Vidovich, 19, Proves to Be Worthy of Ambitious Plans

NASCAR’s Featherlite Southwest Series is a mix of fresh-faced youngsters trying to claw their way to the top, i.e., Winston Cup, and grizzled veterans who work for a living and race stock cars for fun.

The youngest, and perhaps one of the best, is Auggie Vidovich, 19, of Lakeside, a suburb of San Diego.

Vidovich has the most victories, three; the most laps led, 262, 28 more than Craig Raudman; and is second in points to another youngster, Matt Crafton, 23, of Tulare, 2,390-2,242. Veteran M.K. Kanke, 38, of Frazier Park, is also in contention with 2,120.

Three of 19 races remain, starting with Saturday night’s 75-mile Irwindale Speedway main event, the Food 4 Less 150.

Vidovich drives the yellow No. 59 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The team has two cars, a 1999 model he will drive Saturday night and a 2000 model he won with in Albuquerque.

His three victories came with different scenarios. At Tucson, he led every lap, barely holding off 1999 Winston West champion Sean Woodside at the finish line. At Albuquerque, he was running third when the leaders, Crafton and Kanke, tangled and Vidovich went around them both. At Denver, he took the lead after 12 laps and when it started raining, he was declared the winner.

“My crew chief, Terry Hennry, decides which car to run and how to set it up,” said the jockey-sized former kart racing champion. “I just drive it.”

His father, also Auggie, bought the cars and keeps the books but won’t let his son know how much his racing habit costs.

“He says he doesn’t want me to get stressed out worrying about what it will cost if I bang a fender or crunch the front end,” he said. “I do know, though, that one more year of the Southwest Series is about all the family can handle. If I want to go on, to Craftsman Trucks, I hope, I’ve got to find someone who will sponsor me.”

The way he has improved since last year, when his best finish was an eighth while racing a limited schedule, should attract sponsors.

“I was pretty discouraged after last year,” he said. “I felt if I couldn’t do any better this year, I’d quit. I didn’t want to waste money and time if I wasn’t going to get any better, but I went to the Evernham-Hawley driving school at Irwindale and things really turned around this season.”

Even though he is only 19, Vidovich has been racing for eight years, starting in karts at Amago Raceway, near Poway.

“I had a neighbor friend, Austin Cameron, who is driving in Winston West now, and he was into karts then. I hung around with him and started driving and my dad bought me one and I started racing at Amago. Next thing we were traveling all over Southern California and then, when I was 14 or so, all over the country.”

When he was 16, Vidovich moved into stock cars, where he was named rookie of the year in the Toyota All-American Stock Car Challenge series at Willow Springs Raceway.

“I’ve known this young man since he was a junior in kart racing,” said Bob DeFazio, Irwindale Speedway vice president. “He’s always been a class kid all the way. I’ve been very impressed with his level of maturity in the big leagues.”

MOTORCYCLES

There is nothing like competing series to confuse motor racing fans, such as the open-wheel rivalry between CART and the Indy Racing League, or the sports car confusion between the American LeMans series and Grand American Road Racing Assn.

Now it’s motorcycling’s turn.

The American Motorcyclist Assn. dirt-track series, which has been running since 1924 and has produced such champions as Kenny Roberts, Joe Leonard, Jay Springsteen and Scott Parker, has a 15-race schedule this year.

But it has been upstaged by the Wrenchead.com national dirt-track series, whose 10-race schedule ends this weekend at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego. The new series is produced by SFX, Inc., the same group that produces Supercross.

Unlike CART and IRL, the same riders can compete in both dirt-track series. Only twice has there been a date conflict.

Chris Carr, the defending AMA champion, is expected to be the first Wrenchead.com champion. All he needs to do to win is qualify his Harley-Davidson for Sunday’s main event. After winning last week in Phoenix, Carr leads Springsteen by 76 points.

“The difference is in the money,” said Carr, 33, who moved from his childhood home in Valley Springs, Calif., to Reading, Pa., after marrying a Pennsylvania girl. “Last year I got $15,000 for winning the AMA series. The Wrenchead.com champion will get $50,000.”

Joe Kopp, a Suzuki rider from Mica, Wash., leads the AMA series, which will conclude next weekend in DuQuoin, Ill. Kopp will also be at Del Mar. Carr, who has won three AMA and two Wrenchead.com races, is third in the AMA.

“Del Mar is an important race, not only for me to wrap up the championship, but for the entire industry,” Carr said. “It usually has the largest attendance of the year and carries a lot of prestige even though it’s only in its seventh year.

“No one knows what will happen next year, if the two groups will get together or go their separate ways. The AMA has its historical heritage, but the Wrenchead.com has the money.

“Riders like myself and Springer [Springsteen] have won our share of AMA races and championships, so it’s like ‘been there and done that.’ The money is more appealing than tradition to us.”

Springsteen, 43, won 44 Grand Nationals and AMA titles in 1976, 1977 and 1978. Carr has won 47 races and AMA titles in 1992 and 1999.

After winning his third consecutive race at Del Mar last year, nine-time champion Parker announced his retirement. However, the 38-year-old Michigan rider returned to the sport in mid-season to win the Springfield Mile and will be at Del Mar trying to make it four in a row on the mile oval.

*

With only two events remaining this year, what was to be the Los Angeles Times Speedway Farewell on Saturday night and the 2000 Coors Light U.S. National Speedway championship Oct. 14, the Costa Mesa Speedway has received a reprieve for 2001.

All season long, promoter Brad Oxley has said that the tiny bullring oval on the Orange County Fairgrounds was in its last year of operation. Founded in 1969 by Oxley’s parents, Harry and Marilynn Oxley, and 1937 world speedway champion Jack Milne, the track had operated continuously for 31 years but faced closing because of escalating overhead.

Not the least of overhead was the lease from the Orange County Fair and Exposition Center, but earlier this week Oxley came to terms with the board on a one-year contract for 2001.

“Although International Speedway, Inc., had sought a three-year deal to assure the future of speedway in Southern California, we are pleased with our new contract and look forward to another successful year,” said Oxley, also defending champion in the U.S. Nationals.

A 20-rider field, including five former winners--Bart Bast, Mike Faria, Chris Manchester, Bobby Schwartz and Oxley--will compete, as will Costa Mesa points champion Dukie Ermolenko, who edged former California state champion Charlie Venegas by one point.

HOT ROD REUNION

Danny Ongais, racing’s legendary “Danny On the Gas,” will be grand marshal for this weekend’s ninth annual NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway, north of Bakersfield. Before Ongais became famous as an Indy car and sports car driver, he was a champion drag racer.

Ongais’ first national win after moving from his native Hawaii was the 1964 Winternationals at Pomona, where he defeated Mickey Thompson in the finals.

The reunion will also honor six hot rod pioneers--Nick Arais Jr., Robert “Bones” Balogh, Dave and Tim Beebe, Cloy Fitzgerald and Bob Noice.

The Automobile Club-sponsored event will feature more than 300 drivers in seven racing categories, including the spectacular front-engine top-fuel dragsters. Qualifying and time trials begin at 2 p.m. today and 11 a.m. Saturday with eliminations at 11 a.m. Sunday.

LAST LAPS

Joe Gibbs, whose drag racing team has won 33 NHRA events in six years, has announced that he is ending his program after the 2000 season. Cory McClenathan, Gibbs’ top-fuel driver who has finished second in the point standings three times, will continue to drive the remainder of the schedule.

Driver appearances by Baja 1000 winners Larry Ragland, Walker Evans and Curt LeDuc, plus more than 100 racing vehicles, will highlight the Off Road Expo 2000 this weekend at the Pomona Fairplex. The expo will open at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, UAW-GM Quality 500

* When: Sunday, race (TBS, 10:10 a.m.)

* Where: Lowe’s Motor Speedway (quad-oval, 1.5 miles, 24 degrees banking in turns), Concord, N.C.

* Race distance: 501 miles, 334 laps.

* Last race: Jeff Gordon passed Bobby Labonte with seven laps to go to win.

* Last race: Tony Stewart kept the lead through the final pit stops and held off charging Dale Earnhardt over the last 11 laps to win the NAPA 500 in Martinsville, Va.

* Next race: Winston 500, Oct. 15, Talladega, Ala.

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

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, All Pro Bumper to Bumper 300

* When: Today, second-round qualifying, 9 a.m.; Saturday, race (TBS, 10:10 a.m.)

* Where: Lowe’s Motor Speedway (quad-oval, 1.5 miles, 24 degrees banking in turns), Concord, N.C.

* Race distance: 300 miles, 200 laps.

* Last year: Michael Waltrip took the lead midway through the final lap to win. It was his first Busch series victory in six years.

* Last race: Matt Kenseth won the MBNA.com 200 in Dover, Del., his second in Busch competition at the track. It was his third win this season and 10th overall. Kenseth, who started 14th, took the top spot for the final time by passing Dave Blaney on the 161st of 200 laps. Kenseth went on to win by 1.842 seconds over Jason Keller, who won at Dover in June.

* Next race: Rockingham 200, Oct. 21, Rockingham, N.C.

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

FORMULA ONE, Japanese Grand Prix

* When: Today, qualifying, (Speedvision, 9 p.m.); Sunday, race, (Speedvision, 10 p.m. Saturday)

* Where: Suzuka Circuit (road course, 3.636 miles, 21 turns), Suzuka, Japan.

* Race distance: 192.708 miles, 53 laps.

* Last year: Mika Hakkinen won, clinching the championship for the second straight year. Eddie Irvine needed to finish ahead of Hakkinen to win the title, but came in third.

* Last race: Michael Schumacher overwhelmed the field in the inaugural Formula One race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, winning the U.S. Grand Prix to take the lead in the standings. The crowd of more than 200,000 was the biggest in the history of the Grand Prix circuit. Schumacher beat Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello by 12.118 seconds for his second straight victory and seventh of the season.

* Next race: Malaysian Grand Prix, Oct. 22, Kuala Lumpur.

* On the net: https://www.f1.on.net

NHRA, Autozone Nationals

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

* Where: Memphis Motorsports Park, Memphis, Tenn.

* Last year: Tommy Johnson Jr. defeated Tony Pedregon in the Funny Car finals. Doug Herbert, Mike Edwards, Angelle Seeling and Brad Jeter also won their pro categories.

* Last event: Gary Scelzi broke an NHRA record with his seventh Top Fuel victory of the season, taking the Auto Parts Nationals in Topeka, Kan. John Force (Funny Car), Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) and Bob Panella (Pro Stock Truck) also were winners in their categories.

* Next race: O’Reilly Fall Nationals, Oct. 22, Ennis, Texas.

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