Kruseman Is Having Season to Remember

Ron Shuman, president of the Sprint Car Racing Assn., won seven championships in non-winged sprint cars in his day--and a record 13 races in one season--but he says no one has dominated his sport as Cory Kruseman has this season.

Kruseman, 31, has won 14 main events already this year--so much for Shuman’s record--and is a heavy favorite to win two more when the SCRA returns to Perris Auto Speedway for races tonight and Saturday night. In 16 races at Perris, the Ventura driver has won 11.

“He’s way ahead of everybody,” Shuman said. “I had a year, I think it was ‘91, when I won 13 out of 36 with Billy Wilkerson, and Kruseman is on a pace to do better than that,” Shuman added. “He’s having a phenomenal year. Even when he doesn’t win, he’s nearly always in the top three. He is just very, very good.”

With six races left, Kruseman leads three-time defending champion Richard Griffin by 102 points.

Kruseman, a racer since his stepfather got him a motorcycle as soon as he could reach the pegs, has no answer for his remarkable win streak.

“I have no idea what’s made the difference,” he said. “We’re not doing a thing different from last year. The guys have worked hard, like they always have, but I keep thinking after each race it may be over. But luck keeps running our way.” Harlan Willis, a Ventura machine shop owner, has been Kruseman’s car owner and mentor one way or another for 14 years.

“Harlan has been like a dad to me,” said Kruseman, whose stepfather was killed in a three-quarter midget race in El Centro when Cory was 13. “He raced TQs against my father and we’ve been good friends as long as I can remember.”

Shuman has two reasons for Kruseman’s rise to the top:

“First, he’s been with the same team for at least five years, maybe more. ... Second, Cory went to Australia to race last year so he had no time off. When the season started last February in Phoenix, he never missed a beat.”

Kruseman, who finished second in the Australian Midget Grand Prix in Sydney, won the opening SCRA race at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix and two weeks later scored the first of his 11 Perris victories in the opener there. He also has won twice at Ventura Raceway.

“The only thing different this year is our precious little daughter, Casie. She’s 3 months old now,” Kruseman said.

Kruseman married Carri Johnson, his sweetheart from Ventura Buena High, in 1996.

“We had high school friends who separated when they went to college, but we never did because my college was right here in Ventura with four wheels on it,” he said.

In addition to the SCRA regulars, such as Griffin, Rip Williams, Mike Kirby and Tony Jones, Kruseman will have to contend with Peter Murphy, an Australian sprint car champion who finished fifth last week at Santa Maria.

U.S. Auto Club midgets are also on the Perris program both nights. Kruseman had planned to race a midget too, but when the Indy Racing League rescheduled its terrorist-attack postponed Texas Motor Speedway race this weekend, he lost his ride because his car owner, Andy Bondio, also is involved with the IRL car driven by Shigeaki Hattori.

“The IRL had priority over USAC,” said Kruseman, who hopes to test an IRL car after the sprint car season.

The midget races will feature veteran Wally Pankratz, the defending USAC regional champion, racing against his daughter Randi.

When Kruseman isn’t racing, he runs a sprint car school at Ventura Raceway, a fifth-mile dirt oval on the fairgrounds, where he first began racing three-quarter midgets when he was 16. Students drive 360-cubic inch sprint cars, as compared to the 410-cubic inch power plants in SCRA competition.

“The main difference is in the price,” Kruseman said. “A 410 costs between $55,000 and $60,000. You can get a 360 for $30,000. We get all kinds of students, from little old ladies of 65 to 16-year-olds who want to become race drivers. Some just come to find out what it’s like to drive a sprint car. We offer them a chance to drive a $30,000 race car for $350.”

Paul Newman and CART driver Christian Fittipaldi were students of Kruseman earlier this year.

“What is Newman now, about 76?” Kruseman said. “Before he was through, he was only about a second off the track record. Fittipaldi got down to about two-tenths off the record.”

And who holds the Ventura Raceway record?

“Not me,” Kruseman said, grinning. “[Shuman] still holds it.”

Drag Racing

It’s not the first shocker on the National Hot Rod Assn.’s list of its top 50 drivers, but ranking five-time top-fuel champion Joe Amato only ninth rates right at the top. The Pennsylvania veteran won a class-record 52 national events and was the first to exceed 260 and 280 mph, yet he is rated lower than pro stock drivers Bill Jenkins, Bob Glidden and Warren Johnson. Putting drivers who hit 200 mph in nearly 7 seconds ahead of Amato, who runs 325 mph and under 5 seconds? No way.

The 10th annual NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion is scheduled today through Sunday at Famoso Raceway, north of Bakersfield. Featured will be front-engine dragsters, once the kings of the sport. Hall of Famers Don Garlits, Chris Karamesines and Art Chrisman are expected to participate. Wally and Barbara Parks, who founded the NHRA 50 years ago, will be grand marshals. Racing begins at 11 a.m. each day.

Tom Hammonds, a 12-year veteran of the NBA, announced that he is retiring from pro basketball to pursue his career as an NHRA pro stock driver full-time. Hammonds, 34, has been driving his Chevy Cavalier during the off-season, but decided to buy out the last year of his contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves and stick to racing.

Zanardi Update

According to Dr. Steve Olvey, CART’s medical director, Alex Zanardi continues to progress well from injuries suffered in his Sept. 15 accident in Germany, where he lost both his legs. Olvey said the two-time series champion from Italy would have minor operative procedures on his left leg Monday, after which he is expected to be released from the hospital and head to Italy for rehabilitation.

Olvey said Zanardi sounded upbeat and has been talking with friends from around the world and also has begun maneuvering his wheelchair around the hospital. Rehabilitation will include fitting prosthetic devices so that he can walk, and perhaps ski, his other sporting passion.

Mo Nunn’s team has announced that Bakersfield driver Casey Mears will drive Zanardi’s car this weekend in a street race at Houston.

Last Laps

Mat Mladin of Chino and Australia, and Eric Bostrum of Temecula won American Motorcyclist Assn. road-racing championships last week in season-closing races at Virginia International Raceway. Mladin won his third Superbike crown on a Suzuki. Bostrum, runner-up in Superbike, won the 600 SuperSport title on a Kawasaki.

Winston West drivers Steve Portenga and Joe Bean will try their luck in different vehicles Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway, driving in the Mechanix Wear Speed Truck Challenge.... Drawings for SCORE International’s Nov. 8 Tecate Baja 1000 off-road race will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday as part of the Off-Road Expo at the Pomona Fairplex. Among those attending will be 16-mile winner Rod Hall and Darrin Skilton, a competitor in the Paris-to-Dakar Rally. The expo ends Sunday.

Passings

Three respected veterans of speed runs on Southland dry lakes and the Bonneville Salt Flats, Don Alderson of Rosamond, Tony Capanna of the South Bay area and Don Cummings of La Mirada, all died in the last three weeks. Capanna was in the speed equipment industry, and Alderson and Cummings were hot rodders.