Mission Viejo’s Enoch Set for Irwindale Debut

Irwindale Speedway will have a different flavor Saturday with the Star Formula Mazda Series West Division Championship’s 75-lap main event. It’s the first time rear-engine open wheel cars have raced on the speedway.

Driers race identically prepared cars, and the series leader is Tim Enoch of Mission Viejo.

Enoch, 27, holds a one-point lead over Sacramento’s Joey Hand after five of 12 races. Enoch won the series’ other two oval events, at Phoenix and Pikes Peak, the first oval races of his career.

“It’s going to be more exciting than Indycars because it will be on a half-mile oval--there will definitely be a lot of action, a lot of passing,” Enoch said. “I’m definitely excited--it’s the closest to my hometown I’ve ever raced.”

Other local entrants include San Clemente’s Taylor Fletcher, Huntington Beach’s Chris Emanuel and Santa Ana’s Brady Gross.

The winner should average about 100 mph. Racing starts at 7 p.m.

SCORE SERIES

The SCORE off-road racing series continues this weekend in Barstow with the 28th Fireworks 250 desert race.

It’s the first event since the Tecate Baja 500, in which Laguna Beach’s Jason Baldwin crashed into a crowd of spectators, killing one and injuring eight.

Neither he nor his father, Jim Baldwin, who also raced in the Baja 500 but was not part of the crash, will participate.

“None of the Baldwins are entered in the race,” said SCORE president Sal Fish, referring also to Josh Baldwin, Jason’s brother, .

Jason Baldwin did not return phone calls.

The June 5 accident occurred 2.1 miles into the 447.6-mile race race. Baldwin’s truck rolled into a crowd of onlookers coming off a short jump preceding the turns.

Fish still has not ruled on Baldwin’s eligibility to compete in the series. Nor has Fish talked to Baldwin.

“We’re just trying to make sure we have the correct facts and we’re looking into everything we possibly can before any decision is made,” Fish said. “After I have everything I need, that will be the appropriate time to talk to Jason.”

NHRA

Yorba Linda funny car driver John Force, 50, added Sunday’s inaugural Winston Showdown to his resume, beating the top fuel dragster of Bob Vandergriff to win a career-high $200,000 payday.

Force’s funny car was given a .370 second handicap.

“Winning the race at Bristol [Tenn.] this last weekend in the Winston Showdown,” Force said, “was the highlight of my career.”

Force, an eight-time NHRA Winston Funny Car champion and winner of seven of the first 11 events this season, returns to the regular series this weekend at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals in Denver.

CHAMP CARS

One doesn’t have to reach the podium to feel good all over.

Robby Gordon says that “even running competitive does a tremendous amount for the morale of the team. They work long hours to be successful, and it really is a team, from the guy who balances the tires to the guy who puts shock on the car or water in the engine. You can’t forget about any piece.”

One thing that has been tough on Team Gordon, because it’s a first-year team, is its lack of history with the San Clemente-produced Swift chassis.

“We’re still a new team, and the thing that hurts us is not having data from last year,” Gordon said. “If I ran a Reynard [this season] at least I’d have some knowledge [having used one last year], but running a Swift, we’re starting blind every weekend.”

Signs that Gordon is getting the Toyota-powered Swift swift: He finished ninth in Cleveland after starting 24th, and eighth at Road America after starting 23rd. He takes on the streets of Toronto this weekend.

“The challenge during the second half of the season will be to put ourselves further up on the starting grid on Fridays and Saturdays,” he said. “Then, maybe we’ll be in position to win one of these things.”

* Though Alex Barron was under contract to All American Racers, team owner Dan Gurney didn’t stand in the way of the second-year driver cashing in on other opportunities. Barron will drive a second car for Roger Penske at the U.S. 500 on July 25.

“It’s very amicable, all the way across the board,” Gurney said of his parting with Barron, 29. “The fact is that Alex has been able to go impressively fast on numerous occasions. He gave us our first lead [12 laps last season at Vancouver], and we gave the first one to him.”

Barron did tire testing two weeks ago for Penske, and posted the fastest time of the session at Michigan Speedway, site of the U.S. 500. Barron said he has talked to several teams and expects to have a ride in 2000.

Barron finished a career-best ninth at Nazareth, Pa., in the year’s fourth race, and also had finishes of 14, 15, 16 and 17. His best qualifying effort was 10th, at Milwaukee, in his last race; he finished 14th.

He was replaced three races ago by Gualter Salles to provide Gurney a second opinion on the performance of the Eagle 997 chassis built in Gurney’s Santa Ana shop. Gurney plans to use Salles, 28, the rest of the season.

In 25 career starts, Salles has two top 10 finishes, including a seventh at Laguna Seca in 1997. He finished 27th, 13th and 20th for Gurney’s All American Racers.

* Wednesday marked the third anniversary of Jeff Krosnoff’s death, and it didn’t pass without Team Rahal driver Max Papis thinking about it. Papis got his start in champ cars at Arciero-Wells Racing in Santa Margarita because Krosnoff was killed in a racing crash at Toronto, site of Sunday’s race.

“I often think of Jeff when I’m driving and I’m very proud that I’ve been able to achieve some of his goals in my career,” said Papis, who has four top-five finishes this season and will make his 50th series start on Sunday. “Driving at Toronto is always an emotional experience because of the way my career is tied to this track and the incident with Jeff.”

INDY RACING LEAGUE

Dana Point team owner Dick Simon hopes his driver, Stephan Gregoire, can match his best finish when the IRL returns to a 1.5-mile oval. Gregoire took fourth place at the Longhorn 500 which, like the Atlanta track he will race on Saturday, has 24-degree banking in the turns.

Simon will use a narrow track suspension, meaning the wheels will be almost four inches closer together than a normal setup, to reduce the resistance to air flow over the car.

The setup works best on high-speed circuits. At Texas, the top four cars lapped the field twice, with only nine seconds separating the top four positions.

“I’m as excited as hell,” Simon said. “With that type of history--we had never even tested at Texas--how can you not be?”

Gregoire (85 points) is 13th in the standings. San Juan Capistrano’s Jeff Ward (149) is second, trailing leader Scott Goodyear (164).