Cheever Believes IRL Running in High Gear

Eddie Cheever has been the Indy Racing League’s biggest cheerleader from the day Tony George’s fledgling open-wheel racing circuit ran its first race at Walt Disney World in 1996, and his enthusiasm is running high again as the IRL prepares for its seventh season.

“It is amazing the amount of progress this series has made already this year,” said Cheever during an IRL test at California Speedway in Fontana. “You can see the level of the series lifting almost on a daily basis.”

One of the most significant developments has been the defection of Roger Penske and his Team Marlboro drivers Gil de Ferran and Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves from CART, where De Ferran is a two-time champion, to the IRL. A number of other CART drivers, including Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vasser, Kenny Brack, Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy, have announced plans to run at Indy, the IRL’s centerpiece race.

Another is the addition of California Speedway, Michigan Speedway and Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway to their schedule, making 15 races, all on oval tracks in the United States. The Fontana race will be March 24.

“Remember, when we started we had only three races the first year,” Cheever said.

Cheever won the 1998 Indianapolis 500 driving a Dallara powered by an Olds Aurora engine, but the former Formula One driver switched to a Nissan Infiniti power plant early in the 1999 season. In 2000, he gave Infiniti its first IRL victory in the Radisson 200 at Pikes Peak Raceway in Colorado.

With Olds no longer in existence, Chevrolet has taken over the Aurora program, but Cheever, 44, remains steadfast in his loyalty to Infiniti.

“We want Nissan to be the first Japanese manufacturer to win the Indy 500,” he said.

He’d better hurry. Toyota will join the IRL in 2003.

Sprint Cars

Southern California’s short-track racing season begins Saturday afternoon at Perris Auto Speedway with the opening event of the Sprint Car Racing Assn. schedule. The race will match the two champions of non-winged racing, Cory Kruseman of the SCRA and J.J. Yeley of the U.S. Auto Club.

The 30-lap main event will be the first daytime sprint car race on the half-mile dirt oval since PAS opened in March 1996.

Kruseman, 31, operator of a driving school in Ventura, may be leaving the SCRA if all goes well with an IRL test Monday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kruseman, who won the Chili Bowl in 2000 and the non-winged world championship in 1999, will take a rookie test with PDM Racing.

Last year, Kruseman led the SCRA points race from the first event, setting a single-season record of 15 main event wins. He finished in the top five in 35 of 43 races.

Yeley, 25, ninth-place finisher in the 1998 Indianapolis 500, won the first sprint car race held at the Perris oval and held the track record for more than four years. He will be in the No. 21J car owned by Dwight Chaney in Saturday’s race.

Two-time USAC sprint car champion Tony Elliott of Kokomo, Ind., will drive a Gardner Motorsports car Saturday as a teammate of SCRA veteran Troy Rutherford. The entry list will also include other SCRA favorites such as former two-time champion Richard Griffin, Rip Williams, John Scott, Mike Kirby and Tony Jones.

Gates will open at 11 a.m. with the first race at 1:30 p.m. After Saturday’s race, all PAS events will be at night through Nov. 16.

On Feb. 23, the Pennzoil World of Outlaws will make its only Southern California appearance of 2002.

Supercross

Who would believe, after five West Coast events, that seven-time champion Jeremy McGrath would be in eighth place, 51 points behind Yamaha’s David Vuillemin, as the EA Sports Supercross season heads east. Or that Ricky Carmichael, winner of the last 13 races last year, would trail both the Frenchman Vuillemin and veteran Mike LaRocco.

In both Phoenix and last week’s Anaheim race, McGrath looked like his old self by getting the hole-shot and leading the first few laps before fading back into the pack with “arm pump,” a condition that makes it nearly impossible to grip the handlebars of his Yamaha with any strength.

“My arms are a little better each week,” McGrath said. “I had a good rhythm going, but we’ve had a rough month.” He was sixth in each of the last two events, both won by Carmichael.

The 16-race series will be in Indianapolis on Saturday night.

Fast Laps

Dale Earnhardt is one of eight racing personalities who will be enshrined in the Motorsports Hall of Fame on June 12, in Detroit. Others are two-time Indy 500 winner Gordon Johncock, drag racing record-breaker Eddie Hill, pioneer racer Gaston Chevrolet, engine designer Fred Offenhauser, sports car veteran Brian Redman, world motorcycle champion Eddie Lawson and stunt pilot Paul Mantz.

Jim Michaelian, newly named president and chief executive officer of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, celebrated his new position by co-driving a Porsche GT3 to 18th place in the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. With Matthew Talbert of Templeton, Calif., Ludovico Manfredi of Key Biscayne, Fla., and Paul Daniels of Great Britain, the team completed 618 laps, or 2286.6 miles, in the 24-hour race.

The NHRA Motorsports Museum will host an open house tonight, “A Salute to Gassers,” in which old-time drag racers such as George Montgomery, Big John Mazmanian, Junior Thomson, K.S. Pitman and Bones Balogh will be honored. Montgomery’s famous ’33 Willys, holder of many speed records, will make its museum debut.

Chevrolet’s Corvette will be the pace car for the May 26 Indianapolis 500, making its fifth appearance at the head of the 33-car field.

Passings

Howard Handy, 84, boss of the pressroom at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach for the past 20 years, died Jan. 30 at his home in Irvine. Handy had been sports editor of the Compton Herald-American, a columnist for the Costa Mesa Daily Pilot and a member of the Dodgers’ public relations staff. Survivors include Lois, his wife of 61 years; sons Howard Jr., Burt, Daniel and Michael; 12 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Meadows clubhouse, 14851 Jeffrey Road, Irvine.

Vernon “Gabby” Garrison, one of the charter members of the Pacific Racing Assn. in 1959, died Saturday in Long Beach. Garrison, born in 1916, raced stock cars into his 70s.

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2002 RACE SCHEDULE

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