Gugelmin and Blundell Looking to Get Jump on ’99

After Mauricio Gugelmin ran a record 240 mph to win the pole and then teammate Mark Blundell won the inaugural Marlboro 500 last year at California Speedway, great things were expected for the PacWest team this year.

Somehow, they didn’t materialize. Gugelmin’s best finish in 18 CART races was a fourth at Mid-Ohio. Blundell’s best were sevenths at Long Beach and Road America.

PacWest president Bruce McCaw has not lost confidence, however. He has already renewed the drivers’ contracts for 1999.

“I strongly believe PacWest has the best drivers, sponsors and equipment in the CART series,” McCaw said. “We intend to challenge for the FedEx championship in 1999, and entering the new year with continuity on all fronts will provide us with an excellent head start.”

In the meantime, there’s one final race, Sunday’s Marlboro 500, in which the team hopes to jump-start next year’s program.

“Coming back to California Speedway as reigning champions and champions of the inaugural race is a great feeling,” said Blundell. “That’s something I can tell my grandchildren and be proud of. Hopefully, the weather will be a lot kinder this year.”

Temperatures soared as high as 105 degrees during last year’s Sept. 28 race.

“Being defending champion is incentive enough to win a race, but an extra incentive to win this year is the $1 million in prize money.”

Blundell won $90,500 last year when he finished .847 of a second ahead of Jimmy Vasser. Sunday’s winner is guaranteed $1 million.

With the Handford Device--a winglike aerodynamic piece designed to help reduce speeds on superspeedways--in effect, Gugelmin’s record will be safe when cars qualify Saturday.

“I won’t be doing 240 this year, that’s for sure, but it is always a pleasure to return to a track where I have some great memories,” Gugelmin said. “We definitely have some unfinished business to take care of, because we were in a position to win the race last year from the pole.

“I was already counting the money when I had to come into the pits [after blistering a tire while in the lead on Lap 231 of the 250-lap race].

“I think a podium finish for the PacWest team is a good possibility Sunday. It would give us a bit of positive momentum heading into 1999.”

SHORTER SCHEDULE

California Speedway is cutting back on its schedule next year with only two weekends of racing, instead of three, at Penske Motorsports’ Fontana facility.

“To put on events here costs lots of money, so when we had a Saturday and Sunday that weren’t selling out like CART and the Winston Cup, we decided to bring things together,” said Les Richter, the Speedway’s executive vice president. “Actually, it’s a return to the way we scheduled our first season, with the Winston Cup and CART weekends packaged with a single-season pass.

“Then we scheduled a NASCAR stock car tripleheader and people became confused. It wasn’t part of the season pass, and although it was a good weekend of racing, it didn’t come close to selling out.

“This way, we’ll give our fans two big super weekends.”

Sunday’s race, last of this year’s CART champ car series, is expected to attract more than 105,000 spectators.

Next year’s season will open with the Winston Cup race, on Sunday, May 2. It will be complemented by a Winston West and Busch Grand National doubleheader on May 1.

The CART race will be Sunday, Oct. 31, along with a NASCAR Craftsman Truck race on Oct. 30 and a PPG-Dayton Indy Lights race Oct. 31. All three series will close their seasons at Fontana.

FORMULA ONE

As it has so often in recent years, the Formula One championship is coming down to the final race of the season, Sunday in Suzuka, Japan.

And, as usual, Germany’s Michael Schumacher is in a pivotal role, although this year he is trailing Finland’s Mika Hakkinen and unable to use his previous tactic of trying to wreck both himself and his prime rival--thus insuring the championship would be his.

It worked in 1994 at Adelaide, Australia, when Schumacher’s Benetton-Ford collided with Damon Hill’s Williams-Renault, knocking both out of the final race. The German won the title by one point, 92-91.

Last year it was more blatant as Schumacher appeared to deliberately turn his Ferrari into the side of Jacques Villeneuve’s Williams-Renault midway through the European Grand Prix in Jerez, Spain. The incident backfired when Schumacher bounced to a stop, but Villeneuve, surprisingly, motored on in his damaged car, finished third and passed the German for the championship.

As in Adelaide three years earlier, Schumacher held a one-point lead going to the final race.

“The German press contingent, which had been rooting strongly for him, led the booing and condemnation of this clumsiest of low punches,” wrote veteran GP columnist Nigel Roebuck.

The move was so obvious that Formula One’s ruling body stripped Schumacher of his second-place finish in the driver’s standings.

Now Schumacher begins the final race behind by four points. Even if he wins the race, Hakkinen can claim his first title by finishing second. In that case, each will have 96 points and each will have seven victories but Hakkinen will win by virtue of more seconds.

Either way, it will be a breakthrough for the winning car. If Hakkinen holds on, it will be the first title for the silver McLaren since the late Ayrton Senna won in 1991. If Schumacher can pull it off, it will be Ferrari’s first championship since 1979 when South Africa’s Jody Scheckter won.

The Japanese Grand Prix is also expected to be the final Formula One for Goodyear. The American tire company announced earlier in the season that this would be its last after 34 years. Schumacher’s Ferrari runs on Goodyears.

WORLD OF OUTLAWS

The barnstorming Outlaws have had six races at Perris Auto Speedway and Mark Kinser has won every one. He’ll go for No. 7 Saturday night on the half-mile dirt oval, but cousin Steve Kinser will be the favorite.

Steve, already with 14 World of Outlaws championships, has a 132-point lead over Mark with only three races remaining. Defending series champion Sammy Swindell is another 14 back.

“Mathematically we still have a shot at Steve, but it would take a real miracle to catch him,” said Mark. “We have had 14 DNFs [did not finish] this year and we haven’t had that many in four years. Finishing races wins championships and Steve has been the most consistent this year.”

Tyler Walker, a rookie from North Hills, Calif., won two races last week at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix and introduced a new way of celebrating. Instead of spinning doughnuts, as CART’s Alex Zanardi does, or jumping on the roof of his car, as NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon does, Walker jumped out of the sprinter and did a couple of cartwheels and a back flip on the front straightaway.

Tony Jones, son of Sprint Car Hall of Famer Bubby Jones, and Brent Kaeding, whose father has dominated Northern California racing for years, will test their skills against the World of Outlaws regulars.

CART CHAT ROOM

Seeking a replacement for Max Papis, the Arciero-Wells CART team tested Emanuele Naspetti and Indy Lights champion Cristiano da Matta at Homestead, Fla. Naspetti is the Italian Touring champion.

Rick Mears, three-time CART champion and technical advisor for Team Penske, will be grand marshal of Sunday’s 500.

LAST LAPS

New PPG-Dayton Indy Lights champion Cristiano da Matta set the pace Thursday in the first day of qualifying for the final round of the PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship at California Speedway with a fast lap of 191.400 mph. . . . Dale Jarrett, recovering from gallstones, was released from a Phoenix hospital and may drive in Sunday’s AC Delco 400 at Rockingham, N.C., a spokesman said.

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This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, AC Delco 400

* Schedule: Today, first-round qualifying, 11 a.m. (Speedvision); Saturday, second-round qualifying, 11 a.m.; Sunday, race, 9:30 a.m. (TNN).

* Track: North Carolina Speedway (oval, 1.017 miles, 22 degrees banking in turns 1-2, 25 degrees in turns 3-4), Rockingham, N.C.

* Race distance: 399.681 miles, 393 laps.

Last year: Bobby Hamilton won the rain-delayed race, beating Dale Jarrett by 0.941 seconds. Hamilton gave Pontiac its first victory of the season.

* Last week: Rusty Wallace ended a 59-race winless streak, winning the rain-shortened Dura-Lube 500 in Phoenix. The former Winston Cup champion was declared the winner after rain washed out the final 55 laps.

* Next race: NAPA 500, Nov. 8, Hampton, Ga.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, ACDelco 200

* Schedule: Today, qualifying, 9:45 a.m.; Saturday, race, 11 a.m. (TNN).

* Track: North Carolina Speedway.

* Race distance: 200.349 miles, 197 laps.

* Last year: Matt Kenseth raced to his first series victory, bumping past Tony Stewart on the final turn. Winston Cup star Mark Martin finished third, ending his BGN winning streak at NCS at four races.

* Last race: Dale Earnhardt Jr. claimed his series-high seventh victory, beating Kenseth by 3.254 seconds in the Carquest Auto Parts 250 on Oct. 17 in Madison, Ill.

* Next race: Stihl Power Tools 300, Nov. 7, Hampton, Ga.

CART, Marlboro 500

* Schedule: Saturday, qualifying, noon; Sunday, race, 12:30 p.m. (ESPN).

* Track: California Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2.0 miles, 14 degrees banking in corners), Fontana.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 250 laps.

* Last year: England’s Mark Blundell won the inaugural race, taking the lead when Greg Moore’s car slowed because of engine problems with 11 laps left. Jimmy Vasser finished second, 0.847 seconds back.

* Last race: Alex Zanardi won the Australian IndyCarnival on Oct. 18 for his seventh victory of the season. The Italian star clinched his second straight series title Sept. 6 in Vancouver, Canada.

FORMULA ONE, Japanese Grand Prix

* Schedule: Today, qualifying, 8 p.m. (Speedvision); Saturday, race, 7:30 p.m. (Fox Sports West, Speedvision).

* Track: Suzuka Circuit (road course, 3.636 miles, 21 turns), Suzuka, Japan.

* Race distance: 192.708 miles, 53 laps.

* Last year: Germany’s Michael Schumacher raced to the last of five 1997 victories, beating countryman Heinz-Harald Frentzen by 1.378 seconds. Schumacher also won the 1995 race.

* Last race: Finland’s Mika Hakkinen took a four-point lead over Schumacher in the series standings, beating the German by 2.212 seconds in the Luxembourg Grand Prix on Sept. 27. Hakkinen has seven victories this year.

NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSN., Matco Tools SuperNationals

* Schedule: Today, first-round qualifying, noon and 4 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.; Sunday, final eliminations, 9 a.m. (TNN, 4 p.m.; replay Monday, 9:30-11 p.m.).

* Track: Houston Raceway Park, Baytown, Texas.

* Last year: Gary Scelzi raced to the last of five 1997 victories en route to the Top Fuel title, driving his burning dragster past Larry Dixon in the final round. Dean Skuza raced to his first Funny Car victory.

* Last week: Scelzi won the Revell Nationals in Ennis, Texas, to take a 73-point lead over Cory McClenathan with two events left. Scelzi, a five-time winner this year, had a record quarter-mile run of 4.525 seconds in qualifying. John Force won the Funny Car competition, and Warren Johnson raced to his ninth Pro Stock victory of the year.

* Next event: Winston Finals, Nov. 11-14, Pomona.