Eschewing Trend, American Chases European Success

Paul Edwards of Santa Maria hopes to reverse a trend in open-wheel racing.

With an ever-increasing number of foreign drivers in CART champ car and IRL Indy car racing in this country, the 21-year-old Edwards wants to make his name in Europe.

“I definitely want to be the next American in Formula One,” he said during a brief vacation at home.

There has not been an American driver in Formula One since Michael Andretti drove part of a season in 1993.

Curiously, although Edwards began racing karts around central California when he was 10, he has never driven in a big-time race in this country.

After winning two Western USA and four California karting championships, he was 17 when he was advised by karting teammate Richie Hearn--now a CART driver--to try the Elf Winfield competition in France. Hearn had won it in 1991 and was rewarded with a year’s driving in the Formula Renault series in France.

“I went over, took a three-day school where they decided I was qualified to drive and ended up winning the series and a full scholarship in the Elf Formula Renault series,” Edwards said.

But instead of accepting the scholarship, he took another offer to drive in the British Formula Ford series for two seasons with the Swift factory team. He won only one race, but saw enough of European racing that he decided to stay.

“It was tough at first,” he said. “I had just turned 18 when I moved there and it was something of a culture shock, but I thought the caliber of racing would help me more than if I returned to the States. In Europe, there are always about a dozen drivers in every race who run for the win. There is no laying back. You have to be on top of things every second, every lap. I don’t think that’s true in some of the lesser American series.”

His perseverance earned him a Team USA scholarship in 1998 and after winning the Formula Opel Winterseries, he received a second scholarship for 1999. The Team USA fund was founded in 1990 by journalist Jeremy Shaw to provide young American drivers an opportunity to compete in Europe.

Edwards ended the season just past with a flourish, winning the Formula Palmer Audi Winterseries with three wins in four races, and finishing third in the EFDA Euroseries, in which he had three victories and nine podium finishes in 15 races.

In 2000, he plans to race in the tough Formula 3 series, then Formula 3000 before making a move to Formula One.

“I have seen quite a few quick Americans, but Paul is one of the very few who can handle traffic, and this ability separates him from the rest,” said Dan Partel, managing director of the European Formula Drivers Assn. “He is the first American I have seen in a long time that could have a future in Formula One.”

DOWNSIZING

The fissure between CART and the Indy Racing League over leadership of open-wheel racing is beginning to be felt in the pocketbook.

PPG Industries, which has sponsored CART’s championship fund since 1980, has declined to renew its contract for the 2000 season. It also will end its unique PPG pace car program that provided a fleet of colorful cars with female drivers for pre-race activities.

The PPG Cup fund paid

$2.75 million this year, $1 million of it to champion Juan Montoya.

Also canceled is PPG’s pole award for all IRL races, except the Indianapolis 500. PPG will continue to pay $100,000 to the Indy pole winner, and to sponsor the Brickyard 400 winner’s trophy at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“The CART FedEx championship point fund will not be affected by PPG’s withdrawal,” said Ron Richards, CART vice president of communications. “Obviously, we are disappointed in the timing, but we will continue with the same payout.”

ISL of Switzerland, which joined CART in late 1998 to underwrite the racing series for as much as $220 million over 10 years, guarantees the money lost through PPG’s decision.

“There are several companies who have expressed interest in taking title sponsorship of the points,” Richards said. “We hope to have an announcement before the first race.”

The CART FedEx season will open March 26 at Homestead, Fla. The first IRL race is scheduled Jan. 29 at Orlando, Fla.

THE MISSING MAN

Mark Martin will miss tonight’s NASCAR black-tie awards dinner for Winston Cup drivers in New York because he is home in Florida recuperating from back surgery, but he insists he will be back in one of Jack Roush’s cars in February for the Daytona 500.

“I’m glad to be home, but I’m getting pretty bored,” said Martin, whose acceptance of third-place money will be made by video. “I’m really not in any pain, which makes it even tougher to stay in bed for the next two weeks. I can get up and walk around every few hours, but other than that I have to lie down.”

Martin underwent lumbar fusion surgery on Nov. 20 to repair two crushed vertebrae in his lower back that have been bothering him since the middle of the 1998 season.

Tonight’s banquet, at which Dale Jarrett will receive the champion’s $2-million bonus, will be shown on ESPN at 5:30.

DAKAR TO CAIRO

Not content with driving through the back roads of Baja or the desert desolation of Nevada, two Southern California off-road veterans, Darren Skilton of Long Beach and Curt LeDuc of Apple Valley, are preparing to take on the challenge of the Paris Dakar Cairo 2000.

That means crossing six countries in 18 days, traveling approximately 7,000 miles over some of the most difficult terrain in the world, such as wind-blown southern Libya and the cathedral dunes of Egypt.

Both will drive Kia Sportage sport utility vehicles.

Paris gets its name on the race because that is where the cars, drivers and teams gather before being shipped to Dakar, Senegal, for the start Jan. 6.

“The Dakar rally is the ultimate challenge for me as an off-road racer, and it has always been a dream of mine,” said Skilton, 32, who has been racing in the desert since graduating from Cal State Fullerton in 1992. He twice has won the Baja 1000 and this year won the short-wheelbase, four-wheel-drive class in SCORE.

Sue Mead, 49, who has been a co-driver for veteran Rod Hall, will be Skilton’s navigator. She was the only female on a six-driver team that drove nonstop for 99 hours from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Key West, Fla., in the Tip to Tip Challenge.

LeDuc, 44, was living in Massachusetts when he hauled trucks across the country to race in SCORE events. In 1985 he sold his business and moved his family to Southern California so be could be closer to the action.

This will be his third Dakar Rally. In 1997, he won the prestigious Trophy Truck championship in the SCORE series.

MOTORCYCLES

Motocross and its stadium sister, Supercross, are becoming year-round sports.

The 1999 motocross season will end Dec. 18-19 with the Chaparral Pro-Am on Glen Helen Park’s hillside course north of San Bernardino.

Less than a month later, the AMA Supercross season will start with races on consecutive Saturday nights, Jan. 8 and Jan. 15, at Anaheim’s Edison Field.

Promoters of the World Supercross championship hope to have a five-country event next year, expanding to Japan as well as rescheduling Brazil, which was canceled this year. According to a release from Leipzig, Germany, site of the final race last Saturday, the USA’s 2000 race may be in Dodger Stadium, instead of the Rose Bowl.

Ben Bostrom, who won the AMA Superbike championship in 1998 without winning a race and then won a race this year only to finish second to Matt Mladin, is leaving the U.S. scene next year to ride a Ducati in the World Superbike series. The Granada Hills rider won the U.S. round of the world championships at Laguna Seca last July on a Vance & Hines Ducati.

ARCIERO JOINS FORSYTHE

Frank Arciero, a longtime CART team owner who recently split with Cal Wells, has formed a joint venture with Jerry Forsythe’s McDonald’s team and Swift Engineering to field a CART team next year.

Brazilian Tony Kanaan, who won his first race at Michigan Speedway earlier this year for Forsythe in a Reynard-Honda, will drive the Swift-Honda.

“Like most things, this took time and effort to put together,” said Arciero, who has had a CART team since 1980. “We [with sons Frank Jr. and Albert] picked out Jerry and Swift because they are known winners. I believe we are going to impress a lot of people this year with our success.”

ANYONE HUNGRY?

Once the Christmas season is over, the motor racing banquet circuit will swing into high gear.

NASCAR will honor Dale Earnhardt Jr., its Busch Grand National champion, at an awards dinner Friday, Jan. 7, at the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

On Jan. 15, the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Assn. will hold its All-American team banquet at the Long Beach Renaissance. Honored guests include Clarence Cagle, former Indianapolis Motor Speedway track superintendent, and Dave Marcus, legendary NASCAR Winston Cup driver.

On the same night, the U.S. Auto Club will hold its western regional awards dinner at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Monrovia. Three Californians, Bud Kaeding of Campbell, Alex Harris of Simi Valley and Josh Wise of Riverside will receive national rookie-of-the-year awards--Kaeding for sprint cars, Harris for midget cars and Wise for TQ midgets.

AND FINALLY

“Real Road Racing: The Santa Monica Road Races,” a book reviewed in Wednesday’s editions, can be obtained by sending $35 to Harold Osmer Publishing, P.O. Box 4741, Chatsworth, CA 91313.