Reynard’s World Tour a Success, but the Home Fire Still Burning

Having the desig- nation “world champion” on your racing resume can be pretty heady stuff for a 21-year-old, even in the youthful sport of motocross. Especially if it was your first time out.

Robbie Reynard upset most of the better riders in the world, among them two-time world champion Jeremy McGrath, in winning the four-event FIM World Supercross championship last fall in his first competition on 250cc equipment. Reynard is from Norman, Okla., but lives in Corona during the racing season.

After riding with Suzuki’s 125cc team for two years, Reynard moved up to the bigger bikes and headed for Europe and the opening race in Paris after the national season ended.

Riding on a rainy track that more resembled a mud bog, he finished third.

“I couldn’t believe those fans in Paris,” Reynard said. “It was raining and really miserable and there were about 60,000 people sitting in the stands. It was the same stadium where they played the World Cup final match.”

A week later he was in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he won on a small, tight course that, Reynard said, “more resembled an Arenacross track than a Supercross.”

The third event was a double-header in Leipzig, Germany, where Reynard won the first moto and was running second in the second one when the gas cap on his Suzuki flew off.

“I managed to finish third and got second overall,” Reynard said. “It was really weird, the cap coming off. I guess somebody didn’t screw it on right.”

An overall win in the final Supercross in Genoa, Italy, gave him the world title, which McGrath had won in 1992 and 1995.

“I really had to work in that one,” Reynard said. “I won the first night, but everything went wrong the second night. I got a hole-shot and then fell over. I got back up and worked my way to second behind [Suzuki teammate] Larry Ward. Then, with eight laps or so left, I got a flat. I kept going and finished second.

“Ryno [Ryan Hughes] was coming up on me fast and I knew if he passed me, Larry would win overall, so I really concentrated. It’s not easy going over jumps and bumps with a flat tire.”

Things have not been going so well for Reynard in the AMA Supercross season, the fifth round of which will be run Saturday night in Anaheim’s Edison Field, where the season started Jan. 9.

“I need to redeem myself at Anaheim,” he said. “I . . . barely finished the first time. I’ve been finishing better since then, sixth at San Diego and fourth at Phoenix. Last week [in Seattle] wasn’t so good. I had the flu and fell twice, once on the first turn with a bunch of guys and again on the last lap.”

Roger DeCoster, still regarded as the finest motocross racer in history after winning five 500cc world championships--the pinnacle of motocross--in the 1970s, is Reynard’s coach with the Suzuki team, which also includes former world champion Greg Albertyn of South Africa.

“Robbie has a lot of talent and on any given day can be as fast as anybody out there, but he needs to be more consistent,” DeCoster said. “This is only his first [full] year on a 250 and it’s a difficult transition. The riders are more experienced, there are more good ones, and the really good ones, like McGrath, know how to come back from adversity.”

COPPER WORLD CLASSIC

For “run whatcha’ brung” grass-roots racing, there’s nothing like the Copper World Classic, where four divisions of racing will be contested this weekend on a mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway.

Three sanctioning bodies, U.S. Auto Club, NASCAR and the Western Super Modified Racing Assn., will be involved in the racing smorgasbord that begins today with practice and concludes Sunday with champions crowned in midget car, super-modified, Silver Bullet (formerly Silver Crown) and Featherlite Southwest Tour races. Silver Bullet cars are front-engined open-wheel cars.

Jason Leffler, USAC champion in both Silver Bullet and midget divisions, will compete in both races. The 23-year-old Long Beach driver, who moved to Indianapolis to further his racing career, has never won at Phoenix. Last year he finished fourth in the Silver Crown main event and was running behind Tony Stewart when the engine expired in his midget racer.

Stewart, who won both the Silver Crown and USAC midget races last year--the only driver in 22 years to win two events on the same program--will not defend his titles. He will be in Daytona Beach, Fla., trying to qualify Joe Gibbs’ Pontiac on Saturday for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 14.

Stewart’s absence at the Copper Classic has opened up both events.

Mike Bliss, who won the Coors Light Silver Bullet opener last month in Orlando, Fla., holds the Phoenix track record of 130.917 mph, set when he won in 1995. Bliss also won in 1993 and 1996. This may be his last Silver Bullet race this season, however, since he has signed to replace Joe Ruttman on Jack Roush’s team in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series.

Also entered is Jack Hewitt, 47, who won all four main events in a similar multi-race program last year in the 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

Leffler, two-time MCI WorldCom national midget car champion, will be challenged in the season opener from a number of West Coast drivers, among them Western States champion Rick Hendrix of Simi Valley, Turkey Night Grand Prix winner Jay Drake of Val Verde, and veteran Wally Pankratz of Orange.

Ken Schrader, last year’s Southwest Tour winner, will also be unable to defend his title because, like Stewart, he is at Daytona.

In his absence, favorites will be Rick Carelli, a four-time winner, and Steve Christian, who took the season opener two weeks ago at Tucson Raceway Park.

Tyler Walker of Santa Clarita is a surprise entry in the Southwest Tour race. Walker, 19, races with the World of Outlaws and was national sprint car rookie of the year in 1996. This will be his NASCAR debut.

Sunday’s program will start at noon with a 25-lap midget car race, followed by 25 laps for super-modifieds and 50 each for Silver Bullet and Southwest Tour main events.

LAST LAPS

Checkers, the legendary off-road pit crew and racing club, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a reunion dinner Saturday night at the Gold Coast in Las Vegas. Checkers, founded in 1974, is an off-shoot of the Checkers Motorcycle Club of the 1960s. Sal Fish, president of SCORE International, will speak. Also on the program will be champion driver Ivan Stewart and racer-writer Judy Smith. Details: (323) 254-1531. . . . Denny Darnell, former National Hot Rod Assn. publicity chief, has taken over a similar position with Sports Marketing Enterprises, promotional arm of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Darnell replaces Chris Powell, who left to become general manager of Las Vegas Speedway. . . . The Perris-based Sprint Car Racing Assn. will open its season with races tonight and Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. Richard Griffin of Silver City, N.M., is defending champion. Besides SCRA regulars such as Rip Williams of Yorba Linda, Mike Kirby of Lomita, Cory Kruseman of Ventura and J.J. Yeley of Phoenix, the entry includes Midwest stars Dave Darland, Derek Davidson, Kevin Doty and Brian Tyler.

Helio Castro-Neves of Brazil has replaced JJ Lehto on Hogan Racing’s FedEx CART team. Castro-Neves, 23, drove last year for Bettenhausen Motorsports and finished as runner-up to Tony Kanaan for rookie of the year. The CART season opens March 21 in Miami. Another Brazilian, Tarso Marques, will drive for Payton/Coyne Racing in CART’s 11 road or street races, among them the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 18. . . . Andre Ribeiro, squeezed out by Team Penske’s decision to field only one car on the CART circuit this year, will pursue business opportunities in his native Brazil.