Gwynn Making Run at Landing Sponsor at Pomona

Pomona has good memories for Darrell Gwynn. He would like just one or two more this weekend.

It was at Fairplex in 1986 that the kid from Miami won his first National Hot Rod Assn. top-fuel event.

It was there, while a teenager, he raced against Don “Big Daddy” Garlits, his boyhood idol.

And there at Pomona he had four of his 18 top-fuel victories.

His driving career ended in a horrifying accident in England in April 1990, when his dragster broke in half, the crash leaving him paralyzed from the chest down, his lower left arm gone and with only partial use of his right hand.

This weekend, back at Pomona as a team owner, Gwynn would like to see his driver, Mike Dunn, win another race, the Auto Club NHRA Finals, but more important, he would like to leave with a sponsor’s contract.

Midway through the season, while Dunn was leading in the championship standings, Mopar announced it was dropping its sponsorship of Gwynn’s team in 2000 after a 13-year relationship. Dunn won the opening event, the Winternationals at Pomona, and led until the U.S. Nationals, halfway mark in the season.

Some drag racing insiders felt the move was dictated by DaimlerChrysler’s announcement that it was returning to Winston Cup stock car racing in 2001, but Gwynn says it was more the downsizing of Mopar’s NHRA program. Its future emphasis will be on pro stock and pro truck teams.

Gwynn’s concern is that the season is nearly over, and the 2000 season will be on top of him in two months and he has not found a major-sponsor replacement, a $2-million support group.

“I’m pretty frustrated right now,” he said. “I don’t feel the sport [of drag racing] has reached the potential it should have. One problem I have is that potential sponsors want to know what exposure they will have on television, and the NHRA has been dragging its feet. It hasn’t announced next year’s TV plan yet.”

Several other high-profile teams are also sponsorless. Eddie Hill, one of the sport’s most popular drivers, is looking for help, as are Jim Head, Bob Vandergriff Jr., and funny car drivers Tommy Johnson Jr. and Cruz Pedregon.

“Having a sponsor in place is also vital to keeping our team together,” Gwynn said. “We think we have a championship contender. Mike won three races this year and led the points for 15 races, but the guys need to know what they’ll be doing next year. There are some teams out there who would like to hire some of my guys.”

One person not available is Dunn, 43, who signed a new contract with Gwynn last week.

“I look on his signing me as a sign that Darrell will come up with something,” said Dunn, who has won nine times as the team’s driver for seven years. “I know he’s not going to keep me on the payroll to sit at home and watch soap operas.”

Gwynn said that all of his associate sponsors--Winnebago, Prolong, Champion, Mac tools and Gates belts--are sticking with him, but the key is finding a primary sponsor.

Asked if he would run an independent team out of his own pocket, Gwynn smiled and said, “I may be a cripple, but I’m not crazy.”

This isn’t the first time the Gwynns--Jerry Gwynn, Darrell’s father, is the team manager--have been to Pomona without a sponsor, however.

In 1986, they showed up with an unpainted car, nothing but sheet metal showing, and Darrell laid down a series of 5.4-second passes in every round to win his first event. When he came back in the fall, the sides of his dragster had “Budweiser” on them--and he won again and ran 5.3 to win his first of three consecutive World Finals.

It will be easy to spot Gwynn at the track this week. He will come rolling out of the pits on his motorized wheelchair every time Dunn is scheduled to make a pass. He will set up just left of the starting line, in front of the grandstand.

From there, he watches intently as Dunn and the crew go through the pre-race ritual, then the five-second burst down the quarter-mile strip.

“You’ll be surprised how Darrell will see something and tell us about it back in the garage,” said Dunn. “He only gets to about half the races, but he knows exactly what’s going on with the car and the team.”

Gwynn will have added support this week. His wife, Lisa, and their 17-month-old baby, Katie Brianne, are here with him.

He and Lisa, who was the 1990 Orange Bowl Queen and 1991 Miss Miami, were engaged when Gwynn’s dragster broke in half and permanently altered his life in an exhibition run in England. They were married three years later.

Their baby was the first born from a frozen embryo through former pro football player Nick Buoniconti’s Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.

“This will be Katie’s first trip across the country,” Gwynn said. We took her to [a race in] Gainesville, Fla., and Mike won. Maybe she’s our good-luck charm. She’s sure mine and Lisa’s.”

Before he was paralyzed, Gwynn was a contributor to the Miami Project, and his mother, Joan, was treasurer of the Drag Racing Assn. of Women, a group of mothers, wives and girlfriends who hold charitable events to raise money for racing families hit by tragedy.

“Life’s crazy, isn’t it?” Darrell mused. “When Coors was my sponsor and we were giving part of our purse to the project, the last thought in my mind was that I might be needing it someday.

“I’m still working for them. I’m one of their favorite roast personalities. Just this week, I got roasted with Julius Erving, Don Shula and Larry Csonka at a fund-raiser in Miami Beach. They beat me up pretty good, but when it’s for them, I don’t mind at all.”

OVAL NATIONALS

The fourth annual Oval Nationals for wingless sprint cars also will serve as the final round of the Non-Winged World Championship this weekend at Perris Auto Speedway.

J.J. Yeley of Phoenix, with three consecutive victories, leads Cory Kruseman of Ventura, 373-361. U.S. Auto Club sprint car champion Dave Darland and 1998 champion Tony Elliott, both from Kokomo, Ind., headline an entry of Midwestern drivers here for a pair of $10,000 purses, one for the Oval Nationals and one for the Non-Winged title.

Other favorites include Richard Griffin, Sprint Car Racing Assn. leader; Rip Williams, 1997 Oval Nationals winner; Brad Noffsinger, former California Racing Assn. champion and winner of a Silver Crown race at Memphis last month; Jimmy Sills, 1996 champion who will be driving Andy Morales’ famed “Tamale Wagon”; and Brent Kaeding, perennial Northern Auto Racing Club champion.

GOLF, ANYONE?

Plugging into the tremendous popularity of NASCAR’s Winston Cup drivers, Ping will produce a line of golf gear, including carry bags and putters, that will carry the signatures and racing numbers of Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin.

In Jarrett’s case, it might be meaningful. He was a North Carolina high school champion and contemplated becoming a professional golfer before he became a race car driver. For the others, there’s no correlation.

LAST LAPS

Bobby Rahal has made it official-- Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Brack is leaving A.J. Foyt and the Indy Racing League to drive for Rahal in CART. . . . Roger Penske has tabbed Helio Castro-Neves to be Gil de Ferran’s Team Penske teammate next year. Castro-Neves, who was left without a ride when Carl Hogan disbanded his team, will replace Greg Moore, who was killed in an accident two weeks ago at Fontana.

More than 50 race truck drivers from around the country will battle it out for the American Race Truck series championship Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway. Among the entries is Arie Luyendyk Jr., son of the two-time Indy 500 winner, driving a Ford. Filling out the program will be MSRA Pro-4 modifieds and Figure 8s.

Cort Wagner of Los Angeles won the GT class in the American LeMans series finale at Las Vegas, taking the drivers’ championship with the win. Wagner and Dirk Muller led every lap in a Porsche 911. . . . Belinda Endress of Newbury Park was named most improved driver in the inaugural Women’s Global GT series, which ended last Sunday at Las Vegas.

This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP

Pennzoil 400

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, 12:30 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 8:30 a.m.; Sunday, race (Channel 4, 9:30 a.m.)

* Where: Homestead-Miami Speedway (oval 1.5 miles, eight-degree banking in turns), Homestead, Fla.

* Race distance: 400.5 miles, 267 laps.

* Last year: Inaugural race.

* Last race: Tony Stewart took the Checker Auto Parts/Dura Lube 500 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz., joining the late Davey Allison as the only rookies to win twice. Stewart started 11th in the 43-car field and took control of the 500-kilometer race on the 159th of 312 laps.

* Next race: NAPA AutoCare 500, Nov. 21, Hampton, Ga.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL

Hotwheels.com 300

* When: Today, qualifying, 11 a.m.; Saturday, race (Channel 4, 10:30 a.m.)

* Where: Homestead-Miami Speedway (oval 1.5 miles, eight-degree banking in turns), Homestead, Fla.

* Race distance: 300 miles, 200 laps.

* Last year: Jeff Burton passed Jimmy Spencer on the final lap for the victory.

* Last race: Jeff Gordon took the lead with a strong outside pass of Spencer 20 laps from the finish, then pulled away in the Outback Steakhouse 200 in Avondale, Ariz.

* Next race: End of season.

NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSN.

Auto Club NHRA Finals

* When: Today, qualifying, 1:45 p.m. (ESPN2, 10 p.m.) Saturday, eliminations, 11:15 a.m.; Sunday, final eliminations, 11 a.m. (ESPN2, noon).

* Where: Pomona Raceway, Pomona Fairplex.

* Last year: Chuck Etchells won in the funny car division, Kenny Bernstein won in top fuel, Richie Stevens in pro stock, Matt Hines in pro stock motorcycles and Brad Jeter in pro stock trucks.

* Last event: John Force won his 11th funny car final of the year at the Matco Tools Supernationals in Baytown, Texas. Larry Dixon, Rickie Smith and Tony Mullen also were winners in their categories.

* Next race: End of season.