Wells Set to Race in Australia, Long Beach

Cal Wells III and his Rancho Santa Margarita-based Arciero-Wells racing team are excited about the two upcoming CART events, the IndyCarnival in Queensland, Australia, April 6, and the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix April 13. His driver, Max Papis, will debut the new version of the Toyota powerplant, the RV8B, in the MCI Toyota; Hiro Matsushita will continue to run an RV8A in the Panasonic Duskin Toyota.

“We are certainly more prepared to race on the street circuits of Gold Coast and Long Beach than we were a year ago,” Wells said. “The RV8B has proven to be more reliable, and with the number of tests we have held since Miami, we are making substantial improvement in the overall performance. These two races will be key in the development of Toyota’s engine for street circuits.”

Papis, nicknamed “Mad Max,” is excited for other reasons too.

“The [Gold Coast] race track is going to suit us quite well because it is a street circuit,” he said. “I like street circuits because you can always push the car a little bit more, which is not always possible to do on an oval because the ovals are not as forgiving. . . . The street course is geared more toward racing drivers. I think I can get an extra couple of tenths on other people.”

Papis made 28 trips between Italy and the United States last year before settling into his new Newport Beach home. He is equally excited about Long Beach because of the race’s proximity to Precision Preparation, Inc. (Rancho Santa Margarita) and Toyota Racing Development (Costa Mesa).

“For certain, there will be great expectations of us, but we are going through a development program, and my goal is to take the car to the end of the race and achieve a good result,” Papis said. “Finishing, and finishing in the top 10, would be great. . . . But you have to go into every race expecting to win. Anything can happen.”

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Papis and All American Racers’ driver P.J. Jones were the racing celebrities who inaugurated the Windjammer Rollercoaster, described as the nation’s first major outdoor dual-track steel racing coaster, Wednesday at Knott’s Berry Farm. Jones, Papis and their respective crews raced. Jones’ coaster won, but just barely.

“When you pull the Gs in the loop, I have experienced that a couple of times in my racing car,” Papis said. “Going upside down--it’s very similar.”

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Juan Manuel Fangio II, Jones’ teammate at All American Racers, will compete on the 2.794-mile temporary course in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia, for the second time. Fangio started 23rd last year and finished 15th in his Toyota Eagle.

He won twice driving in the Touring Car Series.

Jones is making his Indy car debut in Australia, but raced midgets there in the early 1990s.

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Bryan Herta seeks his first CART victory in a homecoming of sorts at Long Beach. Herta attended UC Irvine three years. He closed the 1996 season with seven consecutive top-six finishes for Team Rahal. Bobby Rahal has finished second at Long Beach four times.

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Kaditcha Racing Ltd., which raced a limited schedule last year, announced it will run a full schedule in the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship race series beginning with the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Long Beach, the second event of the series, will be the team’s first race of the season. Driver Ian Bland, who works as an assembly technician for San Clemente’s Swift Engineering, was unable to participate in the Grand Prix of Miami because of the car construction schedule at Swift. Michael Andretti won the CART race with the Swift chassis, the first American-built chassis to win such a race since 1983.

Bland, 42, lives in Torrance with his wife, Jan, and two children, including a son born March 24. They plan to move to Costa Mesa in about three months.

Bland, an Australian citizen, is part of Kaditcha’s “Indy 2000” concept: to have Bland race in the Indianapolis 500 in 2000, coinciding with the arrival of the Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Bland won the 1982 Australian Formula 3 rookie of the year title and 1984 Formula 2 title.

The other driver, David Karlson of Claremont, is a defense attorney in Rancho Cucamonga.

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Speedway opens its 1997 season April 12 at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Gates open at 6:30 p.m., and racing begins at 7:30 p.m.

Notes

Irvine-based Kia, for the first time, has entered its Sportage sport-utility vehicle in the SCORE Desert Championship Series. Long Beach’s Darren Skilton will drive the car, which will compete in Class 3 (short wheelbase four-wheel drive sport utility vehicles). It’s not Sportage’s first race effort. It completed the 6,000-mile Paris-Dakar Rally in 1993, and the same car won the 1995 Baja 1000--making it the first vehicle--the exact same vehicle--to successfully complete both races. . . . Toyota announced that Ivan “Ironman” Stewart will soon get a V8 for his MCI Toyota off-road racing truck, which is fielded by Cal Wells’ Precision Preparation team. He will compete in the Baja 500 and 1000, with a special emphasis on winning the 30th Baja 1000, Nov. 14-15.

San Clemente-based Bullet Racing team owner Taylor Fletcher named Olive Crest Homes and Services for Abused Children, and the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, as the beneficiaries of its children’s charities promotion. The charities receive up to 50% of the sponsoring donor’s contribution. Bullet Racing competes in the Formula Mazda Pro Series.