France Takes Pole in Track Ownership

It is going to be difficult to say, “Bill France’s California Speedway,” after calling it Roger Penske’s place since it grew out of the slag fields of Kaiser’s Fontana steel mill.

But California Speedway became France’s place last Monday when his International Speedway Corp. bought the 88% of Penske Motorsports it didn’t already own for $610 million. The transaction doubled its number of racetracks to 10.

Bruton Smith had been the leader in big-time race track ownership with six. Now France is No. 1.

California, Michigan, Nazareth, Pa., and North Carolina speedways and Homestead-Miami Speedway-- all part of Penske Motorsports-- join the ISC powerhouse that includes oval tracks in Daytona Beach, Fla.; Talladega, Ala.; Darlington, S.C., and Phoenix, and a road course in Watkins Glen, N.Y. France also owns 49% of the Martinsville, (Va.) Speedway.

“As a result of this expansion, we have created the premier company in the country’s fastest growing spectator sport,” said France, chairman and chief executive of ISC. “We are delighted that this transaction will extend our close relationship with Penske Motorsports, which began three years ago when we acquired an equity interest in the company.”

The 10 tracks have more than 800,000 seats and 400 suites and this year will promote more than 100 motorsports events. Two are at California Speedway, the recently held California 500 Winston Cup race and the Marlboro 500, a CART FedEx champ car race Oct. 31.

Already penciled in on the ISC growth chart are tracks in Chicago, where a 930-acre site has been acquired, Kansas City, Denver and New York.

“We expect to have about 75,000 seats for each new track when it opens,” said Roger Penske, Penske Motorsports founder, who opened California Speedway two years ago with that number of seats. “It is a good number to start with and you can always add seats as the demand increases.”

California Speedway has been expanded to 86,439, plus 71 corporate suites.

Penske will become vice chairman of ISC’s board of directors, which will also include his son, Greg, Penske Motorsports president, and Walt Czarnecki, its vice chairman.

“Penske helped develop a state-of-the-art facility in the Los Angeles market and we will continue to use their expertise in managing tracks.” France said. “As of now, the people they have in place will continue to operate in their same capacities.”

Penske’s race teams, Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield in NASCAR Winston Cup, and Al Unser Jr. and Tarso Marques in CART champ cars, are not part of Penske Motorsports, so are not affected by the merger.

The deal upstaged Smith, whose Speedway Motorsports Inc., owns superspeedways in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Texas and Charlotte (Lowe’s), a short oval in Bristol, Tenn., and Sears Point, a road course in Sonoma, Calif., all sites of Winston Cup races.

The biggest fish left for Smith to swallow is Dover Downs, which besides the mile oval in Delaware, also owns Gateway Raceway in Madison, Ill., near St. Louis; short tracks in Memphis and Nashville, and rights to the Long Beach Grand Prix.

CART CHAMP CARS

Team Target rookie driver Juan Montoya, coming off victories at Long Beach and Nazareth, will try to become the first CART rookie to win three consecutive races in Saturday’s Rio 200 in Brazil. The race, promoted by former CART and Formula One world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, is on a 1.864-mnile oval in Rio de Janeiro.

“I’m having a lot of fun and learning a lot,” Montoya said of his first season as a replacement for CART FedEx champion Alex Zanardi with Chip Ganassi’s team. “I know I still have a lot to learn and a lot of room for improvement. I’m looking forward to Rio. I want to prove that the past two races weren’t accidents.”

Montoya, 23, who is from Bogota, Colombia, last won a race in South America in 1996, the Bogota six-hour event.

Ganassi, who plucked Zanardi from F1 four years ago, as he did Montoya this year, appears to have another winner in his quest for a fourth consecutive championship. Jimmy Vasser won for him in 1996, Zanardi in 1997 and 1998.

“Juan has done a good job of keeping things in perspective for such a young guy,” Ganassi said. “He understands that there are still 16 races left and that each one is important. But what I like even more about Juan is that he won’t be satisfied unless he wins them all.”

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The racing command, “Gentlemen, start your engines!” will come from an unusual source in Rio--outer space. A Russian cosmonaut on the space station MIR, will give it. Fittipaldi had hoped to have supermodel Cindy Crawford do the honors, but she declined because of her pregnancy.

The cosmonaut was chosen because Omega, official timekeeper of the CART series, has a partnership with MIR.

NASCAR

Jeff Gordon is only 27 and is still known as “the Kid” in NASCAR circles, but the three-time champion will be starting his 200th Winston Cup race when he fires up his Chevrolet on Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. He has won 45, a record winning percentage of .226. He scored one of his victories at Richmond in 1996.

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Rick Carelli, veteran Winston West and Craftsman Truck driver, remains in serious but guarded condition at the Elvis Presley Trauma Center at Memphis Medical Center. Carelli suffered a broken jaw and other injuries to his face and head when his race truck slammed into the third-turn wall during the Memphis 200 last Saturday. He has driven in every Craftsman Truck race since 1994.

INDIANAPOLIS 500

Practice for the 83rd 500 will open Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway amid construction of a road course for the Formula One race there next year. Practice will continue until May 22, when 46 drivers will take four-lap (10-mile) time trials to determine the pole-sitter and the 33-car field for the race May 30.

Drivers who fail to qualify Saturday can try again Sunday, with slower qualifiers facing the possibility of being bumped from the field. After qualifying, there will be no activity on the track until race day, except for Carburetion Day practice on May 27.

Among the drivers are former 500 winners Arie Luyendyk, Buddy Lazier and defending champion Eddie Cheever, and nine rookies. Two of the rookies are Jacques Lazier, Buddy’s brother, and Dave Steele, winner of the opening-night U.S. Auto Club midget car race at Irwindale Speedway.

SHORT TRACKS

If sprint cars on dirt tracks are your dish, the Sprint Car Racing Assn. returns to Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night with defending series champion Richard Griffin on another strong run. The New Mexico driver has 744 points to 635 for Troy Cline, 612 for Cory Kruseman and 599 for J.J. Yeley, last Saturday night’s winner in Phoenix.

If stock cars on pavement appeal to you more, NASCAR’s Featherlite Southwest Tour will make its first appearance at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday night. The 100-lap main event on the new half-mile paved oval will feature Bryan Germone, the series leader, and Craig Raudman, who won at Cajon Speedway last month. Five previous races have produced five different winners.

LAST LAPS

EMAP Petersen, the British firm that owns Petersen publications, has purchased Frank Hawley’s drag racing school in Pomona. Hawley, who recently opened Evernham-Hawley Race Training Center for oval track drivers at Irwindale Speedway, will continue to run the drag racing program.

The condition of Haley McGee, the 9-year-old injured in the accident May 1 that killed three spectators at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., has been upgraded from critical to serious at Carolinas Children’s Hospital.

Parnelli Jones took a few laps in a green, 1963 Lotus-Ford 34 Thursday at Irwindale Speedway to shake it down for a trip to England next month where the 1963 Indy 500 winner will drive it in the famous Goodwood Hillclimb. It is the car that Jim Clark put on the pole at Indy in 1964 and Jones won with a week later at Milwaukee. The car has been in Jones’ personal racing museum in Torrance.

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This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, Pontiac Excitement 400

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, (ESPN2, 2:30 p.m.) Saturday, second-round qualifying, 11 a.m.; race (ESPN, 4:30 p.m.)

* Where: Richmond International Raceway (oval, .75 miles, 14 degrees banking in turns), Richmond, Va.

* Defending champion: Terry Labonte

* Last race: Gordon got his 45th career victory, winning the California 500.

* Next race: Coca-Cola 600, May 30, Concord, N.C.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, Hardee’s 250

* When: Today, second-round qualifying, 9:30 a.m.; race (ESPN2, 4:30 p.m.)

* Where: Richmond International Raceway (oval, .75 miles, 14 degrees banking in turns), Richmond, Va.

* Defending champion: Jeff Burton

* Last race: Elton Sawyer won the Grand National 200 in Loudon, N.H.

* Next race: First Union 200, May 23, Nazareth, Pa.

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS, NAPA 300K

* When: Saturday, qualifying, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, race (ESPN, 12:30 p.m.)

* Where: Pikes Peak International Raceway (oval, 1.0 miles, 10 degrees banking in turns), Fountain, Colo.

* Defending champion: Ron Hornaday

* Last race: Greg Biffle won the Memphis 200 in Millington, Tenn.

* Next race: Kansas City 200, May 22, Odessa, Mo.

CART, Rio 400

* When: Today, qualifying, 9:45 a.m.; Sunday, race, (Channel 7, tape, 3 p.m.)

* Where: Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway at Nelson Piquet International Raceway (oval, 1.864 miles), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

* Defending champion: Greg Moore

* Last race: Juan Montoya won the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix in Nazareth, Pa.

* Next race: Motorola 300, May 29, Madison, Ill.

FORMULA ONE, Monaco Grand Prix

* When: Saturday, qualifying, (4 a.m., Speedvision). Sunday, race, ( 4:30 a.m., Speedvision).

* Where: Monte Carlo street circuit (2.068 miles), Monte Carlo, Monaco.

* Race distance: 161.304 miles, 78 laps.

* Defending champion: Mika Hakkinen

* Last race: Michael Schumacher gave Ferrari its first victory in the San Marino Grand Prix since 1983, beating David Coulthard’s McLaren by 4.26 seconds.

* Next race: Spanish Grand Prix, May 30, Barcelona.

NHRA, Fram Nationals

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday, second-round qualifying, 8 a.m. and noon (ESPN2, tape 7 p.m.); Sunday, final eliminations, 8 a.m. (ESPN2, tape, 5 p.m.)

* Where: Atlanta Dragway, Commerce, Ga.

* Defending champion: Cory McClenathan

* Last race: McClenathan in top fuel, John Force in funny car, Allen Johnson in pro stock and Brad Jeter in pro truck, were winners at the Pennzoil Nationals in Dinwiddie, Va.

* Next race: Mopar Parts Nationals, May 20-23, Englishtown, N.J.