Walker, 19, Declares Bid to Upend Kinser

Veteran sprint car driver Mark Kinser has won all seven World of Outlaws races run at Perris Auto Speedway since it opened in 1996, but a 19-year-old from North Hills thinks it’s time for the streak to end.

Tyler Walker, a four-time California karting champion before joining the Outlaws last year, came on strong at the end of his rookie season last October to win the Western World championships at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix.

“We’ve got the same crew back, the car is ready to run and so am I,” Tyler said as he prepared for the season to open tonight at Kings Speedway in Hanford, followed by Saturday night at Perris.

“We smoked ‘em at Manzanita. We won both trophy dashes and led every lap in the main. We won a trophy dash the last time we were at Perris. I like the track. I’m looking forward to racing there again.”

Kinser, who finished only 93 points behind cousin Steve Kinser in the Pennzoil World of Outlaws season last year, doesn’t know what it’s like to lose at Perris.

“It’s pretty amazing,” he said. “I’ve never had such luck in one place in my life. They should build a casino there. I guess they already have one [the off-track horse-race betting facility at the Lake Perris Fairgrounds]. Maybe I should try my luck over there.

“Finishing the season strong means everything to me, because you carry your momentum all through the off-season. It keeps you from dragging your feet across the floor of the shop all winter.”

After winning at Perris on Halloween night, Mark won two races at Las Vegas to finish the year with three in succession.

Cousin Steve won his 15th drivers championship and his first as an owner through consistency. Although he won only six main events, he finished in the top 10 in 58 of 65 races.

“We took what we could instead of trying to take what we couldn’t,” said Steve Kinser, who won his first championship in 1978--the year before Walker was born.

Karl Kinser, Mark’s father, car owner and crew chief, has switched to a Mopar engine in hopes of regaining the championship Mark won in 1996.

Walker is a fourth-generation racer. His great grandmother was killed during a race in Overland Park, Colo., in the 1930s. Masquerading as a man, she was known as the Masked Marvel. Her identity was not revealed until after the accident. His great-grandfather owned midget cars that the late Troy Ruttman drove at Ascot Park.

After graduating from karts, Walker got hooked on sprint car racing when his father, Bob, also a former racer, took him to the prestigious Knoxville (Iowa) Nationals, the Indy 500 of sprint cars.

The next year, at 16, Tyler returned to Knoxville as a driver and earned rookie-of-the-year honors. Last year, driving a family-sponsored car, he moved up to the Outlaws and finished 11th in the standings with 31 finishes in the top 10. He was runner-up to Dave Blaney, 34, as rookie of the year.

“I picked the Outlaws because they’re the funnest type of racing there is,” Walker said. “Maybe some day I’ll try stock cars or Indy cars, but right now this is the most exciting racing I can imagine.”

The World of Outlaws is recognizable by the 25 square-foot wings on the cars, a marked contrast to the wingless cars of the Sprint Car Racing Assn.

The SCRA will make its first appearance at Perris, its home track, Feb. 27.

In hopes of producing a national champion among drivers of wingless sprint cars, similar to the Outlaws for winged machines, SCRA president Ron Shuman has put together a series that includes seven Midwestern tracks as well as West Coast ovals. The series will end in November with races at Manzanita and Perris.

an, a three-time SCRA champion, won 13 races while with the Outlaws before switching to wingless cars.

ON TO ROCKINGHAM

Jeff Gordon left his rival Winston Cup drivers frustrated by the way he won the Daytona 500 last Sunday, and now look what they have in store for them.

The season moves to North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, where Gordon won both races last year. Of the last eight races on the 1.017-mile banked oval, he was won four. Dale Earnhardt, who has raced there 40 times, has won only twice.

Also, Gordon is on a three-race winning streak, having won the last two last year and Daytona to open this season.

“This team loves to win races, but we love to win championships the most,” Gordon said.

He has won three of the last four, and Hendrick Racing has won all four, teammate Terry Labonte having won two years ago.

Gordon’s record notwithstanding, most other drivers welcome the shift from Daytona’s restrictor-plate rules to the unrestricted racing in the Dura-Lube/Big Kmart 400 on Sunday.

“The Taurus has great downforce and North Carolina is a track where downforce is very important,” said Johnny Benson, one of five Ford drivers fielded by Jack Roush.

And, as Jeremy Mayfield said, “Rockingham isn’t the Daytona 500, but they still give you the exact number of points to win it. That means this is just as important.”

MONEY MACHINE

With his $2-million payday in the Daytona 500, Gordon’s Winston Cup money earnings are now $25,072,575 in 190 races. That averages out to $131,960 per start.

LAST LAPS

All 6,500 tickets for opening night at Irwindale Speedway on March 27 were sold out in less than two days earlier this week. The first program will feature U.S. Auto Club sprint and midget cars and supermodifieds. Tickets for later races will go on sale March 15. . . . Don Prudhomme’s Snake Racing team will hold an open house Sunday at team headquarters, 1232 Distribution Way, Vista. Prudhomme and drivers Larry Dixon and Ron Capps will be on hand.

Youngblood, president of the American Motorcyclist Assn. since 1981, has resigned. No successor has been named. . . . The U.S. round of the four-race World Supercross series, is set for Nov. 20 in the Rose Bowl. Other races will be in France, Brazil and Germany. Suzuki’s Robbie Reynard is defending champion.

tees into the Motorsports Hall of Fame at Novi, Mich., include Indianapolis 500 winners Jimmy Bryan and Frank Lockhart, Can-Am champion George Follmer, NASCAR legend Tim Flock, drag racing promoter C.J. “Pappy” Hart, motorcycle champion Bart Markel, Indy car builders Frank Kurtis and Harry Miller, powerboat racer Bill Seebold Jr., and air racer Lyle Shelton. Induction ceremonies will be June 10 in Detroit.

NECROLOGY

Billy Garrett, former Indianapolis 500 driver and midget car champion, died in his sleep Monday at his home in Burbank. Garrett, 65, had been confined to a wheelchair since a racing accident June 8, 1959, at Milwaukee. He was running fourth in a Chapman special Kurtis roadster when his engine blew in the third turn and he spun into the wall, hitting his head.

Garrett was one of the benefactors from the annual Gilmore Roars Again parties at the Gilmore adobe near the old Gilmore Stadium where he won midget championships in 1954 and 1955. He drove at Indianapolis in 1956 and 1957.

Memorial services will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Pierce Brothers Valhalla, 10621 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Billy Garrett Fund, c/o Carmen Schroeder, 800 S. Flower St., Burbank 91502. Garrett is survived by his stepson, Keith Kay.

Bill Lipkey, 86, who organized the first U.S. Auto Club race more than 40 years ago, died in Kokomo, Ind.

Lipkey began organizing auto races in the early 1950s. In 1956, when USAC took over race sanctioning from the American Automobile Assn., Lipkey set up the first USAC race, for midget cars, in Fort Wayne.

Lipkey also served for a number of years on the USAC advisory board as the race organizer representative.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

This Week

WINSTON CUP

Dura-Lube/Big Kmart 400

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

* Where: 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: Jeff Gordon successfully defended his title, beating Rusty Wallace by 1.281 seconds. Gordon also won the ACDelco 400 in November at North Carolina Speedway to wrap up his third Winston Cup title.

* Last week: Gordon won the season-opening Daytona 500, holding off 1998 winner Dale Earnhardt by about two car-lengths. Gordon, also the 1997 winner, earned $2.1 million--the biggest payday in auto racing history.

* Fast facts: Gordon also won the 1995 spring race at North Carolina Speedway. He has 43 victories in 190 career starts with earnings of $25,072,575. . . . Wallace has five Rockingham victories, including three in a row in 1993-94.

* Next race: Las Vegas 400, March 7, Las Vegas.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL

Alltel 200

* When: Today, qualifying; Saturday, race (TNN, 10 a.m.).

* Where: 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: 200.349 miles, 197 laps.

* Last year: Matt Kenseth raced to his first Grand National victory, bumping aside Tony Stewart on the final turn. Elliott Sadler won the ACDelco 200 in November at North Carolina Speedway.

* Last week: Randy LaJoie won the season-opening NAPA Auto Parts 300 in Daytona Beach, Fla., avoiding the wrecks that wiped out nearly half the field. Jeff Green finished second.

* Fast facts: Andy Santerre, last season’s rookie of the year, broke his lower right leg in an accident in the NAPA Auto Parts 300. Winston Cup regular Ward Burton will temporarily replace Santerre in the No. 47 Chevrolet. . . . Mark Martin has nine BGN victories at North Carolina Speedway, and also won the 1989 spring Winston Cup race.