Cain Hopes to Lasso a Victory

Steer roping and bull riding seem like a strange background for Jet Ski racing, but it has been a natural transition for Jerry Cain of Newhall, a one-time rodeo champion who is now campaigning on the Budweiser Jet Sports Tour as a Sea-Doo rider.

“Balance is so important in team roping and riding bulls, and I found out last year when I tried racing Jet Skis that balance was just as important in riding one of them, too,” Cain said.

He also found he could get more speed by pressing down on his heels while bouncing across the water, a maneuver similar to one he used 20 years ago when he pushed his heels in the stirrups while riding horses on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Assn. circuit.

Cain, 37, is one of more than 250 touring professionals and amateurs who will compete this weekend in the Westcoast Performance Nationals on Puddingstone Lake at Bonelli Regional County Park near San Dimas. It is the second stop of a 10-event national series featuring 24 classes in closed course, slalom and freestyle divisions.

Amateur finals for men and women will be held Saturday; professionals will race Sunday.

Cain was California champion in team roping when he was 22, then retired to start his own merchant financial assistance business in Newhall. Four years ago, he bought a vacation home on Mohave Lake, where he and his wife began riding Sea-Doos on weekends.

“After a couple of years, my friends quit riding with me because they said I was too aggressive,” Cain said. “One day, I saw a Jet Ski race on TV and I said, ‘I can do that.’ The next weekend, I tried it and I’ve been racing almost every weekend since.”

Last year, Cain planned to enter only the San Diego and Los Angeles races on the national schedule, but after a surprising victory in one event, he decided to tackle the full tour.

“It was really a lark,” he said. “We didn’t even have a truck or trailer and we had to leave on Wednesday to make the next race at Denver. We bought the truck about an hour before we took off.”

Cain won four national events and qualified for the Skat-Trak World Finals last October at Lake Havasu City, Ariz., where he won the International Jet Sport Boating Assn.’s amateur/expert championship before an estimated 35,000 spectators.

“The world championship is a one-day event, not a series, and it all came down to a race between the oldest competitor, me, and the youngest, Chris Mays, who was 14 and looked younger. He won the slalom and I was second, but I had better finishes than he did in the limited and modified events, so I won overall.”

Cain moved up to the professional ranks this year, and last week in the season opener at San Diego’s Mission Bay he finished third in the slalom, posting the fastest time of his career.

“I’ve turned what for many my age is strictly a means of recreational enjoyment (into a way) to fulfill my competitive fire,” Cain said. “I’m proof that anyone at any age can enjoy personal watercraft.”

Mays, of Vero Beach, Fla., is still competing as an amateur/expert. Last week at San Diego, he swept all events and is expected to do the same at Puddingstone.

Christy Carlson, 23, a five-time national champion from San Diego, is favored in the women’s professional class after setting a world closed-course slalom record last week on her Kawasaki. The men’s favorite is Victor Sheldon of Vista, also a Kawasaki rider, who is the defending national champion. Sheldon, 27, started the 1994 season by winning overall honors at San Diego.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--Saugus Speedway will feature NASCAR Winston Racing Series sportsman, mini stocks and street stocks Saturday night, plus a train race. . . . Also Saturday night, Cajon Speedway will headline sportsman, Grand Am modifieds and a train race; Blythe Speedway will have Round 3 of the Las Vegas-Blythe Challenge series for sportsman cars, and legends cars and hobby stocks will race on the new quarter-mile dirt oval at Temecula Motorsports Park. . . . Saturday afternoon, V8 modifieds and pro-mod stocks will run at Kern County Raceway in Willow Springs. . . . Ventura Raceway will run street stocks Friday night.

MOTOCROSS--Honda rider Jeremy McGrath of Murrieta has clinched his second AMA Supercross championship, but will be looking for his 10th victory of the year when the stadium series concludes Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Damon Huffman, 18, a Suzuki rider from Saugus, also clinched the 125cc support class with a third-place finish last week at San Jose and will be at Las Vegas. . . . The second round of the three-race Imperial Valley series will be held Saturday night at the Imperial County Fairgrounds, north of El Centro.

MIDGETS--The U.S. Auto Club western regional competition will continue Saturday night at Ventura Raceway for full midgets and TQs.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Six Southern California riders, led by world champion Sam Ermolenko of Cypress, will be in Coventry, England, Saturday for the Overseas Final, a qualifier for the Aug. 20 World Finals in Denmark. Others are Greg Hancock of Costa Mesa, Billy Hamill of Monrovia, Josh Larsen of Balboa, Mike Faria of Apple Valley and Dukie Ermolenko of Cypress, younger brother of the world champion.

RALLY--The U.S. team of Dave Simpson of Alta Loma and Mack Barber of Macon, Ga., finished sixth among 18 nations in the Camel Trophy Adventure, known as “The Olympics of Four-Wheel Drive.” Jorge Corella and Carlos Martinez of Spain won the 2,000-mile trek through Argentina, Paraguay and over the Andes to Chile.

MISCELLANY--The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will make its first appearance at Kings Speedway in Hanford on Saturday night. Ron Shuman, who won the Pacific Coast Nationals in October on the three-eighths-mile Hanford track, will be favored. . . . The Southern California Timing Assn. will hold a speed test Sunday at El Mirage Dry Lake.