A Theme Continues With New IRL Chief

The year-old Indy Racing League, which next year will have all new cars and engines, along with a couple of new tracks, will also have new leadership.

Leo Mehl, longtime world-wide director of Goodyear’s racing program, has been named to succeed Jack Long as executive director of the IRL. Mehl retired last February after 37 years with the tire company, but was persuaded by Tony George, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and founder of the IRL, to return to racing.

“I’ve been retired about nine months now and my golf game hasn’t worked out, so I’m looking forward to going back to work,” Mehl said. “Last May was the first time I’d missed an Indy 500 since 1963, and I missed it.”

Long, who directed the IRL through its formative stages and its first year of operation, is planning to remain in racing as a consultant to Andy Evans, new owner of International Motor Sports Assn. Phil Casey, who was responsible for putting teams together to fill the fields for IRL races last season, will go with Long.

“Jack Long was the right person at the right time,” George said. “I will always be grateful to him and as he pursues his own racing interests, the IRL hopes to work with him in the future.

“We are fortunate to have Leo to carry the IRL to the next level. I have been talking with him for five years about joining us. He shares our vision.”

Mehl said he was drawn to the IRL because of its emphasis on oval racing and because several oval tracks are under construction or in the planning stage.

“I have wanted to be involved with Indy for a number of years, ever since I first came there in 1964 as a tire engineer and A.J. Foyt won the race on our tires,” Mehl said. “I have been disturbed in recent years by what seemed to me to be a de-emphasis on oval racing, which is the heart of Indy car racing.

“The other guys [Championship Auto Racing Teams] shifted away from ovals. I think Tony’s concept was absolutely right from the beginning. Racing has grown into a big-time sport, and with all the new tracks and the investments made in them, I feel confident that there will be plenty of room for both series.”

Starting Jan. 25 with the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., all cars in the IRL series will be either British-built G Forces or Italian-built Dallaras, powered by four-liter V-8 engines built by Oldsmobile or Nissan. Cars and engines used in 1996 or earlier will not be eligible.

Races on new tracks will be run June 7 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and June 29 at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colo. The Texas race will be at night.

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Racing in Southern California comes to a close for 1996 this weekend when the Midwestern-based Short Course Off-Road Drivers Assn. brings its Chevrolet Winter Series to Glen Helen Raceway Park, north of San Bernardino.

Bud Feldkamp and Brian Church, operators of Glen Helen, have laid out a mile-long mini-Baja course designed to keep the action in front of the crowd while still providing enough twists, turns and jumps to give competitors a feel of desert off-road racing.

As in most off-road events, trucks will be in the spotlight. Besides the big unlimited pickup class, featuring Las Vegas drivers Brian Collins, Glen Helen and SODA champion, and Dale White, Baja 1,000 winner, there will be races for mini-pickups, four-wheel drive and stock production vehicles, and a special ProTruck class for vehicles designed and built by off-road legend Ivan Stewart and Bill Savage.

Favorites include defending series champion Walker Evans and his paraplegic son, Evan, who recently drove a Chevrolet C1500 full-size pickup--specially equipped with hand controls--to victory in the SODA series.

Practice today will be followed by racing in a variety of desert classes at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Motor Racing Notes

HONORS--Jeremy McGrath of Murrieta was named American Motorcyclist Assn.’s rider of the year after winning 14 of 15 Supercross events. . . . Former Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt received Britain’s prestigious Gregor Grant Award in London, given for “major long-term contributions to the sport of motor racing.”

Marc Spiegel of Manhattan Beach is the fourth Southern Californian in six years to receive the James B. Chapman Award for outstanding public relations work in Indy car racing. Previous winners included Tom Blattler of Murrieta, Deke Houlgate of Redondo Beach and Hank Ives of Orange.

NECROLOGY--John Paul Brophy, longtime sports car and racing figure, died Nov. 15 in Scripps Hospital, La Jolla, after a short illness. Brophy, 65, won a Sports Car Club of America championship in 1962 and was a partner in Kastner-Brophy Racing, which had cars in the Indianapolis 500 and other major races. He was also a founder of the Fairbanks Ranch Country Club in Rancho Santa Fe, was president of the San Diego Century Club and a member of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Assn.

STOCK CARS--Car owner Rick Hendrick, indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on 13 counts of money laundering and single counts of conspiracy and mail fraud, will be in New York tonight with winning driver Terry Labonte to accept NASCAR’s $1.5-million Winston Cup championship bonus.

“The results of Hendrick Motorsports on the race track speak for themselves,” said Bill France Jr., head of the series sanctioning body. “Off the track, Rick has never asked for special consideration. He has never asked for a competitive advantage. He has consistently tried to promote the sport in every possible way. When it comes to motorsports, we wish we had more car owners like Mr. Hendrick.”