Ready or Not, Here Come the Trucks
NASCAR, which already conducts the most successful motor racing series in the world with Winston Cup stock cars, is preparing to launch a new series for full-size pickup trucks.
The SuperTruck series, as NASCAR officials have labeled their new venture, has a West Coast off-road race leaning to it, much as stock car racing originally grew out of back roads of the Southeast.
Four Southern California race truck builder-owners--Dick Landfield of San Bernardino, Jim Venable of San Jacinto, Jim Smith of Buena Park and Frank (Scoop) Vessels of Bonsall--first presented the idea to NASCAR officials, who responded with enthusiasm.
Bill France Jr., president of NASCAR, said: “We feel that the time is right for a touring truck racing series. Trucks are extremely popular in America, and sales figures show that one truck is sold for every two cars. I think this is a natural.”
The truck chassis and engines will be similar to those built for Winston Cup cars, but instead of passenger car bodies, the body styles will be of popular Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge trucks seen in off-road and stadium races.
Fans will get their first look at the series in four exhibition races this summer, starting on July 30 at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield. Another will be held on Sept. 10 at Saugus Speedway in conjunction with a NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour championship race. Others will be on Aug. 19 at Portland Speedway and on Sept. 24 at Tucson Raceway Park.
NASCAR officials said that between 20 and 25 trucks were already under construction to compete in a full schedule in 1995. Among other tracks under consideration are Phoenix, Richmond, Va., and Martinsville, Va., all oval tracks used in stock car racing.
Richard Childress, owner of the Chevrolet driven by six-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, is among those building a truck for the series.
“I think the decision to sanction the pickup truck series is definitely a real step forward for motorsports,” Childress said.
Landfield, who owns automobile and truck dealerships in Southern California, agreed.
“The potential could be on a par with anything in motorsports in a very short time,” Landfield said. “As an automobile dealer, I know how popular trucks are. There is nothing more American than a V8 pickup truck.”
Landfield drove a Ford pickup for 18 years in off-road racing before helping form the Ford Rough Riders team that competes in off-road racing. Dave Ashley, one of Landfield’s desert drivers, is scheduled to drive in the SuperTruck series.
Venable, who was instrumental in launching the career of Indy car driver Robby Gordon in desert trucks, has already named Rob MacCachren and Gary Collins as his drivers. MacCachren is driving in SCORE desert races and the Mickey Thompson stadium series; Collins is on the Winston West circuit, winning the season opener at Mesa Marin in April.
Vessels, who has been racing since he first competed in the 1971 Baja 1,000, plans to drive his own truck although he has never raced anything but off-road before. When he is not racing, Vessels operates San Luis Rey Downs, a 3,000-acre land management project that includes a golf and tennis resort and a thoroughbred training center and breeding farm.
“I have zero experience on an oval,” Vessels said, “but I’m going to get some help from Gary Collins, who is going to have the tough task of teaching me how to do it.
“I told him he should put a cactus in Turn 1, a big rock in Turn 2 and a sandpit in Turn 3, just to make me feel at home.”
Truck racing has been tried in the past, in the All-Pro series on the East Coast and on road courses by the Sports Car Club of America, but neither venture lasted.
The SCCA Racetruck Challenge ran from 1987 through ’91 and featured Japanese manufacturers as well as American. Jeff Krosnoff of Flintridge, driving a Nissan, edged Bobby Archer’s Jeep by .001 of a second--five inches--to win a 1988 race at Riverside International Raceway in one of the closest finishes in the track’s history. Max Jones of Long Beach, in a Nissan, and Steve Saleen of Anaheim, in a Ford Ranger, were among the major series winners.
According to later SCCA media guides, the series was canceled because of “the generally poor economic climate of the early ‘90s (that) dropped the number of entrants.”
Motor Racing Notes
STOCK CARS--Mike Chase and Ron Hornaday Jr. will continue their NASCAR Winston West battle Saturday night in the Channellock Tools 250 at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield. Chase became the series’ first two-time winner last week in Yakima, Wash., when he squeezed past Hornaday with three laps remaining. Two weeks earlier, at Saugus, Hornaday barely held off Chase to score his first series victory. . . . Street stocks will race tonight at Ventura Raceway. . . . Winston Racing Series sportsman cars will be featured Saturday night at Cajon Raceway. . . . Dwarf cars and street stocks share the billing Saturday at Kern County Raceway.
SPRINT CARS--Rip Williams, Sprint Car Racing Assn. points leader, and Ron Shuman, former four-time California Racing Assn. champion, head the entries for an SCRA main event Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway. Coincidentally, both favorites drive for women car owners, Williams for Jan Gaffney and Shuman for Ann Wilkerson.
MIDGETS--U.S. Auto Club full and three-quarter midgets will make their only Saugus Speedway appearance of the year Saturday night. Also on the program will be vintage cars of the Western Racing Assn. and a 30-lap NASCAR Grand American modified division main event.
SPEEDWAY BIKES--Four American riders--defending world champion Sam Ermolenko, Greg Hancock, Josh Larsen and Billy Hamill--were among nine speedway racers who survived the Overseas Final last week at Coventry, England, to advance to the world championship semifinals on July 10. Larsen will ride his semi at Bradford, England. The other three will race in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Among the nonqualifiers were 1992 world champion Gary Havelock of England and Americans Mike Faria and Dukie Ermolenko.
Lake Perris Speedway, which was operating Thursday nights, has canceled the remainder of its season for lack of spectators, according to track operator Brian Church. The Southland’s other three tracks remain in operation--Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Friday nights, Speedway USA in Victorville on Saturday nights and Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino on Wednesday nights.
SPORTS CARS--Nissan, which has already scored IMSA GTS wins in the Daytona 24 Hour and Sebring 12 hour races, will tackle the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend with an all-Southern California team of Steve Millen, Johnny O’Connell and John Morton. Millen was Le Mans rookie of the year in 1990. The car, a 300ZX Turbo, was prepared by Cunningham Racing of El Segundo.
INDY CARS--In a move to pare the horsepower superiority of Roger Penske’s Mercedes-Benz engine that dominated the Indy 500, the U.S. Auto Club lowered the allowable inches of boost, or manifold pressure, from 55 to 52 for next year’s race. The stock block Menard and Buick engines will continue to be allowed 55 inches. Conventional racing engines, such as Ford Cosworth, Ilmor and Honda, receive only 45 inches of boost.
MISCELLANY--Mike F. Egan’s Splinter Road exhibit of Harley-Davidson and American Indian board track motorcycle racing from the early 1900s will remain on display through June 26 at the Union Oil Museum in Santa Paula.