Winston Cup Still in the Driver’s Seat

When Mario Andretti was the first honoree in 1967, American motor racing’s most prestigious award, driver of the year, was sponsored by Martini & Rossi.

Later, it became the Olsonite driver-of-the-year award, then Elger became the sponsor.

For the last several years, it has had no sponsor and the current custodian, Barry Schmoyer, continues to search for one.

A logical name would be Winston Cup driver of the year.

Six of the last seven recipients have been Winston Cup champions, among them the 2000 winner, Bobby Labonte. Before Dale Earnhardt in 1994, there had been only 13 NASCAR drivers selected in 27 years.

As Winston Cup evolved into the world’s most successful racing enterprise, it became easy for the 16-member driver-of-the-year panel to name the stock car series champion.

It’s not fair to drivers in other series, however.

Labonte, for instance, won only four of 34 races, earning the $3-million champion’s bonus through consistency. He didn’t even win as many races as his Joe Gibbs teammate, Tony Stewart, who had six victories.

Juan Montoya, Steve Kinser, John Force and Gary Scelzi all had more impressive seasons.

Montoya, who was overlooked two years ago in favor of Cup champion Dale Jarrett, won the Indianapolis 500, still the most important race in the world. In doing so, he was dominant over Indy Racing League drivers, and although mechanical problems sidelined him in eight CART races, he proved race after race that he was, by far, the fastest driver.

Gil de Ferran won the CART crown, but it was Montoya who led 11 races for 820 laps, more than twice as many as anyone else. He won three races, bringing the Toyota engine its first champ car win, at Milwaukee, and won seven poles, five on ovals and two on street circuits. Besides winning the IRL’s Indy 500, he won CART’s Michigan 500.

Montoya’s slight in 1999, his rookie season, was even more pronounced. He won seven of 20 CART races and the championship. Jarrett won four of 34 NASCAR races.

This writer, one of the panelists since 1969, voted for Montoya, as did one other.

Kinser, World of Outlaws sprint car champion for the 14th time, had 10 victories and 41 top-five finishes in 61 main events in what was probably the most competitive series in the country. At 46, he continued to dominate his sport against drivers half his age.

Three panelists voted for “the king of the Outlaws.”

Force, the only non-NASCAR driver to win the award since 1993, had an even better year than he had in 1996, when he was the first drag racer named driver of the year.

The talkative one-time truck driver from Yorba Linda won his 10th National Hot Rod Assn. funny car championship with 11 victories. No other driver won more than three. Force’s winning mark of 47.9% was the highest in any major racing series.

Force also received three votes.

Scelzi, the NHRA top-fuel champion from Fresno, was just as dominant in what probably was a more competitive class. Scelzi won nine national events, appearing in a record 11 final rounds and becoming the first driver to win three Winston championships in his first four seasons. He didn’t get a vote.

Despite the performances of Montoya, Kinser, Force, Scelzi and De Ferran, who received one vote, Labonte collected seven votes, not a majority, but enough to put his name on the driver-of-the-year roster.

ALL-AMERICAN TEAM

Six of the 12 drivers selected in balloting by members of the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Assn. are first timers--in stark contrast to Kinser, who was named for the 14th time.

The team will be feted at the annual AARWBA banquet, Jan. 13, at the Sheraton Suites Fairplex in Pomona, after a reception at the adjacent NHRA Motorsports Museum.

Among those selected for the first time were Labonte and De Ferran.

Two drivers were named in each of six categories. Kinser, a short-track selection, was joined by Jeff Green, NASCAR Busch Grand National champion, a first-timer. With Busch races at Daytona, California, Atlanta, Charlotte, Darlington and other superspeedways, it is ridiculous to call it a “short-track” series.

In the stock car category, which is where Green should have been nominated, the choices were Winston Cup teammates Labonte and Stewart, who was named for the fifth time.

Open wheel selections were the two champions, De Ferran for CART and Buddy Lazier for IRL. Montoya, despite having won the Indy and Michigan 500s, rated only second-team consideration.

Drag racing’s choices were easy, Force and Scelzi. It was the ninth time for Force, who also has twice won the Jerry Titus Award, given for the top vote-getter among all classes. The Titus winner will be announced at the banquet.

The four others, Brian Simo and Allan McNish in road racing, and Scott Dixon and Buddy Rice as at-large picks, were first-time honorees. All were series champions--Simo in Trans-Am, McNish in the the American LeMans series, Dixon in Indy Lights, and Rice in Toyota Atlantic.

Curiously, Dixon and Rice are both winners of CART development series, which meant they were selected over drivers such as Montoya, California 500 winner Adrian Fernandez, Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vasser and others who raced and won on the major league circuit.

Tickets for the banquet, which is open to the public, can be ordered by calling (818) 842-7005.

SUPERCROSS VS. MOTOCROSS

The supercross season will start Saturday night at Edison Field in Anaheim, prompting the question, “What is the difference between supercross and motocross?”

Supercross is an off-road race held inside a stadium where dirt--about 600 truckloads or 1.5 million pounds--is brought in and sculpted with bulldozers. Motocross is an off-road race over natural terrain with a few man-made jumps over a much longer course.

Supercross motos last 20 minutes, half as long as in motocross.

Supercross, in which action can been seen from every seat in the stadium, is motorcycling’s fastest growing sport. Last year, events averaged 47,445 spectators. Sellout crowds of 45,050 watched on successive weekends at Edison Field as Jeremy McGrath won the first two events in his campaign for a seventh supercross championship.

Another sellout is anticipated Saturday night to see McGrath try for a seventh victory at Anaheim and an eighth SX title.

There will be two more Anaheim appearances for supercross riders, Jan. 20 and Feb. 3. On Jan. 13 they will be at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium.

GILMORE WILL BE MISSED

Jim Gilmore, who was killed in a traffic accident during a snowstorm last Tuesday in Michigan, is best remembered for his ever-present smile and his red-and-white checkered team uniforms with “Jim Gilmore Racing” emblazoned over the pocket.

Gilmore, 74, was the owner of A.J. Foyt’s car when Foyt won his fourth Indy 500 in 1977.

“When A.J. got the winner’s ring, he took it off and gave it to me and said, ‘Jim, you may go broke, a lot of things may happen in your lifetime, but this is something we did together,’ ” Gilmore recalled later.

Before beginning his partnership with Foyt in 1973, Gilmore had sponsored Gordon Johncock in the Gilmore Broadcasting Specials, and cars owned by Lindsay Hopkins and Clint Brawner that were driven by Wally Dallenbach, Mel Kenyon, Jack Brabham, Art Pollard and Jimmy Caruthers. In all, cars carrying his colors won 30 U.S. Auto Club races.

LAST LAPS

General Motors’ announcement that the Oldsmobile division will be dropped does not mean that the IRL will be scrambling for engines. The Olds Aurora power plant has been the dominant engine in the series--only a few drivers use the Nissan--and GM has announced it will continue to supply that engine, perhaps calling it a Chevy after Oldsmobile is gone. . . . Irwindale Speedway will honor its five NASCAR 2000 track champions Saturday night at the Glendale Hilton. They are Bob Reed of Riverside, mini-stock; Jeff Green of Long Beach, super stock; Rip Michels of Mission Hills, Grand American modified; James Weston of Goleta, late model; and Greg Voigt of Santa Barbara, super late model.