ORANGE COUNTY MOTOR RACING / MARTIN HENDERSON : Salles Makes a Scoring Run for Gurney : McClenathan Seeks Salvation at Indy

The 45th NHRA U.S. Nationals, which continue through Monday at Indianapolis Raceway Park, could provide Anaheim’s Cory McClenathan with the one thing he needs to really salvage the season.

“Indy brings out the best in everybody,” said McClenathan, who won in 1996 and finished second in 1997. “We all want to win it. If you’re not in championship contention, you really want to win Indy--it gives you some bragging rights.”

McClenathan (816 points) is ninth in the series with seven races to go.

Lake Forest’s Kenny Bernstein (932) is in second place behind leader Mike Dunn (951).

Yorba Linda’s John Force (1,479 points) leads Tony Pedregon (1,157) in Funny Cars. Orange’s Del Worsham is fourth (706).

KARTING

Trabuco Canyon’s Jeff Wallace and Orange’s Jimmy Peters Sr. were among the kart winners at the MOMO Grand Prix over the weekend at the Irvine Spectrum. Wallace won the HPV Junior Class and also took third in Junior Superbox; Peters won the HPV Senior event.

Other local top-three finishers were Lake Forest’s Ryon Beachner (third, Kids Kart), Anaheim’s Gregory Turner Jr. (second, Junior 1) and Laguna Niguel’s Brad Sullivan (third, Junior 1).

Attendance totaled 5,000 over three days.

NASCAR SOUTHWEST

The NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series Los Angeles Street Race on Monday will have a couple of local drivers trying to crack the 36-car field, Tustin’s Kevin Para and Orange’s Tara Beattie, 24, the only woman entered. For Beattie, a road racer, it’s her NASCAR debut.

ELSEWHERE

A blocking penalty just yards from the finish line dropped Mission Viejo’s Tim Enoch from fourth place to sixth last weekend at the Star Mazda Series West Division Championship race in Topeka, Kansas. Enoch, who led the first 16 laps and fought an ill-handling car the second half of the race, was trying to hold off Alan Benson and Michael Potekhen in a photo finish for fourth place. Enoch (328 points) is second in the series, trailing race winner Joey Hand (365) after nine of 12 events. . . . Orange’s Robby Gordon originally was going to drive a Dan Gurney Eagle chassis for the CART season’s last two oval races, but will also drive the Eagle on Sunday at the Vancouver Molson Indy Champ car street race. Alex Barron led in an Eagle at last year’s race. . . . Gurney’s Santa Ana-based team will use its fourth driver of the season this weekend, Andrea Montermini, who last raced in the series in 1994. Race engineer Gerald Tyler of Garden Grove was replaced this week by John Baldwin, who has a background with Lotus and McLaren, and Gary Basel. . . . Scott Pruett of Rancho Santa Margarita-based Arciero-Wells Racing has had four top-six finishes in six career starts in Vancouver. He has finished in the top 10 in the two most recent road course events, and he ran in the top 10 in the last two oval events before an engine failure and a crash.