Genuine Rolex, Imitation Crowd

Big-time sports car racing returned to Southern California after a decade’s absence Saturday, but Southern California didn’t return to big-time sports car racing.

Before a crowd best described as nonexistent--there couldn’t have been 5,000 fans rattling around the stands, which seat 92,000--veteran Didier Theys and rookie Fredy Lienhard Jr. won the Grand American 400 in the Rolex sports car series at the California Speedway.

The 22-car race on the track’s new 2.8-mile, 21-turn course, using portions of the infield and the two-mile superspeedway, was the first major sports car race in the area since the 1992 Del Mar Grand Prix and was the Grand American’s West Coast debut.

Theys, co-winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway last month, and Lienhard, making his debut in the top SRP class, drove their Dallara-Judd to a one-lap victory over a Crawford-Judd driven by James Weaver and Chris Dyson in the four-hour, 142-lap race.

Only 14 cars finished, meaning there were nearly as many gaps on the racetrack as there were in the stands.

Still, the race was not without drama.

The Theys-Lienhard car had won the pole in qualifying Friday but team manager Kevin Doran decided to change the engine as a precautionary measure, which meant the car had to start at the back of the field.

Weaver, starting in the only other sports racing prototype, sailed into the lead but Theys had his car in third place five laps later and the two big cars spent the rest of the race in a spirited battle.

Theys had a solid lead on Lap 119 when he had to pit because of a punctured tire, allowing Dyson to retake the lead. But Dyson spun his Crawford a few laps later--for the fourth time--and that was the opening Theys needed.

“I had some problems with gear selection and it was jumping out of gear,” Dyson said. “I couldn’t fight as hard as I wanted.”

Terry Borcheller, Ralf Kelleners and Bill Rand finished third in an SRP II Lola; Chris Bingham and Derek Hill were fourth in a GTS Saleen, and Paul Menard and Michael Ciasulli were fifth in an American Grand Touring Corvette.

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In the first night race in track history, pole-sitter Jose Luis Valera of Weston, Fla., won the 45-minute Ferrari Challenge for his Ferrari of Houston team. Valera, who won the season’s first round on Friday, averaged 93.940 mph and won the 26-lap race by 9.353 seconds over Ferrari of Washington driver Allie Ash of Great Falls, Va. There were four lead changes, but none after Valera passed Ash on Lap 14.

Third place went to Joel Quaid of Santa Barbara, driving for Ferrari of Orange County. The race, originally scheduled for 10:15 a.m. but pushed back by early morning rains, ended at 6:21 p.m. under dark skies.

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CART driver Jimmy Vasser, accustomed to driving cars powered by turbocharged racing engines, is competing in today’s Yamaha Indy 400 as a warmup for the Indianapolis 500, the IRL’s showpiece. IRL cars use normally aspirated stock-block engines.

“We are still trying to work some of the bugs out and learn some things with the IRL engine,” Vasser said. “There are a lot more similarities between the IRL and the CART car than there are differences. One of the big differences is that the IRL car has quite a bit less horsepower and more downforce. You can pretty much drive the car anywhere you want....

“We didn’t have the horsepower that some of the other cars had but I think we have a pretty good car for the race and its 400 miles. We want to get to the finish and play the drafting game.... We came here to learn. We’re not running for the championship, we’re preparing for Indy.”

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Derek Hill, son of Phil Hill, America’s first Formula One champion, was able to make his debut in Saturday’s Grand American sports car race, thanks to the kindness of strangers.

Because Hill is a rookie in Grand American racing, he needed driving time on the California Speedway’s new road course. But because the Saleen S7R he was to have driven had been crashed Thursday in practice, and hadn’t been fully repaired by Friday’s practice-qualifying session, Hill was in danger of missing his promised ride.

So, with only 20 minutes of practice time remaining, Hill went shopping for a car to borrow. He quit looking when he saw the Ford Focus ZX3 that had been prepared for veterans Mark Underwood and Jim Harrell to drive in today’s Grand Am Cup street stock series race. The cars could hardly be more different, the Saleen a high-powered racing machine, the Ford a boxy little production car.

“I chose the Focus because it looked like one of the best prepared cars in line,” Hill said.

He explained his situation to Underwood and Harrell, who allowed Hill the seat time he needed in their car. Then Saturday, with co-driver Chris Bingham, Hill finished fourth overall, first in the Grand Touring Super class.

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Staff Writer Martin Henderson contributed to this report.