MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : Postponement Drags Radke Back Into the Race

A week’s postponement of the Chief Auto Parts Winternationals drag races created a financial burden for many teams that had to remain another week near the Pomona Fairplex, but for one team the rain delay was welcome.

Wyatt Radke of Upland, driving Johnny West’s funny car, qualified 11th last week with a run of 5.264 seconds at 284.62 m.p.h., but his car’s front end was damaged when he couldn’t stop it and it smashed into protective netting in the runoff area.

The car would not have been ready for last Sunday’s opening-round match against Mark Oswald, but the delay enabled West to repair it in time for the rescheduled Winternationals, which open the 18-race National Hot Rod Assn. season.

Cars and drivers will get a test day today, which will be open to the public free, starting at 11 a.m. Professional runs will begin at 3 p.m.

Final eliminations will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, with Sunday as the rain date. Two 30-minute portions of Saturday’s show are scheduled live on TNN, the Nashville Network, at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Next week the NHRA will be at Firebird Raceway, in Chandler, Ariz., for the Motocraft-Ford Nationals, which will open with a night qualifying session Feb. 18.

Briefly

IROC--Juan Manuel Fangio II, a sports car driver whose expertise lies in road racing, will start from the pole today in the first round of the 17th International Race of Champions on the high-banked oval at Daytona International Speedway. Fangio, who won the International Motor Sports Assn. championship driving a Toyota for Dan Gurney, won the pole in a blind draw. A dozen drivers will compete in the 100-mile race.

MOTORCYCLES--World Superbike champion Doug Polen of Denton, Tex., and national Superbike champion Scott Russell of Fairburn, Ga., will face off this weekend in the American Motorcyclist Assn.’s Arizona Superbike Challenge at Phoenix International Speedway. “I’m going to use Phoenix and Daytona (March 7) as warm-ups before I move to Europe,” said Russell, who plans to contend for Polen’s world championship this season on a Kawasaki. Polen, who has won the last two world titles on a Ducati, has said he will concentrate on the U.S. series this year.

INDY CARS--Mike Groff, the 1989 Indy Lights champion from Los Angeles, has signed to drive five Indy car races this year for Bobby Rahal and Carl Hogan. He will also test the team’s Chevrolet-powered Truesports car and make his racing debut in Milwaukee on June 6.

STOCK CARS--The Desert Valleys Racing Assn. will race modified and street stocks Saturday at Imperial Raceway, near El Centro.

MISCELLANY--The Saturday Night Thunder season on ESPN for United States Auto Club midgets at Ventura Raceway has been canceled. The series will start May 29 on the asphalt track at Indianapolis Speedway Park. . . . The International Motor Sports Assn., which canceled its Labor Day weekend street race at San Diego, has also dropped its scheduled race in New Orleans.