Gordon’s Future in Stock Cars

After five years of not quite living up to high expectations as an Indy car driver, Robby Gordon will shift his racing future to Winston Cup stock cars next season.

Gordon, 27, who came out of Orange as a teenage phenom in off-road racing in 1985, has signed a three-year contract to drive for Felix Sabates and Team SABCO. He will replace Kyle Petty, who earlier announced he was leaving Sabates after seven seasons.

“At this point in my career, I feel that it is a good move for me or I wouldn’t be doing it,” Gordon said. “I will definitely miss the Indy car circuit. The series has been good to me, and I have a lot of friends there.”

After driving in 1992 for Chip Ganassi and 1993 for A.J. Foyt, Gordon joined Derrick Walker’s team in 1994 and had his best year in 1995, winning at Phoenix and Detroit and being the fastest qualifier at four other races. This year, after finishing third in the opening race at Miami, Gordon finished in the top 10 only twice.

“I wish Robby all the best in his new venture,” Walker said. “We’ve had three good years together, and I’ve gotten to know him not only as a racer, but as a friend. I know if he commits himself to do something, he will succeed.”

Between Indy car races this year, Gordon has won everything he has entered in SCORE’s Trophy Truck desert series. Driving the Valvoline Ford F150 he built in his shop in Orange, Gordon won three races in a row, missed one because of the U.S. 500, then came back to win last month in Barstow and reclaim the series lead.

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A prayer vigil for Randy Evans, a speedway motorcycle racer from Anaheim who has been in a coma for a year after crashing in a race last Aug. 26, will be held Monday at 7 p.m.--on the anniversary of his accident--at the Integrated Health Services Center, 5017 East Chapman Ave., Orange.

Evans, 21, was riding in a first division race at Gene Woods’ Speedway USA in Victorville when he and another rider went down, Evans slamming head first into a retaining wall. He suffered traumatic brain injury. Pastor Jim Jack of Racing for Christ and Barbara Brundige, Evans’ mother, will conduct the vigil.

When he was 15 and a student at Anaheim Katella High, Evans won the national junior speedway championship.

Motor Racing Notes

SPRINT CARS--The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will be at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night and so will Rip Williams. After running in 87 consecutive SCRA main events--every one since it was organized--Williams missed last week to drive in a U.S. Auto Club Silver Crown race in Springfield, Ill. Then the race in Springfield was rained out. Former champion Ron Shuman, still without a victory this season, continues to lead the points race with 1,475 to 1,468 for Richard Griffin, 1,289 for Williams and 1,288 for Mike Kirby. . . . Winged sprint cars of NARC will race Friday and Saturday night at Kings Speedway in Hanford, Calif. The Gregg Matthews Memorial race, part of the Golden State Challenge series, is Saturday.

STOCK CARS--The NASCAR Winston West series returns to Bakersfield on Saturday night for the CarQuest Auto Parts 250 at Mesa Marin Raceway. Through the first 10 races of a 15-race season, Lance Hooper of Palmdale is the only driver with three wins. . . . Winston Racing Series sportsman, street and bombers will race Saturday night at Cajon Speedway. . . . Also Saturday night: Street stocks, Grand American modifieds, dwarf cars and mini stocks, at Kern County Raceway in Rosamond; and Figure 8s and IMCA sprint cars at Victorville Speedway, which for a week had been called Ascot Speedway.

DRAG BOATS--For the first time in 25 years, professional drag boat racing will return to Long Beach Marine Stadium on Sunday as part of the 64th International Sea Festival of Long Beach. Jim Bartoli, driving the world’s fastest blown alcohol hydro, will be competing in his Mission Possible, which ran a record 227.78 mph last month at Red Bluff, Calif. He will compete in an Alcohol Shootout with other boats from the International Hot Boat Assn. . A former stock car driver at Saugus Speedway, Bartoli switched to drag boats in 1992 and races on an IHBA schedule that includes an event at Puddingstone Lake in San Dimas on Oct. 5-6. There will also be races for blown-gas hydros on the drag strip, plus closed-course circle-boat races involving Formula One champ boats, six-liter hydroplanes and two-man crackerboxes.

MOTORCYCLES--With little more than a month before the U.S. Speedway Nationals at Costa Mesa on Sept. 28, competition is intensifying at the weekly Friday night programs on the Orange County Fairgrounds oval. Sidecars will also be in this week’s show.

MIDGETS--The USAC western regional regulars will be at Santa Maria Speedway on Saturday night.