Sr. and Ed Fuller Jr. are battling side by side, adding spice to their respective points races and their relationships.

Similarities are striking. Each pair is competing in a separate division, and all eight drivers are among the points leaders in their divisions. And among a combined 13 children in the four families, not a daughter exists.

Their differences raise an eyebrow too. In the case of both the Fullers and the Rowes, the father began racing first and the son followed. Conversely, the Bartels and the Tietzes were cases of “Like son, like father.”

Yet in each case, the driver who began racing first is trailing his partner in the division’s points race.

Go figure. And none compete against each other in figure-eight races. Smacking into dear ol’ dad or flattening junior at 70 m.p.h. in an intersection most assuredly would put an end to what all eight drivers would agree is a very special time in their lives.

A close-up of each pair follows.

BILL AND RON BARTELS

STREET STOCK DIVISION

When Ron was 6, his parents were divorced and his father moved from their home in Springfield, Mass., to Southern California. Growing up, Ron saw his father only during the summer. But although their relationship was fragmented, it nonetheless flourished.

“We’d spend our time riding motorcycles in the desert,” Ron, 33, said. “We really had a good time. All the things I did in summer I wanted to do keep doing year-round.”

When Ron turned 18, he moved to Southern California to be near his father. Motorcycles had something to do with that too.

Bill, 52, who lives in Westchester, is owner of a Harley-Davidson dealership in Marina del Rey, one of the largest on the West Coast. Ron, who lives in Hawthorne, works as the dealership’s service manager and, as the oldest of six children, is heir to the throne.

“We work close together and we are real close,” Ron said.

The Bartels began racing motorcycles on dirt tracks, but Ron soon had his eye on stock cars. And he hoped his dad did too.

Ron began racing cars at Ascot Raceway in the late 1980s while his father watched from the pits. When Ron sustained severe burns after a crash, he suggested his father get behind the wheel in his place. Bill admits being apprehensive at first.

“With motorcycles--even though people say they’re dangerous--you can get off when you want to,” Bill said. “With a car, you’re going where it’s going. But I got in the car and I was at home.”

Both found a home track at Ventura last season. And this year, driving identical 1975 Camaros, they are tearing up the quarter-mile dirt oval in a neck-and-neck battle for the Street Stock division lead.

Two weeks ago, the Bartels were part of a three-way tie for second place in points. Currently, Bill, who has won two main events and one trophy dash, is third. Ron, with victories in one main event and two trophy dashes, is fourth.

It’s no surprise. Wherever one goes via a motor-driven vehicle, the other seems to follow.

“We’re having a good time,” Ron said. “I think some of it is because we didn’t spend a lot of time together when I was a kid. Maybe we’ve become better friends.”

LEONARD AND STEVE ROWE

IMCA MODIFIED DIVISION

By profession, Leonard peddles used cars and Steve destroys them.

About 20 years ago, Leonard, now 62, figures he nearly wrecked his life because of a gambling addiction.

“I really had a serious problem,” Leonard said. “I look back on it now just as a drinker or a drug addict would. I’d go to Las Vegas every weekend. I think I once went to Vegas 70 weekends in a row.”

Meanwhile, Leonard’s sons, David and Steve, became hooked on racing at Saugus Speedway. Both won track titles during the mid-’70s. Today, David is his father’s partner in owning a used-car lot in Camarillo. Steve, 39, who spent two lackluster years on the NASCAR Southwest Tour before settling at Ventura in 1991, owns an auto dismantling and towing business in Fillmore.

“My dad was a compulsive gambler,” Steve recalled, “but when he won, he was very generous and he gave money to everyone.”

Leonard does not remember if counseling crossed his mind when he finally came to terms with his addiction. But racing certainly did.

In the late 1950s in his native Texas, Leonard dabbled in stock-car racing, winning a track championship in his only season.

He began his self-imposed rehabilitation by spending his Saturday nights watching his sons from the grandstands at Saugus. By 1979 he had joined them in Ascot’s Pro Stock division.

Leonard finished third in points in his rookie year and said he still holds the track’s half-mile and quarter-mile qualifying records.

“I broke a habit with a habit,” Leonard said. “I wanted to race and spend time with my sons.”

In 1991, Leonard and Steve began racing at Ventura. This season, Steve, with one main-event victory, is second in points in the inaugural season of the IMCA Modified division. Leonard, fifth in points, has not won a main event.

“Before the evening is over, I usually lap him,” Steve said. “He is my dad, but I treat him like everyone else out there.”

Who’s counting the checkered flags, anyway?

“We’re having a good time and enjoying each other,” Leonard said. “I always hoped that I would have an interest in something else.”

ED FULLER SR. /ED FULLER JR.

MINI STOCK DIVISION

It is ironic that the Fullers have thrived at Saugus, a paved oval, considering they have spent so much time in the dirt they could stump for Tide.

For years, the Fuller family would spend virtually every vacationing moment in the desert getting dirty. “Camping, mostly,” said Ed Sr., 42, who owns and operates an automotive repair business in Carson. “We’d go to the desert every weekend, racing dirt bikes and dune buggies. We’d even race in Arizona.”

With Fuller’s automotive expertise, he and Ed Jr., now 24, the oldest of four boys, began constructing their own off-road vehicles to race everywhere from Barstow to Victorville.

It soon became apparent that Ed Jr., who lives with his father in Carson, was as skilled at racing the home-built creations as his father was at building them.

By the late 1980s, “desert racing had gotten old,” Ed Sr. said, and both entered the Mini Stock division on Ascot’s dirt oval.

They began racing at Saugus in 1991, but not before accumulating large portions of earth over the years. “(Saugus) looked fun,” Ed Sr. said. “Besides, you didn’t come home all muddy and then have to spend an hour cleaning up you and the car.”

Said Ed Jr.: “I like the asphalt, but I kind of miss getting sideways in the dirt.”

Currently, Ed Jr., in only his first full season at Saugus, is the Mini Stock division’s points leader, having won three main events. Ed. Sr. is sixth and has not won a main event. “Lately, he’s been running in front of me,” Ed Sr. said with a laugh.

However, the season has not been without at least one Fuller thriller. During a recent heat race, both ran side by side in their Ford Pintos for several laps before Ed Jr. barely nudged by his father to take the checkered flag.

Afterward, Ed Sr. congratulated his son on a good, clean race.

CLIFF AND JIM TIETZ

MINI STOCK DIVISION

Cliff Tietz was in Vietnam when his only son was born. He didn’t meet him until Jim was 4 1/2 months old. Growing up, Jim Tietz sometimes went months without seeing his father. As a Navy Seabee, Cliff traveled extensively. The family lived for a while in Okinawa, Japan. But often Cliff was forced to venture alone.

“When I was a little kid, he’d be gone for nine months at a time,” Jim said. “I got used to it. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a Navy brat all my life.”

However, Jim, 24, who owns a stereo store, admits that there was precious little time for typical father-and-son outings.

“We didn’t get to go to Disneyland or Magic Mountain that often,” he said.

Their rides as racers began during the Gulf War of 1991. While Cliff, 45, was stationed with a naval mobile construction battalion in Saudi Arabia 18 miles from Kuwait, Jim was conducting Operation Build a Stock Car.

Cliff returned to their Camarillo home after six months to find his son racing at Ventura. Jim feared his father might not approve. After all, it might not be Scud missiles, but racing still is dangerous.

“He’s pretty level-headed about stuff like that,” Jim said. “Once he found out, he was really excited.”

Cliff was more excited when a friend offered to sell him his race car. “They thought I wouldn’t do it,” Cliff said. “I said, ‘Heck, yeah!’ ”

Even more surprising, Cliff has climbed to sixth in points in the Mini Stock division, while Jim is 10th. Neither has won a main event. “It’s more of a team than a rivalry,” Jim said. “We’ve exchanged a little paint. But I have no problem with that.”

In the pits, Jim and a few of his friends handle mechanical chores for both Jim’s Toyota Celica and Cliff’s Ford Pinto. “I just turn some nuts and bolts,” Cliff said.

Through fast times, they are making up for lost time. And enjoying the ride.

“There was a lot of moving around when Jim was young,” Cliff said. “I guess that’s why I got into it: to share his time and interests. He once said, ‘Dad, this is better than any Disneyland ride or Magic Mountain ride there ever was.’ ”