Indy Tradition Might Provide the Perfect Formula

In three weeks, Formula One, motor racing’s No. 1 global sport, will return to the United States for the first time in nine years. It will be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on an infield road circuit using part of the famed 2.5-mile 500 track.

There will be no American driver, no American team, no American presence except for major corporation sponsors. Formula One succeeded at Long Beach primarily because it had world champion Mario Andretti, then failed in Detroit, Las Vegas and Dallas before falling completely on its face in Phoenix.

What are its prospects this time?

For one thing, the stands will be full, with more than 200,000 seats already sold. The mystique of Indy has attracted not only F1 fans from this country, but also the curious from abroad, all of whom know about the Indianapolis 500.

“At the moment we have 400 million viewers worldwide, watching live every Grand Prix, but we have not been able to have anything like the same ratio of appeal in the U.S.,” said team owner Eddie Jordan in a call from England.

“It is up to us to help [American racing fans] understand it, to get it more exciting, to show the technology of it, to make sure that the drivers become household names. Now, I know that there are lots of different sports [in the U.S.], things like baseball and NFL, those type of things, which are huge.

“We have a chance of a lifetime here that we had better not lose. We have to open our hearts, our teams, our people to Formula One to give as much education as we possibly can.

“If we fail it is our own mistake.”

MOTOCROSS / SUPERCROSS

Ricky Carmichael, riding for Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki of Irvine, won the opening race of the AMA national 250cc motocross championship last May at Glen Helen Raceway and never looked back.

The 5-foot-4, 150-pound rider from Havana, Fla., won his eighth event last week, tying the legendary Bob Hannah for most wins in a season. On Sunday, Carmichael will go for the record in the season finale at Delmont, Pa.

“I’d like to get the record, but I’m already getting ready for next year’s Supercross season,” said Carmichael from his personal training track in Cairo, Ga. “I want to be going 110% when we hit Anaheim. Last year the start was a bummer.”

Three of the first five races in the 2001 Supercross season will be at Edison Field, starting Jan. 6.

Carmichael broke his collarbone in a motocross in Paris on Nov. 13 and did not ride for four weeks. When the season began in January, he lacked the stamina for the grueling 20-lap stadium motos and won only one of 16 events. “I’m skipping all the lucrative European and Japanese races this year to concentrate on the Supercross,” said Carmichael, who has undergone a strenuous training regimen during which his weight has dropped from 170 to 150 since June. That was when he hired former World Cup mountain bike rider Aldon Baker of Calabasas as his personal trainer.

“Since I started working with Aldon and learning to stay focused on my racing, I haven’t lost,” he said. “I was kind of porky when he came aboard, but now I look skinny, and feel great.”

After Sunday’s race, Carmichael will join Travis Pastrana and Ronnie Hughes as United States representatives in the Motocross des Nations in France next week.

“It’s time we brought the Des Nations trophy back home,” Carmichael said. “This will be my third time and I want a win.”

The U.S., which won 13 straight titles from 1981 to 1993, has not won since 1996.

Carmichael will return home to ride in the U.S. Open of Motocross at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas on Oct. 14-15.

“The U.S. Open is on such a tight little course that it’s more like Arenacross than Supercross, but it pays a bundle so everyone will be there,” he said.

The winner of the Open collects $1 million, making it the richest motorcycle race in the world.

Jeremy McGrath, seven-time Supercross champion, will return to competition in Las Vegas after sitting out most of the outdoor motocross season. McGrath will continue to ride a Yamaha, but with new sponsorship. His longtime backer, Chaparral, is dropping out of the sport.

DRAG RACING

California Speedway will become a drag racing facility this weekend. The Jackson Racing Battle 2000 compact car extravaganza will use a temporary one-eighth mile track on the pit straightaway. More than 500 import and compact cars are expected to compete in the International Drag Racing Assn. event.

Lisa Kubo of Rosemead, the Shirley Muldowney of import racing, will be one of the favorites in the pro import class. Kubo drives a highly modified turbocharged Honda Civic capable of more than 153 mph in 9.59 seconds.

Jackson Racing, a Goleta aftermarket manufacturer, has spent more than $35,000 to transform pit lane into a drag strip. Promoters are expecting 15,000 to 20,000 spectators for the Saturday-Sunday competition.

BAJA 1000 BONANZA

The Petersen Automotive Museum, Toyota and SCORE International will join forces to hold a fund-raising tribute to the Baja 1000 Wednesday night at the museum. The evening, entitled “1000 Miles to Glory: A Tribute to the SCORE Baja 1000,” will feature two of off-road racing’s most famous machines, the Vic Hickey-Steve McQueen Baja Boot and Drino Miller’s Dune Buggies Magazine single-seater that won the 1000 in 1970 and 1971. Both vehicles, recently restored, will be unveiled that night and will remain on display through Sept. 10.

Many other off-road vehicles and racing personalities will be at the museum fund-raiser. Tickets are $50, which includes a Mexican dinner. Reservations: (323) 964-6311.

FASTER AND FASTER

Al Teague, in his blown fuel streamliner, just keeps rolling along. For the 11th time since 1980, Teague set the fast time during Bonneville Speed Weeks with a 382.731 mph run. After upping his own B blown fuel record to 381.867, the 59-year-old Brea driver now holds the AA, A, B and C streamliner records. It was Teague’s 33rd consecutive year on the Bonneville salt flats.

LAST LAPS

The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will do double duty this weekend with a 30-lap main event Saturday night at Ventura Raceway, followed on Sunday night by a similar event at Perris Auto Speedway. Defending series champion Richard Griffin won his eighth race of the year three weeks ago at Santa Maria and holds a commanding 213-point lead over Rip Williams.

The California Sport Car Club will hold its 50th anniversary party Saturday night at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, in conjunction with a SCCA double regional Saturday and Sunday. John Snow, assistant regional executive, said all former drivers, course workers, car owners and fans are welcome to the evening’s festivities. Buttonwillow, the Cal Club home track, is 30 miles west of Bakersfield.

If you like accordion music with the sounds of stock cars, Irwindale Speedway will be the place to be Sept. 23. Anyone bringing an accordion to play will be admitted free--along with a friend--to the NASCAR super late model Twin 50s. Greg Voigt leads the division with 636 points, followed by Ben Walker, 592 and Tim Woods III, 534.

Rusty Wallace, winner of the last two NASCAR Winston Cup races, is the third-quarter leader in driver-of-the-year balloting. Wallace led drag racer John Force, 123-66, with Michael Andretti and Bobby Labonte trailing. Earlier quarterly winners were NASCAR’s Mark Martin and Indy 500 winner Juan Montoya.

Andy Houston, 29, a veteran of the Craftsman Truck series, has been named by PPI team owner Cal Wells to replace Bill Elliott in the McDonald’s No. 96 Ford Taurus for next year’s Winston Cup season. . . . Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti have signed to remain with Barry Green’s Team Kool Green in 2001, ending rumors that Franchitti might join Jaguar’s Formula One team or replace Michael Andretti on the Newman-Haas CART team. Tracy signed through 2005, Franchitti for next year.

Kenny Sargent believes in putting realism into his Sunday Speedfreaks show on 97.1 FM. During a Cruisers race last Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway, Sargent tangled with Mike Companion and both crossed the finish line spinning backward, Companion winning by the margin of the rear bumper. The hour show starts at 7.

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This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP

Southern 500

* When: Today, first-round qualifying, (ESPN2, 12:30 p.m.); Saturday, second-round qualifying, 8:30 a.m.; Sunday, race (ESPN, 10 a.m.)

* Where: Darlington Raceway (egg-shaped oval, 1.366 miles, 25-degree banking in turns 1-2, 23-degree banking in turns 3-4), Darlington, S.C.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 367 laps.

* Defending champion: Jeff Burton.

* Next race: Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400, Sept. 9, Richmond, Va.

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

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL