Paralysis Hasn’t Slowed Leader

With the end of the Mickey Thompson stadium off-road races, and the downsizing of local desert racing, a number of Southern California’s finest drivers have turned to the SODA off-road series in Wisconsin and Michigan.

It is the closest thing to the old Riverside Raceway off-road races, so perhaps it’s fitting that a driver from Riverside is the hottest thing on the SODA circuit this year.

Evan Evans, paraplegic son of legendary Riverside desert racer Walker Evans, has won two of three races in his yellow two-wheel-drive C-1500 full-size Chevrolet truck that he has outfitted with special hand controls.

“I finally feel a sense of accomplishment,” Evans said from his team’s headquarters in Crandon, Wis. “I always tell people that even when they think they’re having a bad day, just never give up.”

Evans, 31, was involved in a non-racing motorcycle accident in 1989 that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

After Evans failed to find sponsorship money to run in desert races, his father suggested he try the SODA series, which has a strong TV schedule on ESPN and ESPN2.

“Everything has worked out perfect, my sponsors--Barbary Coast, Justice Brothers and American Racing Wheels--are happy with the television exposure, and Chevrolet has come aboard to help,” Evans said. “The only downer in the whole thing is having to live back here all summer.

“I’m a Southern California boy at heart and always will be. I’m homesick and can’t wait for that final race.”

The final race is Dec. 6-8 at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

“Glen Helen is like old Riverside. I watched my dad race for years out there, and it was always something I wanted to do. The desert was too tough to find sponsors, too tough on the equipment and too tough on me.

“The SODA series is short-course racing, a 15-minute sprint where you race as hard as you can. I like it because the cameras are always on you, and the crowd is right on top of the action. I guess I’m a kind of showoff driver. That’s why I want to get back home and show off my truck in front of all my friends from Riverside.”

Evans won his opening race on Memorial Day weekend at Lake Geneva, Wis., and his second last week at Lake Odessa, Mich. He was second in the other one. This weekend he will be back at Lake Geneva for the fourth round of the eight-race series.

Last week’s race will be televised on ESPN2 on Sunday and July 11, and again on ESPN July 28 and 30.

“We had an in-car camera that will show everyone just how busy I am at the hand controls during a race,” Evans said. “I’ve been perfecting these hand controls for a few years now, and the new brake system we’ve come up with has really made a difference.”

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Desert off-road racers will compete Saturday in the SCORE Fireworks 250 on a course laid out in the Stoddard Valley area near Barstow. Indy car driver Robby Gordon, winner of three of four SCORE races this season, heads the Trophy Truck field in his Valvoline Ford F150. The only race he did not win was when he did not race because of an Indy car conflict. The Trophy Trucks will start their 186-mile race at 5:45 a.m., with the other classes starting at 9 and running a longer, 248-mile, course.

Motor Racing Notes

POWERBOATS--The California Outlaw Boat Racing Assn. will hold its annual Fourth of July Regatta at the Long Beach Marine Stadium today. Featured will be 135 mph Formula One boats in a series of sprint races, and flatbottom Crackerbox boats, the oldest class in competition. John Lane, 22, of Lakewood, will be favored in Formula One, while perennial champions Kort Neals of Orange and Steve Tustison of Huntington Beach will battle it out in the Crackerboxes. The first heat is at 10 a.m. with a full schedule of closed-course racing planned.

SPRINT CARS--The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will race tonight at Perris Auto Speedway and Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale. . . . The Vintage Auto Racing Assn. will hold a night enduro Saturday and Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway. . . . The California Sports Car Club will hold SCCA national championship races Saturday at Buttonwillow Raceway Park.

STOCK CARS--Winston Racing Series sportsman, Grand American modified, bombers and pony stocks will be followed by a train race Saturday night at Cajon Speedway. . . . Pro stocks return to Blythe Speedway on Saturday night.

MOTORCYCLES--No racing at Costa Mesa Speedway on Friday night so the speedway regulars will race Saturday night at Paso Robles. . . . Speedway USA, in Victorville, will hold its annual Firecracker Derby tonight with speedway and sidecar racing, then close until July 20.

MISCELLANY--U.S. Auto Club three-quarter midgets, IMCA sprint cars and dwarf cars will share the spotlight tonight at Ventura Raceway. . . . The new track being built by Harry Schooler and Gene Woods on the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville has been named Ascot Speedway. It will open Aug. 17 with International Motor Contest Assn. sprint cars.

NECROLOGY--Hal Robson, 85, who drove in three Indianapolis 500s in the 1940s, died Tuesday at his home in Bullhead City, Ariz. Robson’s brother, George, won the 500 in 1946, but was killed in September of that year. The brothers operated a tool and die shop in Maywood for many years. . . . Leslie Lovett, longtime photo editor of the National Hot Rod Assn. and National Dragster, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. Lovett, 52, was on a fishing trip off the coast of Mexico.