Stewarts in Thick of Things as They Head Into Baja
Two members of the Stewart family, son Brian of Riverside and father Ivan of Alpine, are looking at today’s SCORE Baja 1,000 from different perspectives.
Brian, 30, will be trying to maintain his lead in the overall SCORE off-road standings against challengers Robert Nolin of Ramona and Ryan Thomas of La Mesa. Brian, who drives one of Walker Evans’ trucks in the full-size production pickup class, has 177 points to 175 for Nolin, in a 1,600cc VW desert buggy, and 173 for Thomas, in a 1,650cc desert car.
Ivan, 49, will be trying to catch Rob MacCachren of Las Vegas in the final championship race of the new Ford Tecate Trophy-Truck class. SCORE introduced trophy-truck this year after other entrants in Class 1 complained about having built-for-racing trucks in their category, which was originally designed for single-seat racing buggies.
The elder Stewart won the Baja 1,000 last year in a Class 1 Toyota truck, but trails MacCachren, 261-235, with only the Baja 1,000 remaining in this year’s seven-race season. MacCachren, driving a Jim Venable-prepared Ford pickup, needs only to finish ninth or better to clinch the championship. Stewart won the Baja 500, Fireworks 250 and San Felipe 250, but disappointing finishes in two other races dropped him behind MacCachren.
MacCachren, driving for the B.F. Goodrich Roughriders, won the last race, the Gold Coast 300, increasing his margin over Stewart, Larry Ragland of Phoenix and other trophy-truck drivers. He won the production truck class last year in the 1,000.
Next year, MacCachren will campaign with Venable in NASCAR’s new oval-track truck racing series. In two exhibition races, he won at Portland Speedway and finished second at Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway.
The 27th annual 1,000 will start this morning in Mexicali in front of the civic center and make a 625-mile loop down the Laguna Salada before returning to the border city next to Calexico.
One of Venable’s former drivers, Robby Gordon, will be a formidable challenger for MacCachren and Stewart in a new Ford built in the Gordon-Vessels Racing shop in Anaheim. Gordon, who races Indy cars for Derrick Walker, tested the truck extensively after the Laguna Seca finale for Indy cars.
In 1989, Gordon won the Baja 1,000 overall championship while driving solo in a truck when the race was one-way from Ensenada to La Paz.
Rod Hall of Reno, the only driver to have raced in all 26 previous Baja 1,000s, will be back in a Hummer, the converted U.S. Army vehicle used extensively in the Gulf War. Hall and his son, Chad, piloted Hummers to first- and second-place finishes in the full stock class last year.
The largest of the 223 entries is a diesel-powered, 9,000-pound Cummins Navistar truck-tractor that stands 8-feet 8-inches tall and is 16 feet long. It will start with 160 gallons of diesel fuel and try to run the distance without refueling. Off-road veteran Mike Lund of Corona, who has experience in all types of desert racing from buggies to four-wheel-drives, will do the driving.
Motor Racing Notes
DRAG RACING--Bill (Grumpy) Jenkins and his ’74 Chevy Vega pro stocker that made drag racing history two decades ago, will be featured this weekend at the third annual California Hot Rod Reunion at Bakersfield Raceway. The nostalgic event is expected to attract more than 200 cars from earlier eras. The Greer, Black & Prudhomme top-fuel dragster that launched Don Prudhomme’s career has been restored and will be on hand with its driver. Linda Vaughn, former Miss Hurst Golden Shifter, will be grand marshal.
Also being honored are members of the original National Hot Rod Assn. Safety Safari, which toured the country in the ‘50s, urging hot rodders to take drag racing off the streets and onto organized strips. . . . A new one-eighth mile strip will open Saturday at the San Bernardino International Airport, formerly Norton Air Force Base. Bracket racing will be open to all street stocks.
DRAG BOATS--Clinton Anderson, who nearly lost his life when his 4,000-horsepower boat, Fatal Attraction, flipped in practice for last year’s World Finals at Firebird Lake in Chandler, Ariz., will return to the same site this weekend with a second world championship likely. All Anderson, the 1992 champion, needs to do to replace Ron Braaksma in the No. 1 position is qualify for Sunday’s eliminations in the International Hot Boat Assn.’s Coors Light World Finals.
LAND SPEED--With Bonneville Speed Weeks having been washed out, Southern California Timing Assn. enthusiasts will get their final opportunity for speed runs in a two-day meet this weekend at El Mirage Dry Lake.
PAGE JONES--According to family and therapists, the 22-year-old driver who has been unconscious for more than seven weeks is showing steady improvement in his physical movements while undergoing rehabilitation at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood. Jones suffered head injuries in a sprint car accident Sept. 25 in Ohio and has not regained consciousness.
STOCK CARS--Mike Cofer, former San Francisco 49er kicker, was named rookie of the year in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour after finishing fifth overall. Cofer plans to drive in NASCAR’s SuperTruck series next year. . . . Street stocks will race Saturday night at Sunrise Valley Raceway in Adelanto. . . . Bill Tempero, with first- and second-place finishes in his Pontiac in two heats last Sunday at Willow Springs, won his second American IndyCar Series championship. . . . Mike Carver of El Cajon won the Tellus Industries series with a second-place finish last week in the Blythe 100.
