Jones: There’s Place for IRL and CART

Parnelli Jones, now an elder statesman of motor racing, is in a unique position to analyze the ongoing conflict between CART and the Indy Racing League over the future of Indy car racing.

As the winner of the 1963 Indianapolis 500, a competitor in six other 500s and owner of the winning car there in 1970 and 1971, he has a vested interest in the future of Indianapolis Motor Speedway

and its Memorial Day weekend race.

As the father of P.J. Jones, a CART driver, he has a paternal interest in the future of the open-wheel, open-cockpit series once known as IndyCar, which races at 17 tracks, including next week’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach--but not at Indianapolis.

“I think a lot of people in racing think there’s no room for both, but I think they’re looking at it short-term,” Parnelli said. “Looking at the big picture, on down the road, I think there’s plenty of room for both CART and the IRL.

“The best thing would be for people on both sides to quit bitching and be more positive. Right now, it’s heartbreaking to see the two sides tearing each other apart, but if you stop and think about it, with all the new tracks being built--good, big tracks--there’ll be a need for two open-wheel series.”

The new tracks:

--Texas World Speedway, a 1.5-mile banked oval, will open Sunday in Fort Worth with the Interstate Batteries 500, a NASCAR Winston Cup race. The IRL will hold Indy car racing’s first night race there June 7. With seating for 150,061, it is the second largest sports facility in the country, after Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

--California Raceway, a two-mile banked oval, will open June 21 in Fontana with a weekend featuring Winston Cup and International Race of Champions cars. CART will race at Roger Penske’s 71,000-seat facility on Sept. 28 in the Marlboro 500.

--Pikes Peak International Raceway, a one-mile tri-oval with 42,000 seats, will open June 8 in Fountain, Colo., south of Colorado Springs, with a U.S. Auto Club event featuring Silver Crown, midget and super-modified cars. The IRL will race there June 29, and NASCAR will run a Winston West race July 27.

Las Vegas International Speedway, Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla., and the Metro-Dade Motorsports Complex in Homestead, Fla., are in only their second year.

“Right now, CART and the IRL don’t run at the same tracks, but one of these days I’m sure they will,” Jones said. “It would be good business.

“The IRL is going to be successful. They’re adding more races, and by doing that they’ll get more teams. It’s easy to criticize them now, but [IRL founder] Tony George is digging from the bottom with a whole new clean sheet of paper. Once it gets going, I think it’ll be good for Indy and good for racing.

“I think Tony’s philosophy is to pattern his series after the way the Frances run NASCAR. It’s the most successful racing series in the world and it’s a dictatorship. I think he’s right. If you try to let racers run their own organization, all you have is a bunch of guys looking out for themselves.”

CART, which holds its second race of the season Sunday (Saturday night, Pacific time) in Surfers Paradise, Australia, appears to be headed more in an international direction. Jones sees that as a positive sign.

“The way they’re going, with four races out of the country this year and another one coming up in Japan next year, CART has a great opportunity to expand worldwide,” he said. “All of their guys, from a driver’s standpoint, want to run the Indy 500, but the way the rules are structured now, the only way to do it is run cars in both series and that’s not practical.

“From an Indy car standpoint, and I mean CART as well as the IRL, I hate to see all those young American drivers like Jeff Gordon, Mike Bliss, Kenny Irwin and Robby Gordon, guys who were trained to race Indy cars, switch over to NASCAR. It’s just a shame to lose American drivers to another American series while foreign drivers keep coming over here and get Indy car rides--and that’s true in both series.”

CART’s 28-car entry in Australia includes 19 foreign drivers. Of the 22 IRL drivers at Phoenix, eight were foreign born.

NASCAR

For the third time this season, a Winston Cup rules change will be in effect Sunday when cars line up for the opener at Texas Motor Speedway. This time the Fords must slice another quarter-inch off their rear spoiler--the aerodynamic device that helps create down force, especially in the corners. The rule presumably will help equalize the Fords and the GM Chevys and Pontiacs. In five races, Ford driver Dale Jarrett has led 1,076 of 2,099 laps. The top Chevy driver, Jeff Gordon, has led only 214 laps, but the Ford camp points out that Gordon won two of the five races.

Bobby Hamilton and Ken Schrader became the first Winston Cup drivers to test at California Speedway when Goodyear held a four-day test to study tire compounds. Hamilton, driving Richard Petty’s Pontiac, averaged 179 mph for 135 laps. Schrader reached 177 in 42 laps in a Winston West Chevrolet. Also testing were IROC cars driven by Dave Marcis and Jim Sauter. A full test is scheduled May 5-7 after the Save Mart Supermarkets 500 on May 4 at Sears Point.

NHRA

The Winston Invitational, the richest race on the National Hot Rod Assn. schedule, doesn’t pay season points, but it is the one most drivers would like to win because it pays $100,000 to top fuel and funny car winners and $50,000 to the pro stock survivor. The event, drag racing’s version of an all-star game, is this weekend at Rockingham, N.C. The funny car race will have special significance for defending champion John Force, who will try to win his first race in a Ford Mustang after leaving Pontiac two races ago.

Said Force: “I believe God makes the calls long before they’re made. I think things happen for a reason. I’m not trying to get biblical on you here, or get religion. The Lord will shoot a lightning bolt through my roof for lying, but it really is the truth. You know, the first drag car I drove was a Ford, a chain-driven Mach 1 Mustang. They outlawed me at Orange County Raceway because it was chain driven. The chain was on the outside, instead of a drive shaft. But it was a Mustang. So, you can say I’m going back to my roots.”

Ron Capps, Don Prudhomme’s new funny car driver, likens the Invitational to golf’s Skins Game because it’s all about money, not points. “Actually, racing is like golf,” Capps said. “If you have a bad day or a bad swing, you just have to play through it. That’s what we’re doing.”

IRL

Winston Cup driver Robby Gordon became the first driver entered in the Indianapolis 500 when Felix Sabates, owner of Team Sabco, entered a pair of G Force chassis powered by Olds Aurora engines for the May 25 race. Gordon, who switched from CART to NASCAR this season, has driven in three 500s and led two of them. The Speedway opens May 3 with three days of rookie orientation. Pole qualifying is May 10.

LAST LAPS

Perris Auto Speedway will host a rare Wednesday night midget racing program next week as part of USAC’s “ESPN2 Thunder” series. Jimmy Sills, USAC Silver Crown champion, will compete and then head for Long Beach, where he will drive in the Toyota Celebrity race on Saturday. . . . James John Hurley of Visalia will receive the Jeff Krosnoff Scholarship during Wednesday night’s Toyota Grand Prix Charity Ball. Hurley plans to use the $10,000 award to attend Georgetown. . . . The Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Assn. will open its season Sunday at Firebird Lake in Chandler, Ariz., with defending champion Dave Villwock making his debut with Miss Budweiser.

The GoodGuys will hold their eighth Spring Nationals for more than 1,000 hod rods and custom cars Saturday and Sunday at the Pomona Fairplex. . . . The sixth Old Timers Reunion of the California Jalopy Assn. will be Sunday at 10 a.m. at Victorville Speedway. Featured will be cars from Walt James’ Western Racing Assn. . . . The American Historic Racing Motorcycle Assn. will hold a dirt-track race featuring old-timers Keith Mashburn, Dallas Baker, Gary Scott and John Hateley on Sunday at Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster.