Ex-49er Cofer Getting a Kick Out of Stocks

Mike Cofer kicked for 681 points while playing with the San Francisco 49ers, the fourth-highest scorer in the team’s history. He is the only 49er to have scored more than 100 points in five different seasons and last season outscored Jerry Rice.

This year he left football and is the leading rookie in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour stock car series. After 11 races, he is in second place, only 23 points behind Dale Williams, 1,576 to 1,553.

The 30-year-old, who went to stock car racing after the 49ers had drafted Doug Brien, a kicker from California, will be among the favorites Saturday night at Saugus Speedway when the Featherlite 100 will be run on the one-third mile oval in Santa Clarita.

“I like Saugus because it’s a track where you can prove yourself,” Cofer said. “It’s different. It’s flat as a table, but it’s a great place to race. Do well there and you get respect from the other drivers.”

After having not led a lap in his first three races this season, Cofer stunned Southwest tour drivers last April 30 with a wire-to-wire victory in the Plummer Pontiac 100 at Stockton 99 Speedway.

“I felt like a quarterback out there, like I was in total control,” Cofer said. “When you’re a kicker, you’re just part of the team. That win gave me a bigger high than kicking any field goal in the NFL.”

Owen Kearns, veteran NASCAR official and West Coast stock car historian, called the victory “one of the Southwest tour’s all-time upsets.” Cofer, who lives in Napa, drives a Chevrolet Lumina for JMC Enterprises, a team he owns with 49er tackle Harris Barton. The car’s number, 79, is also Barton’s number.

Although he grew up in NASCAR country, Charlotte, N.C., Cofer did not get involved in racing until he moved West to play for the 49ers.

“I wasn’t from a racing family or anything like that, but I had followed in the newspapers when I was younger,” he said. “During the off-season a couple of years ago, I was looking for something interesting to do and drove a Great American modified (stock car) at Stockton and enjoyed it, so I drove a few more races in ’93.

“When I decided I wasn’t going back with the 49ers this year, I bought a tour car and was fortunate to get Jerry Pitts as my crew chief. From football, I knew the importance of having a strong organization and that has been important to our success. Jerry has been my coach.”

Besides winning at Stockton, Cofer finished second to Bob Lyon at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield on July 30.

“I’m fortunate to have racing, now that football is behind me,” Cofer said. “When you’ve been doing something every year since junior high school, there’s bound to be an emotional feeling when you stop doing it. I’m sure I would miss it more if I wasn’t racing, but right now I’m having the time of my life.”

Cofer hopes to become a part of NASCAR’s Super Truck series, which will be showcased Saturday night at Saugus with an exhibition race. A national series is planned for 1995.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino will hold its final NASCAR Winston Racing Series points races Saturday night for sportsman, modified pony and stock pony divisions, plus a train race. . . . Sportsman and street stocks will be featured Saturday night at Cajon Speedway, which will also have a train race. . . . Tonight, Ventura Raceway will have street stocks and IMCA modifieds. . . . American V-8 modifieds, pro-mod stocks and mini stocks will race Saturday at Kern County Raceway in Willow Springs.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Greg Hancock, whose fourth-place finish in the World Finals three weeks ago in Vojens, Denmark, was the highest for an American rider, will return to Costa Mesa for the U.S. Nationals on Oct. 1. Also returning from British Speedway League competition will be Sam Ermolenko and Chris Manchester, winners of the last two U.S. nationals. In the World Finals, won by Tony Rickardsson of Sweden, Costa Mesa regular Josh Larsen finished ninth and defending champion Ermolenko 11th. Larsen broke his wrist in the competition, but expects to be ready for the Nationals. . . . The West Coast best pairs final is scheduled tonight at Costa Mesa Speedway on the Orange County Fairgrounds.

MIDGETS--John Cofer--no relation to Mike Cofer--leads Billy Boat by 71 points in the United States Auto Club’s Western Regional full midget championship series going into Saturday night’s 30-lap main event at Ventura Raceway. Tony Stewart, who leads the national USAC series, is fourth behind Cofer, Boat and Jay Drake in the regionals. Three-quarter midgets will also race at Ventura.

SPRINT CARS--The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will be at Santa Maria Speedway for the 20th event of their inaugural season Saturday night. Ron Shuman, who missed the last four SCRA events while racing in USAC’s Silver Crown series, will return to the sprint cars. Shuman, twice a winner at Santa Maria this year, is third in points with 901 to 976 for Rip Williams and 950 for Mike Kirby, last week’s winner at Ventura.

OFF-ROAD--Environmental concerns have eliminated all spectator viewing of the SCORE Gold Coast 300 and its Trophy-Truck class near Las Vegas except for the start-finish line, three miles south of the Jean exit off I-15, and the Sloan gravel pit adjacent to Las Vegas Boulevard. Pro and sportsman drivers will start Saturday from 6:30 a.m., with the trucks leaving at 2:15 p.m.

MISCELLANY--Rocky Moran Jr., 15, of Coto de Caza, son of the former Indy car driver of the same name, has won his second International Kart Federation Grand National championship at West Quincy, Mo. He won the junior sportsman class for ages 12-16, as he had done last year at Batavia, N.Y.

Margie Smith-Haas of Team San Diego scored her first victory in the American City Racing League last weekend in Vancouver, Canada, when Peter Zarcades of Team Los Angeles, who had finished first, was penalized for jumping the start and placed second. . . . The Southern California Timing Assn. will hold a speed meet Sunday at El Mirage Dry Lake.