Motorcyclist Ward Hits the Pavement in Brand New Career

Jeff Ward, a motorcycle superstar, is finding the transition from motocross to auto racing a challenging one.

“In many ways--mental preparation, physical conditioning, concentration and determination to succeed--racing is the same, whether it’s on two wheels or four wheels,” he said. “On the other hand, you can’t go sliding a 1,400-pound Lola around a corner the way I did my Kawasaki.”

Ward, 31, has spent the last 15 years sliding, bouncing and jumping a succession of Kawasaki dirt bikes to seven national motocross championships. He is the only rider to have won titles in all four professional American Motorcyclist Assn. classes--a feat that earned him the AMA’s athlete-of-the-year award in 1990.

But on April 4, at Phoenix International Raceway, on a paved one-mile oval, Ward will launch a career he hopes will take him to Indy cars and perhaps the Indianapolis 500. He will drive a new Lola T93/20, powered by a 425-horsepower Buick V-6 engine in the season opener of the Indy Lights series.

The 12-race series has been designated as the “official development series” of the PPG Indy Car World Series. The 1993 champion has been assured a ride on the Indy car circuit next year.

“I’ve never raced on an oval in my life, unless you count a little flat-tracking I did when I was a teen-ager,” Ward said. “I’m looking forward to it, though. I’ve tested at Phoenix and I’ll admit I was a little leery at first but after a few laps I felt pretty comfortable. I haven’t hit the wall yet.”

Ward’s lap speed of 149 m.p.h. bettered the track record of 142.180 set by Belgian Didier Theys in 1987.

Ward, who lives in San Juan Capistrano with his wife, Candice, and their son, Brandon, is driving for the Leading Edge team owned by Mark Weida of Lake Forest. Weida also is team manager for Frank Arciero’s Indy car team with driver Mark Smith.

“Weida was the one who did the work for Paul Tracy, Eric Batchelart and Robbie Buhl when they won the last three Indy Lights championships, so I couldn’t be happier with the team,” Ward said. “Tracy told me that he was looking for a driver this year (after Buhl moved up to Indy cars) and I was looking for a ride. Things worked out perfectly.”

Phoenix will be Ward’s second Indy Lights race. He drove a Mazda last October at Laguna Seca for Norm Turley’s P.I.G. team in the season’s final race. After qualifying 17th, Ward finished seventh.

“It was quite an experience, quite important for my learning curve,” he said. “I had only been in the car about five times, I had never been in traffic and I’d never started a race with a rolling start.

“I was sitting in the middle of the pack with 20 other guys and I didn’t get through the first turn before I got squeezed off in the dirt. To tell the truth, I probably felt more comfortable in the dirt, but it wasn’t my idea. I was trying to pass a guy and he came over on me. I did learn a bit about passing in a car. I passed about four guys and the others dropped out. That’s how I got up to seventh.”

Eddie Lawson, a four-time world road racing motorcycle champion, was also in the Laguna Seca race and had planned to race Indy Lights this season but failed to find the necessary sponsorship.

Kawasaki, for whom Ward has ridden since 1978, is sponsoring the green, blue and white Leading Edge Lola, even though the Japanese manufacturer does not make four-wheel vehicles.

“Jeff has been part of the Kawasaki family for so long, and his name value is so strong that it would have been silly to let him get away,” said Dan Zukowski, a spokesman for the Irvine-based company. “His name is synonymous with Kawasaki and racing fans use our products, but it is the first time we have been associated with a product outside our company.”

Although he is retired from motocross competition, Ward will act as a coach and consultant to Kawasaki team riders, including Mike Kiedrowski, winner of the Daytona Supercross, and Mike LaRocco, Mike Craig and Ryan Hughes.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--Saugus Speedway will open its 1993 season Saturday night with a program of street-stock ovals, mini stocks, Figure 8s and a destruction derby. . . . Ron Hornaday Jr., defending Featherlite Southwest Tour champion, and Doug George, winner of the season opener at Phoenix, will be favorites Saturday night when the NASCAR series resumes on Cajon Speedway’s three-eighths mile paved oval with the Budweiser 100. . . . After Saturday night’s program at Blythe Speedway, the track will be dark for two weeks.

Page Jones didn’t last long in the race, but in his first try at stock car racing, Parnelli’s youngest son qualified on the pole at a record 185.071 for the ARCA/Winston West race last Sunday at Texas World Speedway. At the same time, brother P.J. was finishing third in the 12 Hours of Sebring.

SPRINT CARS--Lealand McSpadden and Ron Shuman, two longtime Arizona rivals who have dominated California Racing Assn. competition in the last several years, will be at it again Saturday night when the wingless racers compete at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale.

POWERBOATS--The Long Beach Super Boat Grand Prix, featuring 20 to 25 boats in four classes, will kick off the powerboat season Sunday off Belmont Pier. All of the course will be inside Long Beach Harbor. The leading West Coast entry is Predator II, a 32-foot boat owned and driven by Mark Wraley of Riverside, the western divisional champion. The same boats will be at San Diego on April 4.

MOTORCYCLES--Paul Dean of Newport Harbor has been reelected chairman of the board of the American Motorcyclist Assn. Bob Perkins of Granada Hills was elected treasurer and John Walsh of Brea was named to the board of trustees. . . . The Lake Elsinore-based Team Suzuki opened the Western Eastern Racing Assn. endurance season by winning a four-hour race last Saturday at West Palm Beach, Fla.

MISCELLANY--The Nostalgia Drag Racing Assn. will hold its fifth annual March Meet on Saturday at the L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale. On Sunday, the Southern California Super Street Stock Assn. will conduct a points elimination. . . . The California Sports Car Club will hold regional championship races Saturday and Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway, plus a Toyota super production race. . . . Al Teague’s hemi-powered, 28-foot streamliner that holds the world record of 409.986 m.p.h. for piston-driven cars, will be on display through Sunday at the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park.