Ambitious Doesn’t Begin to Describe Gaughan’s Goals

What possible connection could there be between a 150-mile stock car race Saturday night on the pavement at Irwindale Speedway and a 1,726-mile off-road odyssey starting Sunday that crisscrosses the Baja California peninsula?

The answer: Brendan Gaughan.

The 25-year-old Las Vegas driver will race in both.

All he needs to do to win the NASCAR Winston West championship is take the green flag for the start of the Home Depot 300 at Irwindale. Then the Winston West awards banquet is scheduled Sunday night in Cerritos and Gaughan plans to be there to collect his loot.

“I’ll be there for sure, to get the prize money and kiss the trophy girl,” he said.

“First, though, we plan to win that race at Irwindale. We know we’ll win the championship, but we want to make a statement. I’ve been in the lead in both races there this year but didn’t get the wins.”

Gaughan finished second to Bobby Dotter last June and fifth in a race won by Joe Bean in August.

The Baja 2000, a historic double-distance replacement for the annual Tecate Baja 1000, will start Sunday morning in Ensenada. The Chevrolet trophy truck that Gaughan is scheduled to co-drive, will leave around 9 a.m.

“I’ll be on the satellite phone all day, monitoring the truck’s progress,” Gaughan said. “I’ll leave at 5 a.m. Monday and fly to Loreto, clear customs, and drive to Ciudad Constitucion to take over the wheel in the truck.

“If things go right, we’ll land about 7:30 and get in the car about 10 a.m. Then I’ll drive the final 600 miles, which should take about 10 hours.”

Walker Evans, 61, legendary pioneer off-road racing driver, will take the truck off the starting line Sunday. He will drive about 800 miles and turn it over to Roger Gray, who will take it to Constitucion.

“If I can win at Irwindale and then take the checkered flag at Cabo, it would be the greatest weekend of my life,” said Gaughan. “It would also be a great addition to Walker’s Baja resume.”

Evans won the 1979 Baja 1000 overall, driving a Dodge pickup, and he won nine class championships between 1970 and 1986. He drove his first Baja race in a Rambler sedan for actor James Garner’s American Motors team in 1969.

“I took a third in that first race and I knew I had to get serious about desert racing,” Evans recalled by phone from Cabo San Lucas, where he and Gaughan have been pre-running the 2000 course. “I took the bull by the horns and began building my own vehicles.”

Evans later built trucks for Gaughan’s father, a Nevada casino operator, and also had him as a sponsor. The Chevy truck the trio will drive this weekend was built by Evans in his Riverside shop.

“I grew up listening to my dad, Walker and Parnelli [Jones] talking about their Baja experiences, and I loved every minute of it,” Gaughan said. “I had one myself, but it wasn’t real satisfying.”

In 1993, Gaughan drove in the Baja 500 as Evans’ teammate. Evans won the race in nine hours, but Gaughan, then only 18, needed 24 hours to find the finish line.

“The crew was not happy with me,” he recalled with a laugh. “I also did the 1000 in 1991 but I sat in the passenger’s seat all the way. That’s a lot tougher than driving.”

The Baja 2000 has attracted more than 250 entries, among them old-timers such as Rod Hall and Ron Bishop, the only racers to have competed in every Baja 1000; Ivan Stewart, three-time Baja 1000 winner; Larry Roeseler, winner of 12 Baja races as a motorcyclist who is now Stewart’s co-driver of a Toyota trophy truck; Larry Ragland, winner of the Baja 500 trophy truck race last June, and an all-Indy car driver team of Jimmy Vasser, Roberto Guerrero and Mike Groff.

The winning vehicle is expected to finish in about 35 hours. There is an 80-hour limit for starters to become official finishers.

*

Although Gaughan has the Winston West crown all but assured with a 168-point lead, Saturday night’s $142,891 event will feature some tight competition for other positions in the standings.

Steve Portenga, who won at Irwindale last year, is second with 1,618 points. Only six behind him is Dotter, a North Carolina driver who has won three times since becoming a Winston West regular. Fourth is veteran Bill Sedgwick, the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all four Winston West races held at Irwindale.

When Gaughan won a Super Late Model race a year ago at Irwindale, the first paved-track victory of his career, he did cartwheels in front of Victory Circle.

“I’ll do it again if I win,” he said. “In fact, I may do some anyway to celebrate winning the championship.”

Also on the program will be a 75-lap race for Ultra Wheel spec trucks.

OVAL NATIONALS

For dirt-track fans, there’s been nothing like the fifth annual Budweiser Oval Nationals scheduled this weekend at Perris Auto Speedway.

With a $25,000 purse guaranteed to Saturday night’s winner, it is the richest prize for a non-winged sprint car race in history. Consequently, it has attracted racers from all over the country, along with the Sprint Car Racing Assn. regulars.

Qualifying and heats tonight, climaxed by a 25-lap main event, will set the stage for Saturday night. After a last-chance race, a C main and B main, 24 cars will contest the 50-lap championship race.

Jay Drake, coming off a $10,000 victory last Saturday night in Phoenix, will be the out-of-town favorite against SCRA champion Raymond Griffin, Perris favorite Rip Williams and U.S. Auto Club champions Dave Darland and Tony Elliott.

Williams won the 1997 Oval Nationals and last week won his 53rd SCRA main event.

The Oval Nationals are also part of the Non-Winged World Championship series. Drake has won five of seven races, but because of a technicality, is not eligible for the championship.

Griffin is the series leader, with defending champion Cory Kruseman only 51 points behind. J.J. Yeley, who had been expected to be one of the favorites, will not race after breaking his arm when his car sailed out of the track during prerace lapping at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix.

DRAG RACING

The NHRA Motorsports Museum’s second annual “Night of Champions,” honoring drag racing icon TV Tommy Ivo, will be held 5-10 p.m. today at Gate 1 of the Pomona Fairplex.

Ivo’s famed four-engine dragster will be on display. Many champions from the NHRA’s 50 years, among them Gary Beck, James Warren, Gas Ronda, Art Chrisman, Tony Nancy, Larry Dixon Sr., Jim Nelson, Ed Iskenderian and Marvin Graham will be on hand to meet fans and sign autographs.

*

Lori Johns, a former NHRA top-fuel event winner, says the birth of a daughter last Aug. 23 was “even better than winning the Winternationals.” Johns won the 1990 Winternationals at Pomona.

LAST LAPS

Mel Kenyon, who won a Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix in 1975 at Speedway 605 in Irwindale, will return to the San Gabriel valley community this Thanksgiving to drive in the 60th running of the U.S. Auto Club traditional race at Irwindale Speedway. Kenyon, 67, also won the Turkey Night GP in 1963 at Ascot Park.

Cristiano da Matta has confirmed that he is leaving Cal Wells’ PPI Motorsports team to join Newman-Haas Racing next as a replacement for Michael Andretti. It was also announced that Brazilian teammates Da Matta and Christian Fittipaldi, winner of last month’s Marlboro 500 at California Raceway, will be using Toyota engines next season. This year the team used Fords.

Greg Biffle became the first $1-million winner in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck series when earnings of $1,992,510 were announced at the awards banquet last week in Scottsdale, Ariz. Biffle, who drove a Ford for Jack Roush, won five races, was on the pole four times and led 19 of 24 events. The Vancouver (Wash.) driver will compete in the Busch series next year.

With a third-place finish in the San Diego Grand Prix, Brian Simo of Carlsbad finally won the Trans-Am championship after three years as a runner-up. Simo won three of 12 races driving a Qvale Mangusta.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, Pennzoil 400

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, 11 a.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 7:30 a.m.; Sunday, race (Channel 4, 9:30 a.m.)

* Where: Homestead-Miami Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles, 8 degrees banking in turns), Homestead, Fla.

* Race distance: 400.5 miles, 267 laps.

* Last year: Dale Jarrett finished fifth to win his first championship. Tony Stewart won the race and made history as the first rookie with three victories.

* Last race: Jeff Burton won the Checker Auto Parts/Dura Lube 500 in Avondale, Ariz. Burton recovered from a broken jack during the leaders’ pit stops on the lap 250th of 312 laps.

* Next race: NAPA 500, Nov. 19, Hampton, Ga.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, HotWheels.com 300

* When: Today, qualifying, 9:30 a.m.; Saturday, race (Channel 4, 10 a.m.)

* Where: Homestead-Miami Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles, 8 degrees banking in turns), Homestead, Fla.

* Race distance: 300 miles, 200 laps.

* Last year: Joe Nemechek won, taking advantage of a mistake by Ward Burton, who was disqualified for jumping a restart with only three laps left.

* Last race: Jeff Burton overpowered the field to win the Outback Steakhouse 200 in Avondale, Ariz. The Winston Cup regular earned his fourth Busch Series victory in 13 starts this season, leading 148 of the 200 laps.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com

NHRA, Automobile Club Finals

* When: Today, second-round qualifying, 1:45 p.m.; Saturday, eliminations, 12:15 p.m; Sunday, final eliminations, 11 a.m.

* Where: Pomona Raceway, Pomona.

* Last year: Jerry Toliver earned his first career Funny Car victory. Mike Dunn, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Antron Brown and Steve Johns also won their categories.

* Last event: Gary Scelzi won his third NHRA Top Fuel championship, and Bob Panella Jr. earned his second career NHRA Pro Stock Truck victory at the O’Reilly Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas. Steve Johns, Cory McClenathan, John Force and Kurt Johnson won their categories.

* On the net: https://www.nhra.com