With Rest of Season Salted Away, Only Big Event Remains

The personal watercraft season is over. There are no more series championships to be won. All that’s left is the big event.

The Salton Sea 300--raced on water so salty and for such a long period of time it’s too risky to run during the season--takes place Saturday.

Mike Follmer of Fountain Valley will compete in the event, being held for only the second time.

Follmer is no stranger to racing. He turned 41 last month on the day he took seventh place in San Felipe, Mexico, for Team Circuit Jet Sports of Huntington Beach. He finished third overall in the Open Expert class of the B.P. Offshore Championship series.

When he takes on the 15-lap, 20-mile course, he will be riding with Huntington Beach’s Greg Beaver, owner of Circuit Jet Sports. Beaver will begin the race, and if all goes well, Follmer will finish. Each rider on a team must complete at least 30% of the race.

Follmer began racing motocross in his teens, cars in his 20s and personal watercraft in his late 30s.

His uncle, George Follmer, was one of the most versatile drivers in the world in the early 1970s; he raced NASCAR, Indy cars and Formula 1, among others. Mike Follmer, the kid who hung around and polished the car, got his indoctrination as a gofer for his uncle.

“My first love is behind the wheel, but you have to deal with reality,” Mike Follmer said. “I’ve been very fortunate to have a business that’s very lucrative that has me involved in all forms of racing--from airplanes to boats to drag cars.”

The business that helps Follmer maintain his competitive nature and make a decent living is lapel pins. If there’s a cloisonne pin from a souvenir stand or is handed out as a freebie at a racing event, it was probably created, designed and originally sold by Follmer through Mike Follmer Specialties.

He holds exclusive licensing rights to pins representing Alain Prost, Jacques Villanueve and the late Aryton Senna, and has represented Bobby Rahal, Nigel Mansell and others.

The pins, made in China, represent races, series, drivers, companies and manufacturers.

“That’s why it’s so nice, it enables me to expense my travel to an event where I may be competing as a rider and still be selling my product,” Follmer said. “I’m doing business and pleasure at the same place, which a lot of people can’t say they do.”

Follmer began racing personal watercraft two years ago, five years after he stopped racing Formula Super Vee, which is a step away from Indy Lights, which is a step away from Indy cars.

“If you’re not born with a silver spoon in your mouth,” Follmer said, “you’re not going to be in that ballgame.”

And so, after he discovered riding jet skis was fun, Follmer began racing them. It has enabled him to maintain a competitive aspect in a life that pumps racing blood.

Among 172 riders in 1996 who competed in the B.P. Offshore Championship Series, Follmer took 20th in total laps completed. In long-course races, Follmer took fifth in the Expert 785 (competing in only three of eight races) and second in the Expert Open (one position ahead of Beaver).

But the race this weekend is unlike anything Follmer has done before. The Salton Sea 300 team endurance race is the longest personal watercraft race in the world. Follmer and Beaver will ride a Kawasaki 1,100. Riders have seven hours to complete the 300-mile race.

The race has its risks.

“The salt content is so high in the Salton Sea, probably 30 to 40% higher than the ocean, and I don’t know what to expect out of the boat in that kind of salt content,” Follmer said. “That’s why no one does much up there, because [the water] stings your eyes and eats everything up if you don’t clean up right away. The salt is just brutal.”

But victory would be sweet.

pichar

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Craig Ferguson, who is more accustomed to skimming across water at 115 m.p.h., will be Grand Marshal Saturday and Sunday in the Huntington Harbour Boat Parade.

Ferguson, who won the 1996 North America Offshore Power Boat Racing National Championship modified class and drove the boat for 1995 and 1996 Catalina Water-Ski race winner Mathew Gibbens, was selected because of his nine-year record as volunteer in key positions, including parade lieutenant, night captain and parade captain. The parade kicks off the Huntington Harbour Philharmonic’s 34th annual Cruise of Lights Dec. 13-22.

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Simpson World West, a motorsports-themed apparel store that bills itself “part retail, part museum,” and caters to racing fans, has opened in Torrance (22632 South Normandie Ave.) The only shop of its kind on the West Coast, it contains memorabilia ranging from Dale Earnhardt’s Winston Cup car to historic driving suits of past champions to helmets of today’s drivers.

It is the second Simpson World store; the first opened in Mooresville, N.C., near Charlotte. For more information, call (310) 320-7231.

Notes

Precision Preparation, Inc., based in Rancho Santa Margarita, is likely to announce this week two drivers who will make up its Toyota Atlantic Series team. . . . PPI’s racing team, Arciero-Wells Racing, and Toyota are upset at Fox Television for airing footage of Jeff Krosnoff’s fatal crash on its “When Disaster Strikes” television show. According to IndyCar, it holds the copyright to the footage--which also appeared in the commercials for the program--and was used without permission. Toyota, IndyCar and PPI also denounced airing the footage because it was insensitive to Krosnoff’s family. . . . Santa Ana based All American Racers, Inc., announced it will start the 1997 IndyCar season with a Reynard chassis. That decision, made jointly by AAR and Toyota, gives Dan Gurney’s AAR team more time to develop its new Eagle MK-V1 chassis. . . . Jack Long, who has developed and managed a number of events, including the Long Beach Grand Prix, was the first appointment to the newly formed International Motor Sports Assn., board of directors. . . . The Chevrolet Off-Road Winter Series takes place Saturday and Sunday at Glen Helen Raceway Park in San Bernardino. It features Unlimited Trucks, Class 4, 7S and 8 trucks, ProTrucks, Super 1600 buggies, Class 1 and 2 Custom Racers. Racing begins at 10 a.m. both days. Call (909) 880-3090 for more information. . . . The 1996 AMA Ladies World Cup Motorcross Championship is Dec. 28-30 at Glen Helen Raceway. For entry information for Pee Wee, Mini, Beginner, Novice, Intermediate, 125cc Pro, and Vet Pro classes, contact Debbie Matthews at (714) 837-3374.

The Orange County Motor Sports notebook runs monthly. Henderson can be reached at (714) 966-5904.