Up to Speed

By Martin Henderson

Aug. 20, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Rickie Gaunt snaked around the half-mile clay oval at Perris Auto Speedway, moving all the way up from 17th place, took the checkered flag, then jumped out of his sprint car and revealed his Superman-inspired driving suit.

“Super Rickie,” as he is known, grabbed a microphone and proudly proclaimed over the track’s public-address system, “She ran like a monkey with its [tail] on fire!”

Not exactly what an Indy 500 or Grand Prix of Long Beach winner might say -- at least publicly -- but certainly colorful. And that’s what local short-track racing on Saturday nights is mostly about.

Jeff Gordon, Paul Tracy and Gil de Ferran have their ardent followings, but so do Rip Michels, Richard “the Gasman” Griffin and Bobby “Boogaloo” Schwartz.

More than 380,000 fans watched Saturday night races last year from grandstands in Irwindale, Perris and Costa Mesa. That’s about 40,000 more than the attendance at the most recent NASCAR, CART and IRL races at California Speedway combined.

There are more than 1,100 short tracks across America, and the ones in the Southland are considered among the best and the most colorful.

Irwindale Speedway is routinely referred to as “the best short track in America.” Perris Auto Speedway has been called “sprint car heaven.” And tradition makes Costa Mesa Speedway to motorcycle racing in the U.S. what Yankee Stadium is to baseball.

These hidden jewels in Southern California’s entertainment vault have an annual economic impact of, by one expert’s conservative estimate, more than $10 million.

“We’re competing with everything that sells a ticket,” said Jim Williams, Irwindale Speedway’s president and majority owner. “The Dodgers, Disneyland, everything.”

To do it, the tracks offer souvenirs and collectibles, catchy music and games aplenty. Smells run the gamut, from methanol to Polish sausage. On any given Saturday, mascots, autograph sessions, dance contests, giveaways and barbecues add to an atmosphere that borders on sensory overload.

Irwindale

Cars of seemingly every color form a rainbow caravan as they circle “L.A.’s half-mile super speedway,” the marketing slogan of the $15-million orchid that bursts from a gravel pit near the intersection of the 210 and 605 freeways.

A clown paints children’s faces under the grandstand, and mascot Lug Nut fires T-shirts into the stands. Beyond Turn 1, there’s a made-to-order sunset. Across the way, crisscrossing conveyer belts at a gravel crusher make an unusual, yet somehow appropriate, working-class backdrop.

There are palm trees around the pristine grounds and a buzz in the air that make for palpable atmosphere.

The star of the show is the track itself. From “Malcolm in the Middle” to “Fear Factor,” the venue has been featured so often in Tinseltown ventures it should have its own SAG card.

Says Winston West driver Steve Portenga, who has raced about 30 times in five classes at Irwindale, “It’s class all the way down to the ketchup dispenser.”

The only things missing, it seems, are garages and seating to hold more than 6,200 fans.

“When you talk short track, you talk Bristol, Martinsville or Richmond,” said Brendan Gaughan, a Craftsman Truck Series driver who scored his first NASCAR victory in a late model race on an Irwindale opening night. “All Irwindale is missing is the seating capacity for a major event. It is one of the nicest short tracks in the country. It’s awesome from the top of the grandstand to the restroom facilities in the pits.”

Irwindale, which also has a one-third-mile track inside its half-mile oval, opened in 1999, the city’s sixth venue dating to the San Gabriel Valley Dragstrip in 1956. It grew from a need when Ascot Park in Gardena closed its half-mile dirt oval in 1990, and Saugus Speedway shut down its third-mile paved oval in 1995.

“Ascot Park had been around for eons [since 1957],” said Ryan Arciero, an Ultra Wheels Super Truck driver whose grandfather Frank is trying to build a third-mile track north of Sacramento. “All the old racers, Parnelli Jones, A.J. Foyt, had driven there. It’s a shame a place like that was no longer around.”

Irwindale, though, is filling the void. It also has company.

Perris

The most picturesque of Southern California’s “Little Three,” Perris was designed in the image of Ascot Park and built at a cost of $6 million in 1996.

Like Irwindale, it is a state-of-the-art facility. Circle Track magazine once called it “sprint car heaven.”

Built in only 43 days after groundbreaking, Perris bills itself as “America’s premier clay oval” -- bowing to track Vice President Dan Kazarian, who says it might appear “a little pretentious to say you’re the best.”

The track is near the Lake Perris Dam on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds, with foothills beyond the backstretch forming a postcard backdrop at dusk.

The environs offer a country fair feel, but that ends once the racing starts.

Imagine driving 90 mph, separated from a rival by inches, then power-sliding through a turn while trying to avoid a concrete wall.

“There are so many people in Southern California who don’t even know Perris Auto Speedway exists,” said former driver Bubby Jones, a Sprint Car Hall of Fame member whose son, Tony, is among the track’s top drivers. “If people had any racing blood in them, I think they’d really enjoy it. Tailgate, meet other people, create a sense of community.”

That community gets jolted when the green flag drops and the sprint cars’ loud rumble assaults the eardrums.

And there are plenty of crashes -- routine in dirt and the norm in any short-track racing.

Sprint cars develop 820 horsepower -- more than the sleek cars that race in the Indianapolis 500 -- and reach speeds approaching 100 mph entering Turn 1, so there’s no lack of excitement.

“I talk to a lot of drivers, and they’re always talking about how competitive Perris is,” Gaughan said. “You can never run away with it. It’s a tough track to drive, but always puts on a great show.”

Costa Mesa

The parking lot here often looks like a Harley-Davidson showroom.

Inside, you can still get a free program, see more than 20 races, and count on 44-year-old stuntman Shawn McConnell to hang off his bike or pop a wheelie because he understands the concept of showmanship.

Combine the whine of motorcycles with the smell of methanol and the sting of tiny dirt projectiles that are kicked up into the stands by the bike tires, and watching can be a physical challenge.

The driving is considerably tougher.

Speedway motorcycles go from 0-60 mph in four seconds -- and they don’t have brakes. To have a lengthy career, a rider had best know how to crash.

Only 185 yards long, Costa Mesa is the nation’s shortest speedway motorcycle track. With five riders aiming for the pole in Turn 1, on a notorious one-groove track, crashes are common. Fortunately, the walls are wood, not concrete.

Promoter Harry Oxley, along with 1937 world champion Jack Milne, built the speedway in 1968, then built a dedicated following that regularly turned events into parties of more than 6,000. For more than a decade, this was the weekend hangout.

Harry has given way to his son, Brad, a rider who followed in the footsteps of legendary figures Mike Bast, Bruce Penhall and Rick Woods.

But the cozy confines -- essentially, a rodeo arena at the Orange County Fairgrounds -- can still produce a good show, and the past still flexes its muscles. Schwartz, who raced five nights a week in 1974 during his senior year at Los Angeles Fairfax High, won this year’s first event -- at age 46.

“Costa Mesa is the nucleus of it all,” said Schwartz, a two-time world pairs champion in Europe in the early 1980s. “Everyone in the world who follows Speedway knows Costa Mesa, and they all want to stop and see it. And all the riders want to ride it.”

Rich to the Core

Venues in Ventura and San Bernardino also contribute to Southern California’s short track landscape.

Ventura Raceway has a fifth-mile dirt oval, a view of the Pacific Ocean and some of the best racing anywhere.

National Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, its quarter-mile paved oval ignored for years, is under new management and recently underwent a $200,000 renovation, including new banking and asphalt.

Combine their attendance with that of the other three, and attendance at local short tracks surpasses 435,000 each racing season, roughly from March to November.

“Our impact is different -- it’s not a huge once- or twice-a-year deal,” Irwindale General Manager Bob DeFazio said of the comparison between short tracks and the huge and glitzy California Speedway. “We have a short-term impact on the economy, rather than a big explosion. The same mountain’s getting built, but it’s getting built in smaller scoops.”

The small scoops still amount to an annual economic impact estimated at $11.7 million by Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. And that doesn’t count what is spent by the drivers and their sponsors.

At the core, though, is the racing. Odds are, the next Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon is driving at a short track somewhere in the U.S.

“From a driver’s standpoint, places like Irwindale and Costa Mesa give guys a chance to start and to pursue their dream,” said Arciero, the racing-truck driver.

“Joe Blow can’t just start at California Speedway or Daytona. We need the Irwindales, Perrises ... as the steppingstones to launch a career.”

(Begin Text of Infobox)

Fast Facts

IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY

* Type: Half-mile paved oval, third-mile paved oval.

* Racing focus: Stock cars.

* Season: March to Nov. 8.

* Location: 605 Freeway at Live Oak Avenue.

* Tickets: Adult $15, military and seniors (65-plus) $13, kids (6-12) $5.

PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY

* Type: Half-mile clay oval.

* Racing focus: Sprint cars.