Special Winner Returns to Special Race

By SHAV GLICK

Nov. 6, 1998 12 AM PT

The Baja 1000, an annual Mexican off-road odyssey down the Baja peninsula, has always been one of the world’s most challenging endurance adventures, but when it ends in La Paz, it takes on added interest.

Next week, for the first time since 1995 and the 14th time in 31 years, the 1,062-mile race will end at the sleepy fishing village on the Sea of Cortez. However, the race will start for the first time Thursday morning at Santo Tomas, on the Pacific Ocean side in the northwestern part of the peninsula.

Larry Ragland, who drives a Chevrolet C1500 pickup for the White Lightning team in the featured Trophy-Truck division, will be going for his fourth consecutive overall win.

“To win the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 overall once is a career milestone. To win it three years in a row is almost beyond comprehension,” said the Phoenix veteran. “In nearly 20 years of challenging Baja, I had won only once [a class victory in 1991] before the last three incredible years. It’s really too much to even think about winning four straight.”

The competition includes Toyota Trophy Truck drivers Ivan Stewart, a two-time overall winner who earned the nickname “Ironman” by driving solo in the 1000, and CART champ car driver Robby Gordon, the 1989 overall winner who was second to Ragland last year.

Stewart may be driving solo, but during the race, his Precision Preparation Inc. team will support him with 120 crew members, two airplanes, two tractor-trailers, a helicopter and 16 support vehicles.

“By the time next Thursday comes, I will have made four complete trips down to the tip of Baja pre-running the course,” said Stewart, who drew the No. 1 starting position.

Gordon will have Greg Till with him in the Toyota cab.

“The benefit of having a co-rider is it takes one-third the time to change a tire, and we work as a team recalling different aspects of the course.” said Gordon, whose racing plans for 1999 are still on hold.

“The Baja 1000 is such a long race, it’s also nice to have someone with you to keep you focused and awake. We expect to take about 16 hours if everything goes well. Whenever I think we’re going to hit something hard, I tell Greg to hang on. He always says that he’s been hanging on since the start.”

Veteran Indy car driver Mike Groff will make his off-road racing debut in an open-wheel SCORE Lites car with experienced Baja racer Ted Smith and Marty Fiolka.

Also entered are Rod Hall, 59, who has 15 class victories while racing in all 30 previous 1000s; Larry Roeseler, an 11-time class winner (10 on motorcycles), driving a Team MacPherson Chevrolet S-10; and Bob Gordon, Robby’s father, who will co-drive with Frank Arciero Jr. in a Toyota-powered mid-engine Chenowith desert race car.

“I feel kind of like John Glenn, getting back in the heat of things with all these youngsters,” said Hall, who will drive an AM Hummer he built in his Reno shop.

NASCAR

With Jeff Gordon having clinched the Winston Cup championship before Sunday’s final race in Atlanta, NASCAR interest is focused on Las Vegas and three Sam’s Town races this weekend.

Ron Hornaday and Jack Sprague will battle over 250 miles for the Craftsman Truck championship Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and the Winston West and Featherlite Southwest Tour crowns will be decided Saturday night on the same 1.5-mile oval.

After 26 races, Hornaday, the 1996 champion, holds a 13-point lead over Sprague, the defending champion. They have swapped the lead 11 times since Hornaday won the opening race and Sprague finished second.

“It ought to be one dandy race because neither of us can just ride around,” said Sprague, who won last year’s title by finishing second to Joe Ruttman at Las Vegas. “Ron knows what he’s up against and I know what I’m up against. We can’t do anything else but win and hope Ron can’t run second.”

That’s the scenario. If Hornaday wins or runs second, he becomes the first Craftsman Truck repeat champion. If neither wins, Sprague needs to finish five positions ahead of Hornaday.

“The Lord keeps you humble,” Hornaday said. “When you start counting your chickens before they hatch, he kind of knocks you down with a broken axle or a brake line coming loose.”

Both drive Chevrolet pickups, Hornaday for Teresa Earnhardt and Sprague for Hendrick Motorsports, the same team Gordon drives for.

Also entered are Hershel McGriff, who will turn 71 in December, and former motocross champion Jeff Ward, who has been driving in IRL open-wheel races.

In Winston West, Kevin Harvick of Bakersfield needs only to finish 13th or better in the Sam’s Town 125 to become champion. Sean Woodside of Saugus is the only threat to Harvick in the 14-race series.

The Southwest Tour final will come down to a 90-mile shootout with 1994 champion Steve Portenega, defending champion Bryan Germone, M.K. Kanke and John Metcalf in contention. Portenega, winner of the Los Angeles Street Race, can win by finishing fifth or better.

Harvick plans to run all three races.

TESTING TIME

The first racing wheels turned on the new half-mile paved oval at Irwindale Speedway last week when Wally Pankratz in a midget, Woodside in a Winston West stock car and Butch Gilliland in a Craftsman Truck made test runs. The drivers were checking for smoothness and banking transitions. Two more coats will be laid before the track opening March 27.

Ironically, Gilliland, the first driver to test the track, won the last race held at Saugus Speedway, where Irwindale General Manager Ray Wilkings was GM at the time.

NOT-SO-FUNNY CAR

Said Cruz Pedregon, after driving his Pontiac funny car to victory in the Matco Supernationals last Monday in Houston:

“We came back from the dead. We’ve even nicknamed our car Frankenstein because of the way it’s bolted together. It looks like Frankenstein’s neck. She’s a wounded Firebird, but she can still fly.”

Pedregon will be at Pomona Raceway next week for the 34th annual Winston Finals, last event of the NHRA season.

LAST LAPS

A memorial fund auction for John Myers, a six-time world motorcycle drag racing champion killed in a non-racing accident last August, will be held next Friday at the NHRA Winston Finals at Pomona. The auction, which will include racing memorabilia, will be held immediately after pro qualifying.

Goat Breker and GFI Racing will present another Elsinore Grand Prix this weekend with more than 1,500 motorcyclists racing through downtown Lake Elsinore, starting at 7 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. . . . The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will be at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix on Saturday night after its scheduled race at Imperial Fairgrounds in El Centro was canceled by the promoters.

Reebok has pulled its Indy Racing League sponsorship, leaving team owner Bob Nienhouse and driver Davey Hamilton looking for financial aid in 1999. . . . Two-time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk was named the IRL’s most popular driver for the second consecutive year.

The streets of downtown San Diego will be the site of an American Le Mans Series sports car race next fall, it was announced by Don Panoz, owner of the series. It will be one of seven races for prototype sports cars on an undetermined weekend in November or December.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, NAPA 500

* Schedule: Today, first-round qualifying, 9:30 a.m. (ESPN2); Saturday, second-round qualifying, 8 a.m. (ESPN2, 1:30 p.m.); Sunday, race, 9:30 a.m. (ESPN).

* Track: Atlanta Motor Speedway (oval, 1.54 miles, 24 degrees banking in corners), Hampton, Ga.

* Race distance: 500.5 miles, 325 laps.

* Defending champion: Bobby Labonte.

* Next race: Non-points Coca-Cola 500, Nov. 22, Motegi, Japan.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, STIHL POWER TOOLS 300

* Schedule: Today, second-round qualifying, 8:40 a.m.; Saturday, race, 10 a.m. (ESPN, tape 2:30 p.m.).

* Track: Atlanta Motor Speedway.

* Race distance: 300.3 miles, 195 laps.

* Defending champion: Mark Martin.

* Next race: Jiffy Lube Miami 300, Nov. 15, Homestead, Fla.

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS, SAM’S TOWN 250

* Schedule: Saturday, qualifying, 12:15 p.m.; Sunday, race, 3 p.m. (ESPN2).