MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : Pridmore Was Born to Ride

Sports lore is full of stories about doting fathers who put tiny footballs, bats, gloves and other athletic equipment into their newborn’s cribs.

Reg Pridmore went one step further--or earlier. He bought a tiny Italian motorcycle, a 50cc Mini-Bambini, before his son Jason was born. By the time Jason was 2, he was putt-putting around the family home in Santa Barbara.

The elder Pridmore later became the American Motorcyclist Assn.’s first Superbike champion in 1976 and won the title again in 1977 and ’78. Now his son aspires to make them America’s first father-son Superbike champions.

Jason, 23, has a bit to go yet, but he seems right on course. With one race remaining--the AMA national championships next week at Texas World Speedway--he is 20 points behind three-time champion Scott Russell of Smyrna, Ga., 114-94, in the 750cc national SuperSport class, which is one step below Superbike. Russell is also the Superbike leader.

“My whole life has been sort of a training session,” Jason Pridmore said. “From the first time I sat on my Mini-Bambini, I wanted to go fast. I still do.”

Going fast now means about 165 m.p.h. while riding handlebar-to-handlebar around twisting road courses such as Willow Springs, Laguna Seca, Road America and Daytona.

“I tagged along with my dad so much when he was racing that I feel almost like I learned to race through osmosis,” Pridmore said. “Motorcycles are something I’ve always been around.”

Although racing motorcycles has been in Pridmore’s genes, golf almost got in the way of his racing career. From 1983 to 1988, golf was his passion. He was good enough to win the Thousand Oaks and Ojai Valley junior championships, as well as playing on the Ventura High and Ventura College teams. He still carries a four handicap.

“Golf and racing a motorcycle couldn’t be farther apart,” Jason said. “Yet there are certain things about both that are similar. You must learn to keep your composure after a bad lap or a bad hole, and you have to have total concentration if you want to succeed in either one.”

Four years ago, Pridmore went to work for his father, teaching motorcycle safety techniques to street riders. Class Safety Schools conducted 36 one-day schools at 20 locations during the past year. They also regenerated Pridmore’s interest in racing.

“The more I rode giving demonstrations, the more I realized I wanted to get out and go fast again,” he said. “In 1989, I decided to give racing a try, and, for a couple of years, I rode whenever and wherever I could. In 1991 I rode for Team Suzuki Endurance, but I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere.”

He ended the year by winning the unlimited SuperSport Race of Champions at Daytona Beach, Fla., when he came from the last row to pass the field. This convinced him he should set his sights on winning the Superbike championship. With his mechanic, Jake VanVleet, he decided to prepare for it by racing a Kawasaki as a privateer this year in the SuperSport class.

At Brainard, Minn., Pridmore handed Russell his first defeat in three years when he got off the line in front and led all the way. Two races later, he again upset Russell with a come-from-behind victory at Road Atlanta. He also had a second-, third- and two fifth-place finishes.

Next season, Pridmore says he hopes to move up to the Superbike class, perhaps with the powerful Yamaha team of Vance and Hines. Meantime, he will stay busy as head instructor for Class Safety Schools and with shooting in the low 70s when he can find time for a game of golf.

“I’m the luckiest 23-year-old in the country,” he said, convincingly.

Motor Racing Notes

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Defending champion Mike Faria, who won the California State championship last week at Glen Helen Park, will go for his third consecutive U.S. Nationals victory Saturday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. He will face 15 others, including Billy Hamill and Ronnie Correy from the British Speedway League, in a series of match races to determine the 1992 champion. Former champions entered include Bobby Schwartz, Steve Lucero and Brad Oxley. . . . Matt Becker won the U.S. junior championship last Sunday at Victorville.

MIDGETS--The first Kara Hendrick Memorial race will be held Saturday night at Cajon Speedway, where the midget racer was killed in a United States Auto Club racing accident last October, five minutes after she set a track record in qualifying. Proceeds from the program will go to the Kara Hendrick Memorial Scholarship Foundation, founded by her parents, Art and Renee Hendrick of Chino. In addition to USAC midgets and three-quarter midgets, there will be a Saugus vs. Cajon match of Grand American modifieds.

SPRINT CARS--Lealand McSpadden, fresh from a double victory last week in the Pacific Coast Nationals at Phoenix, will shoot for another California Racing Assn. double Friday and Saturday nights at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale. Brent Kaeding, five-time Northern California champion, will join the CRA regulars in a bid to stop McSpadden in the two-night Budweiser Open Wheel Nationals.

STOCK CARS--The NASCAR Southwest Tour will be at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino Saturday night for the Coors 100. Series leader Ron Hornaday Jr., who won last Saturday in Las Vegas, will be after his first victory in the one-quarter mile paved oval. . . . Santa Maria Speedway will close its regular season Saturday night with the Don Roberts Memorial for late models and hobby stocks.

OFF ROAD--The Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix stadium series will resume Saturday night at the Silver Bowl in Las Vegas. . . . La Rana Desert Racing has canceled its scheduled “women only” race Saturday in Barstow for lack of racing equipment. Officials said there was plenty of interest among female drivers, but not enough of them had cars.

Felix Giles of Anaheim Hills, the first black driver to compete in the Baja 1000 and later an eye-in-the-sky aide for desert racers, was a guest at the White House on Tuesday for his latest role as a member of the Race Against Drugs program. Giles, a Cleveland native, also received proclamations from Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio) and from Mayor Mike White of Cleveland and State Rep. Vermel Whalen of Ohio.

SPORTS CARS--Juan Fangio II should win the Camel GTP championship for Dan Gurney’s Toyota team in the International Motor Sports Assn. program this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. All Fangio--who has won six main events this season--needs to clinch the title is to finish 10th or better in Sunday’s two-hour race. Also Sunday will be championship races for Formula 2000, Zerex Saab Pro Series and Bridgestone Supercars.

Classic cars from the pre-1916 era and American muscle cars from 1957-1971 will share the spotlight Sunday at the 10th annual Newport Beach Concours d’Elegance at 10 a.m. on the UC Irvine campus. The event will benefit the Assessment and Treatment Services Center for juveniles.

POWER BOATS--Ron Braaksma, driver of the 227 m.p.h. “Madness” top fuel hydro drag boat, will attempt to extend his International Hot Boat Assn. points lead this weekend in the Chief Auto Parts Fallnationals at Puddingstone Reservoir. Braaksma leads Carter Read, in “California Hustler II,” by 30 points. The top fuel hydros, along with 14 other classes, will qualify Saturday at the Bonelli County Park in San Dimas, with eliminations starting at 8 a.m. Sunday. . . . Ted Pappas of Santa Barbara, whose boat capsized during a race last month, borrowed a 43-foot Scarab named “Scarab Thunder” to finish first in the San Francisco Race to Preserve Historic Ships on Sunday. Because Pappas’ boat was over-sized, however, the victory went to Barry Garfinkle of Alameda.

MOTORCYCLES--Chris Carr and Scott Parker will continue their battle for the Camel Pro Series dirt track championship Saturday night at the Cal-Expo Fairgrounds mile oval in Sacramento. The season will conclude Oct. 10 at the L. A. County Fairplex track.