Reaction to Patrick Not a Good Sign for the IRL

Call it what you like -- jealousy, envy, macho, lack of respect, pettiness -- the latest flap over Danica Patrick and the attention she has received has done no good for either party involved, the Indy Racing League and the Andretti Green Racing team.

Upset that the IRL set up an autograph area for Patrick separate from the other 21 drivers at a mandatory signing session Saturday in Milwaukee, the AGR foursome of Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon, series champion Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta refused to participate.

The league announced Thursday that it would fine the owners of AGR -- Michael Andretti, Kim Green and Kevin Savoree -- an undisclosed amount for not having their drivers participate.

AGR felt it unfair that the IRL was publicizing Patrick while ignoring others who had actually won something. It wasn’t only the signing, it was things like seeing Patrick’s picture on the cover of six magazines, including TV Guide this week and Sports Illustrated the week after the Indy 500. And seeing a magazine advertisement for the series where Patrick’s picture appeared above much smaller pictures of six other drivers, with the caption, “Get used to it, boys.”

“The team didn’t think it was appropriate for the [IRL] to set her apart from everybody else, to focus completely on her,” said Herta, elder statesman of the group. “We felt the league should treat all drivers the same. What the media says, or the fans feel about Danica, is their prerogative, but our feeling is that the league itself should be impartial.”

The format for autographs was the same at a June race at Texas Motor Speedway. The next driver signing is scheduled for tonight at Jackson, Mich., as a prelude to Sunday’s Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

“We pride ourselves on accessibility to our drivers,” said John Griffin, IRL vice president. “It has been an IRL policy since its founding to have mandatory appearances. Skipping one is a serious matter.”

Wheldon, who won four of the first five races this year, including Indy, was asked in a conference call if he planned on showing up tonight.

“I’m assuming that I will be there. If my boss says ‘Yes,’ I will be there. If my boss says ‘No,’ then I won’t be. I have to respect his decision,” he said.

Said Herta: “The important thing we want everyone to know is that we have no beef whatsoever with Danica. Last week, after we didn’t attend the signing, Tony, Dan, Dario and myself made it a point to find her and tell her that we had no hard feelings against her. She has been a tremendous asset to the series, we know that, and she has handled all the extra stuff as well as anyone could. We just didn’t like the way the league was handling it. It seemed they had no respect for what Dan and Tony, or any of the other drivers, had accomplished.

“We also didn’t stiff the fans at Milwaukee. We signed autographs for an hour or more at the team merchandise hauler, not far from where the IRL had its signing.”

Patrick, who crashed last week and has only two fourth-place finishes in 10 races and is 11th in points, said she saw no feelings of antagonism from her fellow drivers.

“I think they recognize that I don’t control the autograph sessions or anything like that,” she said. “That’s in the hands of the series and the tracks. All I do is kind of show up where I’m supposed to and sign as many autographs as I can and put a couple of smiles on some people’s faces.”

Just imagine what will happen when she wins a race.

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Southland Scene

Amateur sports car racing takes the spotlight this weekend at California Speedway, where the California Sports Car Club will join with its San Diego counterpart to conduct national and regional championship racing on the 2.88-mile infield road course. Drivers will be competing for points in 22 classes to qualify for the SCCA Runoffs, Sept. 19-25, at Mid-Ohio race course.

Practice and qualifying Saturday will set the fields for five national races Sunday. In addition, there will be two featured regional races, at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday. Fields of 80 cars, notably Mazda RX7s, Miatas and touring sedans, are expected. National races will be 16 laps or 45 minutes, whichever is less.

Stock car racing fans come in all brands. Some like to see big old sedans sliding sideways through the corners on dirt. Some prefer more precision driving on pavement.

Saturday night there will be something for both. Perris Auto Speedway, a half-mile clay oval, will have four divisions of stock cars in action. Irwindale Speedway, a half-mile asphalt oval, will five classes competing -- two of them on the third-mile infield oval. The NASCAR super late models will run Twin 50s, with full points for each race.

No racing at Ventura Raceway this week and no speedway motorcycles at Costa Mesa Speedway until Aug. 13. ... Speedway action can be seen Wednesday nights at Industry Hills Expo Center featuring former national champion Charlie Venegas. ... Twilight Cruise Night for hot rodders is Wednesday, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona.

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Honors

Danny Caruthers, Vic Edelbrock, Floyd Alvis and Crocky Wright have been named to the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame. Caruthers, youngest of two brothers to win the U.S. Auto Club midget championship, was killed in an accident at Corona Speedway in 1971. He joins father Doug and brother Jimmy in the Hall of Fame. Edelbrock is a racing equipment innovator and car owner. Alvis has won seven Bay Cities Racing Assn. championships. Wright is best known as a stuntman and historian.

Burke LeSage, Herb Fishel and Paul “Scooter” Brothers are the latest inductees into the Specialty Equipment Market Assn. Hall of Fame. LeSage, a dry lakes legend and 200 MPH Club member, was SEMA’s first employee. Fishel ran General Motors’ racing program for many years and Brothers is an equipment manufacturer.

Landspeed Louise Ann Noeth, columnist and author of Bonneville Salt Flats, has won the James Valentine Memorial Award, given for “excellence in automotive historical research” by the Society of Automobile Historians.

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Last Laps

Seven-time supercross champion Jeremy McGrath may have given up competitive motocross, but he’s busier than ever. He will be defending his Step Up event title in the ESPN X Games next week at Staples Center. Then he will prepare to race a truck in the Nissan Off-Road Nationals, Sept. 24-25 and Oct. 1-2 at Otay Ranch, south of San Diego.

In the meantime, he, along with Ken Faught and other racers, are developing Pole Position Raceway, an indoor kart track in Corona that is scheduled to open in September. The 51,000-square-foot building will have a quarter-mile road course with 55 electric karts.

Darren Manning has parted with Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Indy car program. The British driver had five top-five finishes in 24 starts. The team will continue with Scott Dixon and rookie Ryan Briscoe as drivers. ... Townsend Bell of San Luis Obispo will substitute for the injured Thomas Enge in Panther Racing’s Chevrolet for the IRL race at Michigan International Speedway.

Auggie Vidovich, 24, the 2003 NASCAR Southwest Series champion from Lakeside, is among 25 drivers culled from 1,700 applicants to qualify for Jack Roush’s “gong show” to select a driver for the 2006 Craftsman Truck series. Kurt Busch, reigning Nextel Cup champion, received his big break as winner of the 1999 gong show. The group will be cut to 12 after a test next week at Martinsville, Va.

Following the overwhelming success three weeks ago of the return of Grand Prix motorcycle racing to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca after an 11-year absence, dates for the 2006 MotoGp have been set for July 21-23. Plans are to have a special road into the track area for cycles only. Officials estimated that 12,000 of the nearly 60,000 spectators who saw Nicky Hayden upset Valentino Rossi rode in on motorcycles.