Schmidt Team at Home in O.C.

When Sam Schmidt won the Vegas.com 500 at Las Vegas two weeks ago, there was a definite tint of orange to the victory.

Schmidt’s team manager, Skip Faul, grew up in Orange, where his mother and stepfather, Bobbi and Art Nisson, and brother, Mark Faul, still reside.

“For Sam, it was great,” said Skip Faul, who is responsible for everything on the Indy Racing League team from the paint on the cars to test sessions. “We’ve been working all year for that. We led the last six races prior to Vegas.”

Lead mechanic Rick Hurford grew up in El Toro. He changes the left front tire (Faul the right) on Schmidt’s G-Force chassis.

It was the fourth victory for Faul since joining the team in 1997. They’ll try to do it one more time at the IRL race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

* Stephan Gregoire, driver for Dick Simon Racing of Dana Point, finished fourth the last time the IRL raced in Texas.

“It makes all the difference to a team if you have data from testing or racing at a track when you go back there to race again,” said Simon, whose team doesn’t do any testing outside race week. “Our G-Force narrow-track suspension works best on high-banked tracks like Texas Motor Speedway. Our fourth-place finish there in June was our best result this year, and we have all the data and suspension settings from that race at our disposal.”

Gregoire will begin the week’s practice sessions using the race setup, and it will be tweaked to accommodate track conditions.

“You bet I’m excited to be running Stephan in our second race in Texas,” Simon said.

Gregoire is coming off an eighth-place finish at Las Vegas--another high-banked track--after dropping to last place on the first lap when another car put him into a spin.

CHAMP CARS

During a test session last week at Fontana, Orange driver/owner Robby Gordon clocked 232.5 mph, believed to be the fastest average speed ever by a Toyota-powered champ car, a team spokesman said.

Gordon, in an Eagle chassis, reached the mark without an aerodynamic tow from other cars. Though conditions were different for the U.S. 500 in July, Gordon never reached as high as 221 at Michigan, which has essentially the same track configuration.

Gordon could be a driver to watch Sunday at Surfer’s Paradise in Australia. With two races remaining, he’s going to drive a different chassis in each race.

“If I have to scrape, break or destroy every bolt and body part on these cars this weekend, I’ll do it to win,” Gordon said. “This is the last time we’ll be running the Swift in 1999 before they become show cars for 2000, so there’s no need to worry about bringing home a good car.”

PERSONAL WATERCRAFT

The International Jet Sports Boating Assn. will conduct the championship rounds of its 18th Skat-Trak World Finals this weekend at Lake Havasu City, Ariz. Laguna Niguel’s Bill Pointer, Costa Mesa’s Tom Bonacci and Dana Point’s Frank Romero are among those trying to win personal watercraft’s biggest event. Often described as “motocross on water,” the finals were originally to be held in San Diego but were rescheduled when the California Coastal Commission said it needed more research regarding potential environmental impact on Mission Bay.

LAND SPEED

Huntington Beach car builder Edward Dempsey and his driver, Pat Rummerfield, will attempt to break the two-way land speed record for an electric-powered vehicle next week at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats.

The world record, set in 1997 by Eric Lueben of Fontana-based Rannberg Team Racing, is 215.265 mph. Without the sanction of the official governing body, Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, Dempsey’s “White Lightning” made a two-way pass at 239.533 in August.