MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : Finding a Gift for a Real Fan Is as Easy as Turning Pages

If you can’t afford to buy your favorite racing fan a race car or get tickets to the Indianapolis 500 for Christmas, the next best thing might be a book about racing.

Bookstores are loaded with new biographies, histories, yearbooks and how-to-do-it books that should help satisfy most anyone’s racetrack fantasies.

Three, however, caught our attention.

“American Zoom,” by Peter Golenbock, tells the story of NASCAR Winston Cup racing in a way never presented before. In the style of Studs Terkel, Golenbock relies heavily on interviews and vignettes from personalities at the heart of racing--not so much drivers as pioneer car owners, mechanics, crew chiefs and peripheral characters who make up the gypsy-like stock car racing experience.

Davey Allison’s death last July in a helicopter accident occurred after the book (Macmillan, $24) was written, but much of his personality emerges in conversations, including about his victory in the 1992 Daytona 500.

Golenbock will donate part of the profits to the Winston Cup Racing Wives Auxilliary, which helps family members of drivers and mechanics in immediate crisis.

The “Pirelli Album of Motor Racing Heroes” (Motorbooks International, $49.95) is an absorbing and lavishly illustrated tribute to 20 of the world’s legendary drivers, as selected by former world champion John Surtees, who also writes the commentary.

Among them are three of today’s elite, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell. Only two of the 20--which include motorcycle racers as well as race car drivers--are Americans: Dan Gurney and Mario Andretti.

Surtees, the only person to win world championships on two and four wheels, based his selections, he said, on their “genuine passion to excel in their chosen sport.”

“Kyle at 200 m.p.h.” is an insider’s look at a third-generation driver, Kyle Petty, who burns with a desire to climb the historical ladder of Winston Cup racing to be nearer the level attained by his father, Richard, and his grandfather, Lee.

The book (St. Martin’s Press, $19.95) by Frye Gailliard follows Kyle through a season of exhilarating victories, frightening crashes and the everyday life of a man who races at 200 m.p.h. on Sundays--through the eyes of his wife, mother, sisters and father, as well as himself.

Motor Racing Notes

SPRINT CARS--Mike Kirby, former ascot figure-8 champion from Lomita, emerged as champion of the California Racing Assn. When he finished sixth in the season’s final race at Bakersfield after defending champion Lealand McSpadden dropped out. Kirby, who started two points behind, finished with 1,272 to 1,242 for McSpadden. Rip Williams, with 1,163, was third. It was the first title for Kirby and car owner Danny Pivovaroff.

MOTORCYCLES--Ricky Graham, American Motorcyclist Assn. dirt-track champion, was named AMA MotoWorld professional athlete of the year. Graham, 34, of Salinas, also won the inaugural 883 Harley-Davidson series. Motocross rider Guy Cooper of Stillwater, Okla., was given both the AMA Goodwill Ambassador award and the Mickey Thompson Award of Excellence. The Dud Perkins Award, the highest AMA award outside of racing, went to Sharon Clayton and her late husband, Chuck, the founders of Cycle News in 1965.

OFF-ROAD--Ivan Stewart won the SCORE International overall point championship and reconfirmed his status as the sport’s “Ironman” by winning both major Baja California races driving solo in his Toyota truck. Michael Gaughan, Las Vegas hotel operator and longtime supporter or desert racing, received SCORE’s person-of-the-year award.

INDY CARS--John Morton and Bill Tempero won the final two races of the American IndyCar Series at Willow Springs, but Rick Sutherland of Los Gatos squeezed through to his first championship by finishing fourth and third in the two Crossroads Grand Prix races, edging Red Bennett of Campbell in season points, 108-105.

MIDGETS--J.J. Erese of Bellflower emerged as champion of the United States Auto Club’s three-quarter midget season, and Robby Flock of Temecula won the USAC Western States midget crown when he dethroned longtime champion Sleepy Tripp, 685-523. Flock finished second to eight-time winner Ron Shuman in the 100-lap turkey Night Grand Prix at Bakersfield. Defending champion Stevie Reeves of Speedway, Ind., won the national USAC title by 11 points over Kenny Irwin Jr. of Indianapolis.

MISCELLANY--Les Richter, former president of Riverside International Raceway, has been named senior vice president of operations for NASCAR. . . . Collene Campbell, sister of the late Mickey Thompson and chairman of the board of the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group, which produces supercross and stadium off road races, was elected mayor of San Juan Capistrano.

Dave Pain, a graduate of Chaffey College and UCLA, has been named director of motorsports for Bilstein Corp., which provides shock absorbers for Winston Cup and other forms of stock car racing. . . . Leon Herbert III, 24, of Altadena, won the Southern California Karters championship in a 250cc Rotax-powered Dominator superkart.

Zak Brown, 21, of North Hollywood, finished fourth in the Benelux Opel Lotus series. It was the best finish ever for an American in the European Formula Drivers Assn.

NECROLOGY--Dan Simpkins, 10-time stock car champion at Santa Maria Speedway, died last Sunday at his home in Santa Maria after a 15-year struggle with cancer. Simpkins, 50, underwent a leg amputation in 1989, but came back to win the 1993 championship on his home track, climaxed with a victory in the season-finale last Oct. 2. Simpkins also won a track title at Ascot Park in 1977.