Long Beach Outboard Races Feature 10 National Champs

Ten national champions and more than 75 boats will compete for points in the second annual Memorial Day Regatta at the Long Beach Marine Stadium on Monday. The races will be conducted by the Water Sports Entertainment Group under sponsorship of the California Outboard Boat Racing Assn.

Featured will be Formula 1 Champ Boats, the world’s fastest closed-course racing boats. Craig Wendt of Huntington Beach, the 1991 world champion, will compete in Formula 1.

The Champ Boats are powered by two-liter, V-6 Mercury outboard engines developing 350 horsepower on aviation gasoline. They can accelerate to 100 m.p.h. in less than five seconds.

Also featured will be 1,500 horsepower blown alcohol K-boats, which will reach speeds of more than 130 m.p.h. Other classes of boats will include the two-seat inboard crackerboxes and the superstocks.

Monday’s racing is the first of five events schedule for Long Beach Marine Stadium this year. Others will be July 5, Aug. 29, Sept. 26 and Oct. 24.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--Saugus Speedway will feature NASCAR sportsman and Grand American modified cars Saturday along with a destruction derby. . . . The Mears Day Memorial Classic at Bakersfield Speedway on Saturday night will include late models, IMCA modifieds and hobby stocks. . . . The 23rd annual Little Indy--three 33-lap main events for late model stocks--will be held Sunday night at Santa Maria Speedway. . . . Ventura Raceway will race street stocks, Dwarf cars and IMCA modifieds Saturday night. . . . Cajon Speedway has scheduled sportsman, Grand American modifieds and a celebrity race Saturday night. . . . Imperial Raceway, near El Centro, will run all divisions Saturday night. . . . The Saturday night show at Blythe Speedway has been rescheduled for Sunday night. . . . The NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour will be at Tucson Raceway Park on Saturday night, with Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale looking to extend his series lead.

SPORTS CARS--The California Sports Car Club will conduct national and regional championship races this weekend, plus a Toyota super production unlimited stock car road race. Practice and qualifying Saturday will be followed by main event racing Sunday and Monday.

SPRINT CARS--The California Racing Assn., after a seven-race swing through the East and Midwest, will be at Tucson Sunday night. Lealand McSpadden, who won races at 81 Speedway in Wichita, Kan., and Eldora Speedway in Pennsylvania, will be in a newly modified asphalt car built by Andy Morales. Davey Hamilton will be in Morales’ Tamale Wagon. The only other West Coast driver to win on the tour was Mike Kirby at Lincoln Speedway in Hanover, Pa.

DRAG RACING--The Nostalgia Drag Racing Assn. will hold the first of its triple-crown series this weekend at the Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale. Featured will be cars and drivers from Lions Drag Strip, in the era between 1955 and 1972.

MOTORCYCLES--International Speedway will host a ladies-night event Friday in which women of any age will be admitted free to the Orange County Fairgrounds track in Costa Mesa. Speedway racing is also scheduled Wednesday nights at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

OFF ROAD--Veteran open-wheel buggy driver Bob Gordon cut short his pre-running over the muddy Baja 500 course this week to fly to Indianapolis to watch his son, Robby, drive in the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. Gordon will return after the race to drive his Chenoweth VW in the off-road event June 5.