Ruttman Is in a More Important Race

By SHAV GLICK

Nov. 2, 2001 12 AM PT

Before Joe Ruttman started the 2001 Craftsman Truck series last February at Daytona Beach, Fla., he had two objectives.

One, at age 56, was to win his first NASCAR driving championship in Bobby Hamilton’s No. 18 Dodge truck.

Second, but much more important, was to find a way to turn around the doctor’s prognosis for Peggy, Ruttman’s wife of 15 years, who had developed an inoperable brain tumor.

Oligodendroglioma it was called, and the octopus-like tentacles that have wrapped around the left side of her brain are even more frightening than the name sounds.

“We’re making progress; we’re probably halfway there,” said Ruttman on arriving in Fontana for Saturday’s truck race at California Speedway.

“She’s undergone every kind of treatment imaginable up to this point, and now we’re hoping she hangs on long enough to take advantage of new discoveries.”

Peggy Ruttman is home in Franklin, Tenn., where friends and relatives say she remains remarkably upbeat. Several times this year she has gone to the races with Joe, something she did religiously a few years ago, but she did not make the long trip to California.

“If you didn’t know it, you might think she’s in the early stages of Parkinson’s,” Ruttman said. “Her left hand trembles a bit, and so does her left foot, but so far those are the only apparent symptoms.

“We put out a notice of her illness on the Internet and have been swamped with ideas of how to cure her. I’ll bet I’ve gone through four or five cartridges and a half a case of paper. We check out everything. You never know which one might make her well again.”

Racing has been difficult for Granddaddy Joe because he is on the phone with Peggy nearly every hour and spends little time at the tracks except for his actual racing.

He won that first race at Daytona and for most of the season waged a battle for the points lead with Jack Sprague, in a Chevrolet, and Scott Riggs in another Dodge.

Sprague will win the championship merely by starting Saturday’s race, but Ruttman can still get second place if he can finish ahead of Riggs.

“When Riggs passed me last week at Phoenix, Jim Smith reminded me that there’s an $80,000 difference between finishing second and third. As if I didn’t know that.”

Smith is a Buena Park industrialist who owns Riggs’ truck.

“We had a tough week in Phoenix [finishing 12th] so we’ve got ourselves against the wall so to speak. But Fontana is a good track for us and I expect to wind up second [in the series]. After all, I may live in Tennessee, but I’ll always be a California boy at heart.”

Ruttman, who finished second and third in the last two races at California Speedway, grew up in Ontario, only a few miles from the track.

This race will be the last with the Dana Corp. as the team’s sponsor after three years.

“We really wanted to bring Dana a championship in their last year, but NASCAR changed the rules after the first 16 races and tipped the scale away from Dodge, toward Ford and Chevy,” he said. “The race would definitely have been [between Ruttman and Riggs] if they hadn’t changed some aerodynamics and carburetor rules. After that, Sprague ran away with things.”

The lanky Ruttman, whose brother Troy won the 1952 Indianapolis 500, is already the oldest driver in the series to have won a race and a pole, but he says he’s not looking to retirement.

“If my health and my desire, which I think I have more than I ever had, stay the same, I can see myself driving five more years, at least,” he said. “If I’m not competitive, though, if I feel I can’t win, I’ll quit.”

He obviously can still win.

Sprint Cars

With $25,000 going to the winner, Saturday night’s 50-lap Oval Nationals at Perris Auto Speedway, the final event of the Non-Winged World Championship, will be the richest purse in the country for the popular wingless sprint cars.

Richard Griffin, three-time Sprint Car Racing Assn. champion from Silver City, N.M., is leading Cory Kruseman, the current SCRA champion and defending Non-Winged World champion in series points, 488-465. During the Midwestern segment of the series, Griffin won two races in Nebraska.

All former Non-Winged champions are entered in this weekend’s competition, which includes two 20-lap qualifying races tonight. Previous winners include Jimmy Sills of Placerville, 1996; Rip Williams of Yorba Linda, 1997; Rodney Argo of Gardena, 1998; Rickie Gaunt of Torrance, 1999, and Tony Jones of Corona, 2000.

J.J. Yeley of Phoenix, recent winner of the U.S. Auto Club sprint car title, is entered, along with Tony Elliott, two-time USAC champion from Kokomo, Ill. Jeremy Sherman of Phoenix, who won last Saturday night’s Western World championships race at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, will also be in the field. Sherman finished second in the Oval Nationals last year.

Kruseman’s 12th-place finish at Manzanita was enough to give car owner Harlan Willis of Ventura the SCRA owners’ title.

The father-son duo of Brent and Bud Kaeding will be among the favorites. Bud won last Thursday’s prelim at Manzanita and was leading Saturday’s main event on the last lap before a mechanical failure sent his car into the wall.

Other out-of-the-area entrants include Brad Noffsinger, former California Racing Assn. champion from Concord, N.C.; Tracy Hines of New Castle, Ind.; Ed Carpenter Jr., stepson of Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George, from Indianapolis; and Tyler Walker, former World of Outlaws driver from Oxnard.

Last Laps

Pro stock legend Bob Glidden was named No. 4 in the National Hot Rod Assn.’s list of its top 50 drivers. Shirley Muldowney, three-time top-fuel champion, was No. 5. The final three are John Force, Don Garlits and Don Prudhomme. The order will be named next week.

Chris Ulrich, 21, of Lake Elsinore, became the first second-generation rider to become the Western-Eastern Roadracers’ Assn. endurance champion when his Suzuki team won last week at Road Atlanta. His father, John Ulrich, won with Team Hammer in 1983 and 1984.

More than 350 vintage drag racers are expected for the Goodguys Fuel & Gas Finals and car show this weekend at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield. It will be the fifth and final stop for dragsters of 1972 and earlier vintage. Qualifying is Saturday, eliminations Sunday. The top-fuel championship will be decided between Jack “the Sheriff” Harris of Kayesville, Utah, and Rance McDaniel of Fresno. To win, defending champion McDaniel must reach the finals and defeat Harris, who has led from the opening race at Famoso.

The Glen Helen/Chaparral Motorsports Charity golf tournament raised $10,000 for the Loma Linda University Medical Center and Trauma Center.... Gary Garbrecht has bought Bernie Little’s 50% share of Hydro-Prop, becoming sole owner of the Unlimited Hydroplane series. The two were partners in last year’s competition, won by Little’s Miss Budweiser. NASCAR’s Featherlite Southwest Series concludes Saturday at Tucson Raceway Park, but Craig Raudman of Bakersfield clinched the series crown by finishing 30th last week at Phoenix.... Jay Drake, seriously injured in a USAC midget car accident two weeks ago in Terre Haute, Ind., has been released from the hospital.

CART driver Dario Franchitti and his fiancee, Ashley Judd, will host the CARA Charities annual Runway Madness tonight at the Ontario Convention Center. The fund-raiser, which includes live entertainment by CART drivers, will benefit the New York Police and Fire Widows and Children’s Benefit Fund and the Spark of Love Fund of the Ontario Fire Dept., as well as CARA Charities. Details: (317) 299-2277.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THIS WEEK

CART

Marlboro 500

When: Saturday, qualifying, 11:15 a.m. (ESPN, 10:30 p.m. Saturday, tape); Sunday: race (ESPN, 12:30 p.m.)

Where: California Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2 miles, 14-degree banking in turns), Fontana.

Race distance: 500 miles, 250 laps.

On the net: www.cart.com.2

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS

Craftsman 200

When: Today, qualifying, noon; Saturday, race (ESPN, 1:30 p.m.).

Where: California Speedway.