Yasukawa’s Drive Leads to Indy 500

Only three Americans are in the first five rows -- 15 drivers -- for next week’s Indianapolis 500.

Two are prominent: Buddy Rice, the pole sitter from Phoenix, and Sam Hornish Jr., the two-time Indy Racing League champion from Defiance, Ohio.

The third: Roger Yasukawa, born in Los Angeles and now a West Hollywood resident.

Yasukawa, 26, is a true-blue American. But as a race car driver, he is an internationalist with a determination to live his life at speed.

How else would you portray someone who, when he was 10, flew alone from Tokyo -- his family had moved there when he was 6 -- to Budapest to join his father for the Hungarian Grand Prix, then told his family that he wanted to go back to the United States, where he could pursue a career in karts? Or who, when he was 15, moved to Italy to compete on the highly competitive European karting circuit?

“I was very fortunate,” the Californian said during a break in practice for the 500. “My father was involved with Formula One teams and had a friend who owned a kart shop around Chino Hills and he arranged for me to live with him. I had driven karts in Japan when I was 10 and 11, but there was a 12-year-old age limit to race and I didn’t want to wait. For a racer, it couldn’t have been a better situation, living with a kart shop owner.”

Yasukawa became a fixture at the Adams kart track in Riverside, winning the Junior California State championship in the 12-15 class in 1991. Among his rivals were Rice, now his teammate with Rahal-Letterman Racing, and Austin Cameron, a NASCAR driver from El Cajon.

From ages 15 to 19, Yasukawa lived in Italy, scoring more kart victories while finishing high school at the American School of Milan. He won the Centro Assistenza Karting championship in 1996 and was the only American finalist in the Junior World championships in Belgium in 1993.

“It helped that my father had contacts with people where I stayed,” Yasukawa said. “He worked for the Leyton House Formula One team when I was younger and now he is on the marketing side with McLaren in Japan.”

Yasukawa returned to the United States in 1998 and won the Skip Barber Formula Dodge Western series title, winning 10 of 11 races and finishing second in the one he didn’t win.

His road to Indianapolis got a boost in 2002, when he drove in the Toyota Atlantic series with Hylton Motorsports and won on the oval at Milwaukee in his second start.

Adrian Fernandez made him his IRL driver on the Super Aguri Fernandez Racing team for 2003. The only problem was that he was a rookie on a single-car team with no points of reference because his car owner, Fernandez, was driving the CART circuit.

Despite being runner-up to Dan Wheldon of Andretti Green Racing as IRL rookie of the year, Yasukawa was without a ride this year until Bobby Rahal asked him to test at Phoenix. Rahal liked what he saw, but with sponsorship money tight, he could afford Yasukawa for only two races, at Motegi, Japan, where the No. 16 Honda-G Force carried the colors of Sammy, a Japanese pinball machine, as it will in the Indianapolis 500. At Motegi, he qualified 13th and finished 11th.

“What I do the remainder of the year depends on my 500 results,” he said. “If I don’t get any offers for the rest of the season, I am going to work full time on getting a ride in 2005. I hope to keep my focus on the IRL because Honda has been a great supporter of mine the past two years.”

Coincidentally, all three of Rahal’s drivers were soloists last year who were without teams at the end of 2003. Yasukawa was let go by Fernandez, Rice was dropped by Eddie Cheever’s Red Bull team, and Brazilian Vitor Meira was left alone when Team Menard quit CART.

“We all realize the importance of multi-car teams now,” Yasukawa said. “I know it was helpful to Rice to have me go first in qualifying. I was sort of the team guinea pig. We have worked very well together. During Indy practice, Buddy and I worked on the qualifying setup, and Vitor did a really good job with the race setup.”

Yasukawa was the first qualifier on the track last Saturday, with all the other teams watching closely to see how the weather and track conditions affected his car on a four-lap time trial.

He started with a lap of 220.375, then gradually slowed to 220.190, 219.967 and 219.591 for an average of 220.030. At the end of the day he had qualified 12th, on the outside of the fourth row, alongside Hornish.

“I’m very confident with the Sammy car,” he said. “I know last year, my first time here, it took me two or three laps before I felt I could go flat out, even when the car felt good. Now I am able to do that much sooner. Confidence just comes with experience.”

Southland Scene

The Pacific Street Car Assn. will conduct a three-day California Street Car Nationals drag-racing show this weekend at California Dragway, on the California Speedway parking lot in Fontana.

More than 200 vehicles are expected to take their shots on the quarter-mile drag strip. After practice today, time trials and eliminations are scheduled Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m.

Pure stocks, the newest addition to Irwindale Speedway’s stock car lineup, will make a rare Saturday night appearance this week, alongside NASCAR late model and super stocks. The pure stocks normally race every other Friday night.

Powerful 410-cubic-inch sprint cars of the USAC/CRA will be at Ventura Raceway for a 30-lap main event Saturday night on the fifth-mile dirt oval. Senior sprint cars, for drivers 45 and over, also are scheduled.

Only 36 points separate the first four drivers -- Rip Williams, Mike Kirby, Damion Gardner and Troy Rutherford -- in the new organization’s first season.

U.S. Auto Club Western division midgets will be featured at Perris Auto Speedway in a 30-lap main event Saturday night. Steve Paden of Downey, the winner last week at Bakersfield, will be challenged by Robby Flock, a four-time series champion, and teammate Greg Taylor of Ojai, last year’s USAC Western division sprint car rookie of the year.

Baja 500

Jimmy Smith, one of the founders of what is now the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series, will return to his role as an off-road desert racer June 5 when he fills in for Nextel Cup driver Robby Gordon in the SCORE Tecate Baja 500 trophy-truck race.

Smith, 57, who owns Ultra Wheel Co. in Buena Park and Ultra Motorsports in NASCAR racing, will be in Gordon’s No. 31 Chevrolet pickup because its owner will be in Dover, Del., for a Nextel Cup race June 6. Smith won the 1994 trophy-truck race.

Trophy trucks -- 750 horsepower unlimited production trucks -- are the feature class of the SCORE desert series.

Passings

Bill Taylor, a longtime racing official who built his reputation as a racer on Southern California tracks in the 1940s, died Sunday in Auburndale, Fla., his hometown. He was 84.

Taylor made one try at the Indianapolis 500 in 1949 but after passing his rookie test in the Blue Crown Special, crashed in practice. He later became racing director for Mobil Oil, head of the U.S. Auto Club’s stock car division and a representative for Simpson Racing Equipment.

For many years, he and his wife, Nicki, lived in Big Bear Lake, before moving to Florida and working with NASCAR.

Besides his wife, survivors include daughters Terry Taylor of Aurora, Colo., and Penny Jo Holliday of Claremont; sister Wanda Riavic of San Dimas, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

No services are planned.

Last Laps

NASCAR, seeking to beef up its heavily promoted “Drive for Diversity” program, has enlisted the aid of former Laker star Magic Johnson, who will lead the campaign to get more blacks, Latinos and women into stock car racing.

“We hope that we can reach out to minorities across the country and introduce a wonderful sport that’s already doing well,” Johnson said at a news conference. He said that he was accepting no pay for his services.

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This Week

*--* NASCAR NEXTEL CUP Nextel All-Star Challenge

*--*

* When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, 3 p.m.); Saturday, race (FX, 4:30 p.m.).

* Where: Lowe’s Motor Speedway (quad-oval, 1.5 miles, 24 degrees banking in turns); Concord, N.C.

* Race distance: 135 miles, 90 laps.

* 2003 winner: Jimmie Johnson.

* Next race: Coca-Cola 600, May 30, Concord, N.C.

*--* NASCAR BUSCH Goulds Pumps ITT Ind. 200

*--*

* When: Saturday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 1 p.m.); Sunday, race (FX, 10 a.m.)

* Where: Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway (tri-oval .946 miles, 1 degree banking in turn 1, 4 degrees in turn 2, 6 degrees in turns 3-4).

* Race distance: 200 miles, 200 laps.

* 2003 winner: Ron Hornaday Jr.

* Next race: Carquest Auto Parts 300, May 29, Charlotte, N.C.

*--* NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS Infineon 250

*--*

* When: Today, race (Speed Channel, 5:30 p.m.).

* Where: Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

* Race distance: 201 miles, 134 laps.

* 2003 winner: Ted Musgrave.

* Next race: MBNA America 200, June 4, Dover, Del.

*--* CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES Monterrey Grand Prix

*--*

* When: Today, qualifying, noon; Saturday, qualifying, 11:45 a.m.; Sunday, race (Spike, 1 p.m.).

* Where: Fundidora Park (permanent road course, 2.1 miles, 12 turns); Monterrey, Mexico.

* Race distance: 151.20 miles, 72 laps.

* 2003 winner: Paul Tracy.

* Next race: The Milwaukee Mile, June 5.

*--* FORMULA ONE Monaco Grand Prix

*--*

* When: Saturday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 5 a.m.); Sunday, race (Speed Channel, 4:30 a.m.).

* Where: Monte Carlo street circuit (2.068 miles).

* Race distance: 161.304 miles, 78 laps.

* 2003 winner: Juan Pablo Montoya.

* Next race: European Grand Prix, May 30, Nurburgring, Germany.

*--* NHRA Route 66 Nationals

*--*

* When: Today, qualifying, noon; Saturday, qualifying, 10:15 a.m. (ESPN2, 4 p.m.); Sunday, eliminations, 9 a.m. (ESPN2, 4 p.m.).

* Where: Route 66 Raceway; Joliet, Ill.

* 2003 winners: Tony Schumacher (top fuel), Whit Bazemore (funny car), Kurt Johnson (pro stock) and Angelle Savoie (pro stock bike).

* Next event: O’Reilly Summer Nationals, May 31, Topeka, Kan.