End of Sunday’s 500-Mile Race Will Be Start of Sorts for Petty

Racing 500 miles in his Hot Wheels Pontiac Winston Cup car Sunday will only be a warmup for Kyle Petty and some of his NASCAR friends. After the race, along with father Richard, son Adam and fellow drivers Kenny Schrader, Steve Grissom, Tim Fedewa, Joe Nemechek and Steve Park, he will hop on his Harley and ride to Prescott, Ariz., about a six-to-seven hour jaunt on a motorcycle.

“It’ll be relaxing after driving around in circles all day to be able to go in a straight line,” said Petty, founder and organizer of the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America.

The sixth annual ride will start with 125 motorcycles taking a parade lap around California Speedway before Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts 500. The survivors will finish a week later at Petty’s farm in Trinity, N.C.

“When the last of them heads out the infield tunnel Sunday morning, they’ll leave those of us who have to make a living,” Petty said with a smile. “But as soon as the race is over, we’ll chase after them all the way to Prescott.”

Petty, who has grown from “Richard’s boy” to running day-to-day operations as CEO of Petty Enterprises, started his charity ride in 1995 on a whim.

“I always tell people it was a fad, sort of like Pet Rock, when we started,” he said. “Harry Gant, Robin Pemberton, myself and a couple of Harley dealers in North Carolina used to ride to Phoenix every November to have some fun in the off-season. We’d pick up guys along the way and one year we got to Globe, Ariz., and I thought, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be cool if we did this like kids do with their bikeathons where they get so much money for every mile they ride.’ I figured we could get sponsors the same way for a ride across the country. The first year we raised more than $50,000 for charity.”

This year’s ride will benefit Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang camps, including the newest in Malibu.

“Dad, Adam and I visited one of them in Florida and it was an amazing place for very sick kids to spend time with their families and just be kids,” Petty said. “I’d really like to bring one to North Carolina. Our corporate sponsors have been great with us. We’re up over a million dollars in five years that we’ve mostly given to children’s hospitals.”

Petty and Grissom will not complete the entire trip as they will be testing the new Dodge Intrepid on Tuesday and Wednesday at Homestead, Fla., under the watchful eye of Ray Evernham, the man responsible for returning Dodge to Winston Cup racing in 2001.

“All the Dodge people from our team, Evernham’s team and Bill Davis’ team will be there, but only Steve and I will do the testing,” Petty said. “Then we’ll rejoin the tour for a day before we leave it again to race next Saturday night at Richmond [Va.]. All the guys who aren’t involved in Winston Cup will ride into the track before the race and then we’ll all ride together Sunday to our place in North Carolina for a big barbecue and concert.”

Diane Hough, director of the Winston Cup Racing Wives Auxiliary, does all the advance work, finding gas stations, restaurants and hotels in 12 states for 125 or so motorcyclists at overnight stops in Durango, Colo.; Amarillo, Texas; Tulsa, Okla.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Charleston, W.Va., as well as Prescott and Richmond.

“If you think 125 guys is a lot to see riding around the track Sunday, you ought to see them when we all ride into a gas station with only two pumps,” Petty said. “Diane does a fantastic job for us, getting restaurant chains to feed us and hotels to put us up. Every place we stop we do something in the community, like playing softball, visiting hospitals, signing autographs. You can’t believe what a reception we get when folks hear there’s going to be some NASCAR folks in town.”

If Hough is the ride’s engineer, Don Tilley is the navigator. He leads the way.

“It can be a chore leading the show because you have to make sure you know exactly where you’re going,” Tilley said. “If I get off at the wrong exit or make a wrong turn, I have three miles of riders to deal with.”

Oh, yes, Petty will also qualify his Pontiac today for Sunday’s 500-mile race, and Adam will drive the team’s Sprint Chevrolet in Saturday’s Busch Grand National series event. Richard will be overseeing the legendary No. 43 STP Pontiac driven by John Andretti.

SOUTHWEST TOUR

The closest finish in NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour history occurred last year at Irwindale Speedway when Greg Pursley of Newhall nosed out Keith Spangler of Chatsworth by .019 of a second. Both will be back at Irwindale on Saturday night for the Foods 4 Less 100, another Southwest Tour event.

Missing will be Larry Krieger of Thousand Oaks, the Irwindale Grand American modified champion who started the season as a tour rookie. Krieger ended his partnership with CBA Motorsports and plans to return to the Grand American modified series.

Among the 43 entries are Sean Woodside, last year’s Winston West champion; and two drivers--Craig Raudman of Redding and Mark Reed of Bakersfield--who will be in the Winston West race Saturday afternoon at Fontana before driving at Irwindale that evening.

FLYING DOWN TO RIO

With more Brazilians than Americans in its roster, CART should feel more at home this week when its FedEx series runs the Rio 200 at Nelson Piquet Raceway in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is also defending champion in CART’s Nation’s Cup, having defeated the United States last year for the first time since the country competition began in 1995. Although Brazilians are winless in two races this year, they lead the Nation’s Cup on the basis of Gil de Ferran’s two poles and most laps led, plus runner-up finishes by Roberto Moreno at Homestead, Fla., and Helio Castro-Neves at Long Beach. Paul Tracy, with a third-place finish and a Long Beach victory, has Canada in second place, two points behind Brazil.

“Brazilian fans are pretty fanatic about racing,” said Christian Fittipaldi, one of 10 Brazilians in CART. “They have been enjoying motor racing of the highest level for about 20 or 30 years. First with Emerson Fittipaldi [Christian’s uncle] and then with Nelson [Piquet] and [Ayrton] Senna and now with the new boys.”

ROAD RACING CYCLES

Lake Elsinore-based Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki will seek its second consecutive victory in the Wrenchhead.com national road racing series Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway.

Grant Lopez of Wimberly, Texas, the team’s top rider, leads the series standings. Second is Ducati rider Larry Pegram of Baltimore, with Lee Acree, of Jamestown, N.C., on a Suzuki, third. One of Lopez’s teammates, John Hopkins, 16, of Ramona, won the opening race at Daytona, but failed to finish in the second heat.

The series includes four classes--unlimited Superbike, Formula USA SportBike, Buell Lightning series and the Aprilla Cup Challenge. Practice and qualifying is Saturday, with championship races Sunday, including two unlimited Superbike heats.

HANAUER RETIRES

Chip Hanauer, winner of 61 unlimited hydroplane races and a record 11 APBA Gold Cups, has announced his retirement. Hanauer, 46, rejoined the unlimited tour last year after a three-year absence and won his 11th Gold Cup on the Detroit river. His 61 victories is one shy of the record 62 set by the late Bill Muncey. “Last year was a gift,” he said. “I wanted to see if I could still win driving a boat that wasn’t the quickest for a team that wasn’t the richest. I started as an underdog and that was how I wanted to finish.”

LAST LAPS

Ron Wade leads Greg Edenholm by four points in U.S. Auto Club three-quarter midget points going into Saturday night’s MCI WorldCom main event at Perris Auto Speedway. . . . Suzuki rider Buddy Antunez of Moreno Valley won his fourth consecutive Arenacross championship. . . . The SoCal Sprinters Kart Club will host the Southwest Super Series on a 16-turn circuit this weekend at Adams kart track in Riverside. . . . Dale Earnhardt will celebrate his 49th birthday Saturday at California Speedway.

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This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, NAPA Auto Parts 500

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, 2:30 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 10 a.m.; Sunday, race (Channel 7, 11 a.m.)

* Where: California Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2 miles, 14-degree banking in turns).

* Race distance: 500 miles, 250 laps.

* Defending champion: Jeff Gordon.

* Next race: Pontiac Excitement 400, May 6, Richmond, Va.

*

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, Auto Club 300

* When: Today, second-round qualifying, 1:30 p.m.; Saturday, race (ESPN, noon).

* Where: California Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2 miles, 14-degree banking in turns).

* Race distance: 300 miles, 150 laps.

* Defending champion: Matt Kenseth.

* Next race: Hardee’s 250, May 5, Richmond, Va.

*

CART, Rio 200

* When: Saturday, qualifying, 11 a.m.; Sunday, race (ESPN, 9:30 a.m.)

* Where: Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway (oblong oval, 1.864 miles), Rio de Janerio.

* Race distance: 201.312 miles, 108 laps.

* Defending champion: Juan Montoya.

* Next race: Firestone Firehawk 500, May 13, Motegi, Japan.

*

NHRA, Moto1.net Nationals

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, 11:30 a.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 8 a.m.; Sunday, final eliminations, 8 a.m.

* Where: Virginia Motorsports Park, Richmond, Va.

* Defending champions: Cory McLenathan (Top Fuel), John Force (Funny Car), Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) and Brad Jeter (Pro Stock Truck).

* Next race: Advance Auto Parts Nationals, May 7, Commerce, Ga.