Wells Is Ready to Renounce His Membership in Jet Set

By MARTIN HENDERSON

July 21, 2000 12 AM PT

Cal Wells III sat in his office on Wednesday, another long day behind him.

“I’m wearing out,” Wells said. “This 6,000 miles a week is ridiculous.”

Wells, owner of PPI Motorsports, was talking about his frequent flyer miles and his decision to move his CART Champ car operation from Rancho Santa Margarita to Hickory, N.C., where his NASCAR Winston Cup team is housed. Wells has been bicoastal most of this year, splitting time at CART or NASCAR events, or the airport. “Just for me,” Wells said, “I bet I spend $150,000 [per year] on travel.”

After 21 years of conducting motor racing business on the Left Coast, Wells decided two weeks ago that Right was right, and made that decision public on Wednesday.

“It will be a lot easier for me,” Wells said. “It will allow me to do what I enjoy doing. I desperately wanted to be part of the [six-day] Nevada 2000 off-road event last week, but couldn’t because I was so spread out. Travel consumes so much of my time.”

Wells expects the move to save him more than $1 million per year, which he will need as the CART series expands by two races and goes into Europe with events in Germany and England.

His off-road racing operation will remain in Southern California. Ivan “Ironman” Stewart and Larry Roeseler took third overall for PPI in the Best of the West Nevada 2000; Stewart won the third stage, and Roeseler the sixth, making PPI the only team to win more than one stage.

Even if Wells hadn’t ventured into NASCAR this season, he still could not stay in California. “With CART’s expansion, ultimately we would have to move to Indianapolis,” he said.

Wells will sell or lease his 54,000-square-foot facility in Rancho Santa Margarita.

PPI Motorsports began in 1979 as an off-road racing company, and Southern California was the ideal location. It also made sense to be here when PPI--then called Arciero-Wells Racing--became one of the Toyota Champ car engine development teams, along with Dan Gurney’s Santa Ana-based All American Racers. They were close to Toyota Racing Development in Costa Mesa and Toyota Motor Sales USA in Torrance.

“We were their focus group and we needed to be close to them,” Wells said. “[Toyota’s] expansion into multiple teams [Chip Ganassi Racing, Della Penna Motorsports], and their reduced focus on PPI and AAR, really doesn’t require us to be close to TRD and TMS.

“Their involvement with our team remains very strong, but it’s completely different. They have [other owners Chip Ganassi and John Della Penna], and they’ve set up their own little hub in Indy. The initial entree into Indycar, and the symbiotic day-in and day-out relationship, is not required any longer.”

The move to Hickory is expected to erase 27 travel days for team members over the course of the CART season, and 115 days on the road for the transport crew. Wells hopes to take about 80 employees with him.

Lee White, general manager of TRD, which builds the Toyota racing engines, was comfortable that Wells made the right decision for himself.

“His boys, Cristiano [da Matta] and Oriol [Servia], are really running strong for us,” White said. “If this results in his crews, his engineers, having a better quality of life through the roughest part of the season and be able to spend more time with their families and more time preparing the cars, it will make their effort even stronger, and we support that.”

Wells’ announcement came at the halfway point of the CART season. His lead driver, da Matta, has finished in the top five in his last three events and five of the last six.

NASCAR

Scott Pruett, Wells’ Winston Cup driver, tested this week at Indianapolis. He was 11th-fastest among 25 Ford drivers. It was his first trip to the Brickyard since driving an Indy car in 1995.

“It was a really strange feeling, just weird,” Pruett said. “It took me a while to adjust to going around that place in a car with fenders.”

INDY RACING LEAGUE

Dana Point team owner Dick Simon signed a contract extension with Santa Ana-based Mexmil Company to be the primary sponsor of the No. 7 car through 2003. Simon also signed a contract extension with his driver, Stephan Gregoire, through 2001. The team will change its name from Dick Simon Racing to Team Mexmil/Dick Simon Racing.

“In this sport, continuity always pays off, and I am sure that our first win is around the corner,” Simon said. “Stephan and I have been improving our communication race after race, and we are now expecting to enjoy the fruits of our labor in the past two seasons. Stephan is one of the three most experienced Indy Racing drivers, and I believe he is a championship contender for the 2001 Indy Racing Northern Light Series.”

If you have an item or idea for the motor racing report, you can fax us at (714)966-5663 or e-mail us at martin.henderson@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

ON TRACK

Orange County Speedway

Through July 16

Speedway motorcycles

1. Charlie Venegas, San Bernardino: 414

2. Brad Oxley, San Juan Capistrano: 282

3. Dukie Ermolenko, Cypress: 261

4. Bobby Schwartz, Costa Mesa: 249

5. Shawn McConnell, Brea: 245

Schedule

Tonight--Friday sidecar, quad, midget championship, extreme jumping; Saturday--Fair Derby (speedway); Sunday--Youth Motorized Olympics (Jr. speedway series), Vintage Dirt Track races.

Irwindale Speedway

Through July 16

Super Late Model

1. Greg Voigt, Goleta: 472

2. Ben Walker, North Hills: 438

3. David Brandon, Palmdale: 380

4. Tim Woods, Chino: 364

5. Tommy Fry, Simi Valley: 352

Late Model

1. James Weston, Goleta: 578

2. Todd Burns, Riverside: 518

3. Steve Nickolai, Simi Valley: 476

4. Tony Green, Oak Hills : 474

5. Deryk Ward, Palm Springs: 460

Grand American

1. Rip Michels, Mission Hills: 334

2. Dean Kuhn, Oceanside: 318

3. John Watkinson, Canyon Country: 258

4. Robert Rice, Hawthorne: 244

5. Henry Ford Jr., Alta Loma: 240

Super Stock

1. Jeff Green, Long Beach: 476

2. T.K. Karvasek, North Hills: 458

3. Mike Price, San Pedro: 382

4. Yagel Berkovitz, Burbank: 376

5. Tom Siebuhr, Canyon Country: 356

Mini Stocks

1. Bob Reed, Riverside: 200

2. Terry Limberopoulos, Bellflower: 184

3. Lee Ladd, Thousand Oaks: 172

4. Rod Bornhop, Orange: 166

5. Gil Gillis, Simi Valley: 150

Schedule

Saturday--NASCAR Super Late Models, Grand American Modifieds, Speed Trucks, MSRA Pro 4 Modifieds; 29--NASCAR Home Depot Southwest Series, Late Models, Super Stocks.

Perris Auto Speedway

Through July 16

SCRA Sprint Cars

1. Richard Griffin, Silver City, N.M.: 1288

2. Rip Williams, Yorba Linda: 1109

3. Jeremy Sherman, Phoenix: 989

4. Cory Kruseman, Ventura: 963

5. Ricky Gaunt, Torrance: 959

PASSCAR Street Stocks

1. Luke Dodd, Riverside: 241

2. Henry Wesolowski Sr., Temecula: 201

3. Ron Warkington, Riverside: 188