Right Price Draws Big Names to Perris

Put up enough money and they will come.

When Perris Auto Speedway and Temecula Valley Pipe and Supply announced a record $100,000 purse for the Budweiser Oval Nationals, part of the Non-Wing Sprint Car championships, entries began pouring in from nearly every sprint car driver of note in the country. The entry reads like a Who’s Who of sprint car racing.

The 100-lap race, a marathon for the dirt-throwing, 1,250 pound sprinters that put out an eye-popping 830 horsepower from 410-cubic-inch aluminum engines, is scheduled for Saturday night on the half-mile clay oval. Tonight there will be qualifying and a 20-lap main event. Saturday night’s winner will collect $30,000.

Tracy Hines, newly crowned U.S. Auto Club sprint car champion, and J.J. Yeley, USAC Silver Crown champion, head a group of invaders who will challenge Sprint Car Racing Assn. drivers, whose home track is Perris.

“There’s something about Perris that makes it a little harder to figure out than most tracks,” said Richard “the Gas Man” Griffin, who recently clinched his fourth SCRA championship and is the Non-Wing Sprint Car series leader. “I think that may give the guys who run there all year an advantage.”

Griffin has won seven races this season, but only one at Perris.

“For some reason, Perris doesn’t favor us,” he said. “We do better at other tracks, but this being 100 laps, it’s going to be different for everyone. Because 100-lap races are very rare, tires will become an issue in the last 50 miles, especially when the track gets drier. Sprint cars just aren’t used to running that long.”

Most races are 40 to 50 laps. The Oval Nationals will consist of two 50-lap segments with a 20-minute halftime, when crews can make changes to their cars.

Hines, from Greenfield, Ind., will be driving Andy Morales’ legendary Tamale Wagon in hopes of adding to his collection of victories, which includes the 2000 Silver Crown title.

Yeley, although he competed mostly in the Midwest, is familiar with the Perris track. He won the SCRA’s opening race there last February. The Phoenix driver won seven USAC sprint car races this year, among them the season finale at Terre Haute, Ind., and fell only 13 points short of repeating his 2001 championship.

Bud Kaeding, the Northern California champion from Campbell, is defending Oval Nationals champion. He won last year after dueling with his father, Brent, who finished third behind his son and 2000 Oval Nationals winner Tony Jones of Garden Grove. The younger Kaeding was injured last May at Terre Haute, but came back to win a two-day competition at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City.

Two other contenders with ties to Perris are Cory Kruseman, the 2001 SCRA champion from Ventura, and Jay Drake, former USAC Western States midget champion from Val Verde. Kruseman won two races earlier in the year at Perris before passing his IRL driver’s test and driving his first IRL race at Texas Motor Speeday. Drake, who won his first SCRA race at Perris in 1998, suffered a broken left arm and two broken collarbones in a midget racing accident a year ago. He came back this year to win the 4-Crown Nationals sprint race at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

The Oval Nationals will be the next-to-last round of Ron Shuman’s non-wing series. The final race will be Nov. 9 at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix.

Jim Naylor, celebrating 25 years as promoter of Ventura Raceway, will be grand marshal for the Perris event. Ventura ended its season last week.

Da Matta No. 1

Tradition in motor sports is for a champion to have No. 1 on his car the following year. Cristiano da Matta has broken with tradition. The pint-sized Brazilian driver, who clinched the CART championship several races ago, has exchanged his No. 6 on the Newman-Haas Lola-Toyota for No. 1 in the remaining races this year, including Sunday’s Toyota 500 at California Speedway.

“All of the times I have won championships before, I have moved up to another series the next year so I never actually got to run No. 1 on my car,” he said.

Does that mean Da Matta is moving up to Formula One next year with Toyota? Probably.

One thing CART backers can count on, he will not be defecting to the rival Indy Racing League.

“I would go back to Brazil and race bicycles rather than racing IRL,” he said. “An all oval racing series is not for me.”

Remembering Roy

It has been 14 years since Riverside International Raceway closed and 19 since Roy Hord was its vice president and general manager, but those of us who were around for his 18 years at Riverside will never forget the way he kept the track alive.

Les Richter was the front man, making the speeches and directing operations, but it was Hord, in the background, who attended to the day-to-day grind. Without him, Riverside would never have attained its reputation as one of the world’s most prestigious road-racing courses.

A former professional football player, Hord died last week at 67 and friends will gather today at Calvary Presbyterian Hospital in Riverside to remember one of the truly fine men of motor racing.

Last Laps

National and former world speedway motorcycle champion Billy Hamill will ride in Costa Mesa Raceway’s season-ending Fall Classic on the tiny Orange County Fairgrounds oval Saturday night. Hamill recently won both the AMA Nationals at Auburn, Calif., and the U.S. Nationals at Costa Mesa. Also on the program will be high-flying freestyle MX jumpers.

Among the entries in the SCORE Baja 1000 on Nov. 22-23 are Winston Cup driver Robby Gordon, a former winner; CART champ car driver Jimmy Vasser, Craftsman Truck driver Brendan Gaughan, and former Indy car drivers Mike and Robbie Groff. The 1,017-mile race begins in Ensenada and ends in La Paz.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Hot Rod Assn., the Peterson Automotive Museum will host “The Golden Years of Drag Racing” exhibit Saturday night with a special salute to Wally Parks, the NHRA’s founder. The tribute will include an exhibition of famous cars, appearances by legendary drivers and a film of drag racing highlights. Admission, which includes a buffet dinner and parking, is $65. Details: Susan Garcia at (323) 964-6359.

Danny Ongais, the Flyin’ Hawaiian who won the 1979 Rolex 24 at Daytona with Ted Field and Hurley Haywood, will drive in the three-hour Grand American Finale at Daytona on Nov. 10.... Stanton Barrett, second generation stunt man and stock car driver, will drive Jack Roush’s No. 60 Busch Grand National car next year, replacing Greg Biffle, who is moving up to Winston Cup.

In the aftermath of Nolan White’s death while chasing the world land-speed record for piston engine vehicles, it was overlooked that White’s longtime competitor, Al Teague, set an FIA record for Class A blown dragsters of 405.976 mph during the same speed runs at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. It was White’s record that he broke. Teague also holds the AA blown record of 409.986.

John Lingenfelter, whose Chevrolet Cavalier went out of control and crashed during last Sunday’s Mazda NHRA Sport Compact World Finals at Pomona, remains hospitalized after undergoing surgery at Pomona Valley Hospital. “John is still sedated, but he’s moving all of his limbs, he’s opened his eyes, and he’s ready to wake up as soon as he comes out of sedation,” said the team’s Brent Malone.

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This Week

*--* CART

*--*

CART 500

When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, 6:00 p.m.); Saturday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 11:30 a.m.); Sunday, race (Speed Channel, 12:30 p.m.).

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

Race distance: 500 miles, 250 laps.

2001 winner: Cristiano da Matta.

Next race: Mexican Grand Prix, Nov. 17, Mexico City.

*--* CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS

*--*

American Racing Wheels 200

When: Today, qualifying, 11:45 a.m.; Saturday, race, 2 p.m.; Sunday (ESPN, 2 p.m., tape).

Where: California Speedway.

Race distance: 200 miles, 100 laps.

2001 winner: Ted Musgrave.

Next race: Chevy Silverado 150, Nov. 8, Avondale, Ariz.

*--* SPRINT CARS

*--*

Oval Nationals

When: Today, qualifying, 20-lap main event, 6 p.m.; Saturday, $100,000 main event, Non-Wing Sprint Car championships, 7 p.m.

Where: Perris Auto Speedway (one-half mile, semi-banked clay oval), Lake Perris Fairgrounds.

Race distance: 50 miles, 100 laps.

Series leader: Richard Griffin, Silver City, N.M.

2001 winner: Bud Kaeding, Campbell, Calif.

Next race: Kindoll Classic, Nov.16, Perris Auto Speedway.

*--* NASCAR WINSTON CUP

*--*

Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400

When: Today, qualifying (TNT, noon); Sunday, race (TNT, 9:30 a.m.).

Where: North Carolina Speedway (tri-oval, 1.017 miles, 22 degrees banking in turns 1-2, 25 degrees in turns 3-4); Rockingham, N.C.

Race distance: 399.6 miles, 393 laps.

2001 winner: Joe Nemechek.

Next race: Checker Auto Parts 500K, Nov. 10, Avondale, Ariz.

*--* BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL

*--*

Sam’s Club 200

When: Today, qualifying, 10:30 a.m.; Saturday, race (TNT, 10 a.m.).

Where: North Carolina Speedway.

Race distance: 200 miles, 197 laps.

2001 winner: Kevin Harvick.

Next race: Arizona 200, Nov. 9, Avondale.