'Super Rickie' Faces Sterner Test This Week

By SHAV GLICK

June 11, 2004 12 AM PT

Sprint car driver Rickie Gaunt has been wearing a Superman driving suit, with Superman decals on his car since 1997, and this year he is living up to his billing.

“Super Rickie,” as fans know him, has won four consecutive Sprint Car Racing Assn. main events but Saturday night will take on drivers more experienced than those he has been running against this season in a Valvoline USAC/CRA 30-lap feature at Perris Auto Speedway. In a split reminiscent of CART and the IRL, the USAC/CRA group broke from the more established SCRA this year and took along most of the veteran drivers.

Perris’ semi-banked half-mile clay oval in Riverside County had been the home track for the SCRA since it opened in 1996, but when it cut ties with the older organization at the end of last season, track President Don Kazarian turned to USAC.

Ron Shuman, SCRA president and a Hall of Fame driver, in turn moved his home base a bit south to Barona Speedway, on an Indian reservation near Ramona, which is in San Diego County.

“I know splits are not good for the game, but from a young driver’s viewpoint, it gives him twice as many opportunities to make a main event and get experience,” said Gaunt, 35. “It’s hard to break into an established group with its 20 to 25 regulars, but with two groups running the same night, it can mean 40 or so drivers will get into a main. And you have to get into main events to attract sponsors.”

Gaunt drives regularly with the SCRA, as his car owner, Tony Smiley, hails from Phoenix and maintains allegiance to Shuman, a fellow Arizonan.

“Tony pays the bills, so I race where Tony wants to race,” Gaunt said.

With the SCRA taking a week off, he will take his Smiley-built No. 2A Extreme sprinter to Perris for the USAC/CRA race to face USAC veterans Cory Kruseman and Bud Kaeding, as well as weekly regulars Rip Williams, Damion Gardner, Mike Kirby and Troy Rutherford.

“I’ve raced against all those guys before at Perris and have done pretty well,” said Gaunt, who won the prestigious Oval Nationals there in 1999.

This will be his first race there this year, although he finished third and fourth in a pair of USAC races last March at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, where he was fast qualifier in both.

“Perris is the premier dirt track on the West Coast, but when the schedules have a conflict I’ll be with the SCRA,” Gaunt said. “Barona is about the same distance from home [in Torrance], and it’s a nice little track. It reminds me of the track in Kokomo [Ind.], a big quarter-mile with nice banking. The sprint car guys all love to go to Kokomo. Maybe someday they’ll all love Barona. The guys down there are trying their best to spruce it up.

“It hurts not to be at the Perris races when all the guys I know are there, but, really, I don’t care where we run. I’ll just pull on the old Superman suit, climb in Tony’s car and go racing.”

The Superman uniform was originally made by Simpson Racing Products for Dale Earnhardt as a novelty, but the Intimidator refused to wear it. When Simpson went looking for someone to showcase the gaudy outfit, Gaunt stepped up, put a big R, for Rickie, where the S was for Superman and headed for the track.

“The fans loved it, especially the kids,” Gaunt said. “It attracts attention everywhere we go, and it has created a market for Super Rickie items, all sorts of stuff associated with racing. Even ladies’ lingerie.”

Gaunt, the father of two sons, has been racing for 15 years, sandwiching it between two jobs. He works in the family construction business and is also a part-time police officer in Palos Verdes Estates.

“I got hooked on racing when my dad took the family to Ascot,” he said. “When I was about 19, I met Bill Von Helmolt, who had a sprint car he was racing there. I wanted to get in the pits, so one day I asked Bill if I could come and scrape the mud off his car between heats. That got me in, and the next thing I knew, I was driving one of them. Been doing it ever since, and still loving it.”

Formula One

Bernie Ecclestone’s traveling circus heads for North America this week for two more Michael Schumacher parades. Schumacher, with six victories in seven starts this year, says his Ferrari will work even better at Montreal on Sunday and Indianapolis a week later.

“There is no doubt that testing [in England] went well,” the German driver said recently. “On circuits like Monaco, we had a little trouble, but the two races coming up should favor us.”

Schumacher’s only loss was at Monaco, where Jarno Trulli won in a Renault.

“As I have stated in the past, both Montreal and Indianapolis are circuits that suit our cars, so I expect to be very competitive,” Schumacher said.

He won both races last year and would have won both in 2001 had he not slowed to give the U.S. race to teammate Rubens Barricello.

Twelve nations are represented on the 20-man Formula One drivers’ roster -- but none is in North America. Italy has the most drivers, four, with Germany and Brazil having three each. Britain has two, with solo drivers from Colombia, Finland, Spain, Japan, Australia, Austria, France and Hungary filling out the starting grids.

Baja 500

Driving a Chevy Silverado solo for 9 hours 4 minutes, Alan Pflueger of Honolulu won not only the SCORE Trophy Truck class in last week’s 36th Tecate Baja 500 off-road race, but he also won the overall four-wheel vehicle championship.

Pflueger, 37, averaged 47.25 mph over a 428-mile course in the northern portion of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.

He won overall by five minutes over Troy Herbst of Las Vegas and Larry Ragland of Hesperia in an unlimited Class 1 open-wheel desert race car. Steve Hengeveld and Johnny Campbell rode a Honda to overall victory in the motorcycle division.

Mexican tourism officials estimated that more than 100,000 spectators lined the course to watch the race that started and ended in Ensenada.

Motorcycles

Speedway racing enthusiasts will have two U.S. national championships to attend this year.

The Oxley family will hold its 36th annual U.S. Nationals at the traditional Orange County Fairgrounds course on Oct. 16. Scott Brandt is defending champion.

The AMA will hold its national championship competition in a three-race program that will include an event Aug. 7 at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville. The two other races will be in Auburn, near Sacramento, on Aug. 6 and Sept. 24. Greg Hancock won last year’s crown.

Brandt finished second behind former U.S. champion Mike Faria in last week’s Jack Milne Cup at Costa Mesa.

Last Laps

High school graduates from the class of 2004 will be admitted free Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway at the track’s “Grad Night.” The program will feature NASCAR late model stock cars.

Friends of Jim Travis, a Dry Lakes Hall of Fame member who restored Mickey Thompson’s 400-mph Challenger, threw a 70th birthday party for him Thursday at Art Chrisman’s Tustin shop.... The Boat Racers’ Reunion will be held Saturday during the Southern California Marine Assn. Boat Show at the L.A. County Fairplex in Pomona.

Back-to-back victories at Irwindale Speedway in super late model main events moved Greg Pursley of Santa Clarita into the lead in NASCAR’s Dodge Weekly Series Sunbelt Region championship standings.

Pursley’s closest competitor, David Beat of El Cajon, did not race last week.

This Week

*--* NEXTEL CUP Pocono 500

*--*

* When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, noon); Sunday, race (Channel 11, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Pocono International Raceway (triangular oval, 2.5 miles, 14 degrees banking in turn 1, 8 degrees in turn 2, 6 degrees in turn 3); Long Pond, Pa.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 200 laps.

* 2003 winner: Tony Stewart.

* Next race: Michigan 400, June 20, Brooklyn.

*--* BUSCH Featured Auto Parts 300

*--*

* When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, 3 p.m.); Saturday, race (FX, 5).

* Where: Nashville Superspeedway (tri-oval, 1.33 miles, 14 degrees banking in turns).

* Race distance: 300 miles, 225 laps.

* 2003 winner: Scott Riggs.

* Next race: Meijer 300, June 19, Sparta, Ky.

*--* CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS O’Reilly 400K

*--*