MOTOR RACING / BRYAN RODGERS : Valencia’s Herta Hits Bumps on Indy Road

Our neighbor to the north hasn’t been neighborly to Indy car driver Bryan Herta.

Herta has been to Toronto twice and has yet to complete a lap in Indy competition.

The Valencia driver’s rookie campaign ended after only five races last year when he crashed and suffered a broken leg during time trials.

And Herta’s most-recent trip across the border wasn’t much better. Herta was involved in a crash with Eddie Cheever and Stefan Johansson coming out of Turn 3 that resulted in a broken front suspension.

Cheever went on to finish 11th and Johansson took 14th, but Herta was forced to bow out of the race.

“It’s been frustrating finding the right combo,” Herta said. “We’ve worked well as a team but it’s been one thing after another this season.”

June was a difficult month for the 25-year-old driver.

He bailed out early in two races because of mechanical problems and Michael Andretti knocked him out of the Portland race.

Herta wasn’t too pleased about the latter incident.

“Personally, I think Andretti’s move was an overly aggressive one. Unfortunately I came out on the short end of it,” he said.

Despite the recent rash of bad luck, Herta has had moments this season. He qualified for the Indy 500 in the 33rd position and finished 13th. Herta considers that a steppingstone.

“The Indy finish is a highlight of my career and if I had finished 2/10ths of a second earlier in Portland I would have started in the front row.

“The level of competition in Indy cars has gone up in recent years and there are many teams doing well,” Herta said. “I believe that in time, Jimmy Vasser and I will be one those teams that’s doing well.”

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When Butch Gilliand took the checkered flag in the Winston West 200 at Saugus Speedway last Saturday, he ended a lengthy drought.

The Anaheim driver, who joined the tour in 1987, had not won a feature race in 65 attempts.

But for this particular event Gilliand clearly was the class of the field. After leading from Lap 33 to Lap 100 he regained his pace-setter position on Lap 158 and held on the rest of the way.

“Butch Miller won the SuperTruck race and my wife said it was a good day to be named Butch,” Gilliand said.

“She was right.”

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Palmdale’s Ron Hornaday Jr. won the SuperTruck pole position at Dacono, Colo., and ended Mike Skinner’s run of eight consecutive poles.

Skinner, who is the SuperTruck’s points leader, didn’t do a test run on the 3/8-mile asphalt oval and it showed as the North Carolina driver finished eighth in qualifying.

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Billy Boat of Phoenix became a part of United States Auto Club history Saturday night at Ventura Raceway, winning the 30-lap Western States Midget main event for his seventh consecutive USAC victory, tying a record held by A.J. Foyt and the late Billy Vukovich III.

Foyt won seven consecutive Indy car races in 1964, including his second of four Indianapolis 500 victories, and Vukovich won seven consecutive Supermodified races in 1986.

Boat didn’t feel any additional pressure preceding the race, however, because he had no idea he was on the verge of joining some really fast company.

“I actually wasn’t even aware of the record until I arrived here today, so it was kind of a surprise,” Boat said Saturday.

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One driver in Saturday’s race who knew about Boat’s shot at the USAC consecutive-victory record was veteran driver Wally Pankratz of Orange, who finished 11th in the 30-lap feature.

Pankratz kept Vukovich from breaking Foyt’s mark in 1986 with a victory in a Supermodified race in Madera, Calif. Pankratz was hoping to play spoiler again but a spinout on the 13th lap at Ventura ended his chances.

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Super Late Model driver Nick Joanides, who suffered third-degree burns on his hands in an accident at Mesa Marin Speedway in Bakersfield, had surgery Friday at the Sherman Oaks Burn Center.

Joanides was involved in a collision with four other drivers Saturday night. He was briefly trapped in his car and pulled out by safety crews at the track.

His car exploded only seconds after he was removed.

“In a sense I’m pretty lucky that my injuries aren’t worse,” Joanides said. “If I’d been in the car much longer I’d be gone.”

Doctors have said Joanides should regain full use of his hands in about a year. He is scheduled to undergo three more surgeries.

* Contributing: Darin Esper.