Support Races Add Excitement to Grand Prix

Indy cars have been the main event of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach ever since Chris Pook switched from Formula One in 1984 to the American version of open-wheel, open-cockpit racing, but often some of the most exciting racing of the weekend comes from support races.

This year’s lineup, which includes a Toyota pro-celebrity race and a Player’s Atlantic championship race Saturday and a Firestone Indy Lights and Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am on Sunday, is one of the strongest to appear on the 1.59-mile street course between Ocean Boulevard and Shoreline Village.

Indy Lights drivers are being groomed to move up to the PPG Indy Car World Series, and their graduates include Paul Tracy, Bryan Herta, Eddie Lawson and Greg Moore, all of whom will be in Sunday’s 105-lap main event.

“Everyone in IndyCar knows that the guys who go fast in an Indy Lights car are going to go fast in an Indy car,” said Herta, the 1993 Lights champion who now drives for Team Rahal. “The profile of the series allows for a young driver to come through the lower formula strictly on ability.”

All Indy Lights drivers compete in Lola-Buick cars. They will race 47 laps at 10:30 a.m. Sunday as a preliminary to the Grand Prix.

Canadian David Empringham is favored to succeed Moore, his fellow countryman, in the Indy Lights series. Empringham, who took over the ride in Jerry Forsythe’s car after Moore moved up, won the season opener at Homestead, Fla. Claude Bourbonnais, another Canadian and Empringham’s teammate, is expected back after missing the Homestead race because of a concussion suffered in an accident during practice.

Team owner Mark Weida of San Clemente will extend a Cal Ripken-style record. Weida’s Leading Edge Motorsports team will make its 120th consecutive Indy Lights start, dating back to the first race in the series. Rodolfo Lavin Jr. of Mexico and Zeca Giaffone of Brazil will drive for Weida, whose team has produced three series champions--Fabrizio Barbazza in 1986, Mike Groff in 1989 and Robbie Buhl in 1992.

The Trans-Am race, which will close the weekend’s program after the Grand Prix, will be a classic Ford vs. Chevrolet confrontation, matching series leader Ron Fellows in a Camaro against hometown favorite and defending series champion Tom Kendall in a Mustang Cobra.

Fellows, series runner-up the last three years, won the opening race at St. Petersburg, Fla., where Kendall finished 16th. Even though Kendall won at Homestead, he still trails Fellows in points, 61-45.

“It’s great to be back racing Long Beach in front of all my family and friends,” said Kendall, a UCLA graduate who has not raced on the seaside beach course for six years. “It’s hard not to think about the hole we’re in, but winning at Homestead helped.”

Fellows won the last Trans-Am at Long Beach in 1993, but he was in a Ford that year.

Scott Sharp, a two-time Trans-Am champion who has been driving for A. J. Foyt in the Indy Racing League, will also be in a Camaro. He won in 1991 and 1993.

David Pook, son of the Long Beach Grand Prix president and founder, is among the entries for the Formula Atlantic race. Favorites include Patrick Carpentier of Canada and Jeret Schroeder, last year’s Formula Ford champion.

A mix of professional racers, celebrities and TV personalities will race 10 laps in the 20th anniversary of the pro-celebrity event. Toyota will donate $3,000 on behalf of each participant to “Racing for Kids,” a national fund-raising program for children’s hospitals.

Wayne Rainey, three-time world Grand Prix motorcycle champion who is paralyzed from the chest down from a racing accident three years ago, will compete in a car with hand controls. It will be his first race since the injury.

Among the celebrities driving identically prepared Toyota Celica GTs are Alfonso Ribeiro of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Jason Bateman of “Simon,” Perry King of “Melrose Place” and Robert Hays of the movie “Homeward Bound II.”

Motor Racing Notes

INDY CARS--Veteran Teo Fabi will replace the injured Mark Blundell in the PacWest Reynard-Ford at Long Beach. . . . CART teams owned by Rick Galles and Derrick Walker have indicated plans to run cars at both the IRL race at Indianapolis and the U.S. 500 at Michigan on May 26. Davy Jones will drive for Galles at Indy, rookie Eddie Lawson at Michigan; Mike Groff will be Walker’s driver at Indy and Robby Gordon will drive the CART race. . . . Michel Jourdain Jr., 19, has replaced Carlos Guerrero as driver for the Herdez Lola-Cosworth car.

SPRINT CARS--The Sprint Car Racing Assn. returns to Perris Auto Speedway again Saturday night. The SCRA played to a sold-out house of 10,000 for the track’s opening two weeks ago. PAS is two miles south of March Air Base in Riverside County.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--National champion Greg Hancock will make a quick trip from England, where he rides in the British Speedway League, to ride in the season opener Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

STOCK CARS--Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield will host a Featherlite Southwest Tour race for late-model stock cars Saturday night. Perris Auto Speedway will hold its first races for IMCA modifieds, mini-stocks and limited street stocks Sunday. First race is 5 p.m.

MIDGETS--U.S. Auto Club western regional drivers will race in an ESPN show Saturday night at Ventura Raceway.

HONORS--Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford headed six inductees into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Ala. Others are John Surtees, Richie Evans, Bobby Isaac, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche and Donald Healey. They will be inducted in ceremonies April 25.