3-Time Supercross Champion Stanton Announces Retirement

Jeff Stanton, a three-time national Supercross champion and twice winner of the Superbowl of Motocross in the Coliseum, has announced his retirement at 26.

“Racing just isn’t as much fun as it used to be,” Stanton said. “I know I’m not putting as much into it as I did a few years ago, and I decided it was time to get out because the spark just isn’t there.”

Stanton, who lives in Sherwood, Mich., and has a winter home in Riverside, made the announcement midway through the national 250cc outdoor season.

“I’ll finish out the final seven races of the season for Honda and then do some invitational races in Europe and Japan, and that will be it,” he said at his home track in Buchanan, Mich. “I’m only 26, but I’ve been racing nearly every week for 22 years.”

Stanton has been a factory rider for Honda since 1989. He won Supercross titles in 1989, 1990 and 1992 and also won 250cc outdoor championships in those seasons. He was named winner of the Mickey Thompson Award of Excellence in 1989, and in 1992, he followed up his national Supercross season by winning the world championship in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Winning in Los Angeles was definitely a high point in my career,” he said. “All the factory guys are there and it’s the granddaddy of Supercross, so it’s No. 1 for all of us.”

After his successful 1992 season--he edged Damon Bradshaw for the Supercross crown by winning the season finale in the Coliseum--Stanton never seemed to get it going again. Back injuries held him back last year, when he won only one Supercross event. This season, he has failed to win for the first time since 1989.

He finished second to Honda teammate and reigning champion Jeremy McGrath at Anaheim, but slipped to ninth at San Diego.

He is the second nationally ranked motocross rider to retire in the last year. Bradshaw, who won an international race in Japan when he was 16 and twice was runner-up for Supercross championships, called it quits at 21 last October.

Among Stanton’s 17 Supercross victories were those in 1989 and 1992 at the Coliseum, 1990 at San Diego and 1991 at Anaheim.

“It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing,” he said of his retirement. “I pretty much made up my mind in March, but didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to have a big deal made of it.”

Stanton said he and his wife, Sarah, will live in Michigan, but he hopes to continue working with American Honda in Torrance.

“I think I have a lot to give to the younger riders,” he said. “I know I was helped by Rick Johnson when I joined Honda, and I’d like to do the same for the next generation of riders.”

Motor Sports Notes

STOCK CARS--Cajon Speedway will celebrate its 33rd birthday Saturday night by running the rain-postponed Budweiser 100 NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour race on the three-eighths-mile paved oval in El Cajon. The race was originally scheduled March 26. M.C. Kanke, driving the Hoosier Oldsmobile, is defending champion. . . . Sportsman, Grand American modifieds and mini-stocks of the Winston Racing Series will be featured Saturday night at Saugus Speedway, followed by a train race.

Ventura Raceway will spotlight street stocks and IMCA modifieds Friday night. . . . Racing will resume at Blythe Speedway after a month’s layoff with pro stocks, pony stocks and hobby stocks Saturday night. . . . Pro-mods and mini-stocks will run Saturday at Kern County Raceway. . . . All Kragen series divisions are scheduled Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway. . . . Sunrise Valley Raceway in Adelanto will hold its first monthly stock car program Saturday night on a quarter-mile clay oval.

MIDGETS--West Coast drivers in the United States Auto Club’s regional division will get a break Saturday night at Ventura Raceway because Tony Stewart is skipping their race for a USAC national event in Gainesville, Ga. Stewart, of Rushville, Ind., is trying to become the first to win both the national and western regional championships in one season. He leads the national series and is fourth, behind John Cofer, Billy Boat and Jay Drake, in regional standings.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Defending world champion Sam Ermolenko, Greg Hancock and Josh Larsen qualified for the World Speedway Final in semifinal trials last Sunday in Europe. Ermolenko finished fourth and Hancock won a runoff for the eighth and final berth from fellow American Billy Hamill in Prague. Larsen finished fourth in the other semifinal at Bradford, England. Hamill will be a reserve rider at the finals Aug. 20 in Vojens, Denmark. . . . There will be no racing at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa until July 29.

AWARDS--Race car builders Colin Chapman, Enzo Ferrari and Ralph Moody head a group of nine inductees into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Ala. Others include stock car drivers Benny Parsons, Joe Weatherly, Tiny Lund and Herb Thomas; three-time Indy 500 winner Mauri Rose, and John Marcum, founder of the Automobile Racing Club of America.

Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr. was a nearly unanimous selection in second-quarter voting for driver of the year. Unser received 10 first-place votes and Rusty Wallace, winner of four NASCAR races, received one. Behind them came Ernie Irvan, Dale Earnhardt, Scott Kalitta and Emerson Fittipaldi.

FOR THE RECORD--The late Sam Hanks’ victory in a 250-lap race at the Coliseum on Aug. 17, 1946, before the largest midget racing crowd in Southern California history was scored on a one-third-mile asphalt track. A board track was not installed in the Coliseum until 1948.

MISCELLANY--The $3,500 Chino Challenge IV destruction derby will be run Saturday at the Chino Fairgrounds. . . . The Southern California Timing Assn. will hold speed runs Sunday at El Mirage Dry Lake. . . . Wingless sprint cars of the Golden State Challenge series will race in the Pombo-Sargent Classic Friday night at Kings Speedway in Hanford.