Motor Racing : Press Tries to Retain Lead in San Bernardino

The NASCAR Southwest Tour, one of the most competitive auto racing series around, opens a two-week stay in Southern California Saturday with a 100-lap event on the quarter-mile oval at the Orange Show Fairgrounds in San Bernardino.

Saturday night’s race will be the 15th in the 20-race All-American Challenge Series, and once again the championship figures to go down to the final event at Phoenix Nov. 4.

Last Saturday night, Troy Beebe of Modesto scored his first victory of the season, passing fellow Modesto driver Harry Belletto on the 97th of 100 laps. He became the fifth driver to win in as many races. Only Dan Press of Frazier Park, the series leader, has won more than once in the last eight races, going back to May 12.

Beebe’s margin over Belletto, who led the first 96 laps, was one second, the widest in the last four races, since the others all had been a car-length or less.

Belletto barely held off a charging Press, who came back from an early spin, but had to settle for third. M.K. Kanke of Granada Hills, the only driver in top six in the standings without a victory, finished fourth. Earlier Kanke set the fastest qualifying time.

Press’ third-place finish enabled him to increase his lead in the standings to 128 points over Kanke, but Beebe, fourth and closing, trimmed the margin between himself and Press to 140 points with six events left.

“(The win) gave us a few more points and we are just going to hang in there for the championship,” said Beebe, 27, who was the Southwest Tour runner-up last season.

After 14 races, Press has 2,155 points, followed by Kanke at 2,027, Mike Chase of Bakersfield at 2,017, Beebe at 2,015 and Palmdale’s Ray Hooper Jr. at 1,960.

After San Bernardino, the tour moves to the one-third mile Saugus Speedway on Sept. 9 for another 100-lapper.

MORE STOCK CARS--It is almost certain that the Ed Hale-Tobin Whitt battle for the 1989 sportsman championship will go down to the final race on Sept. 23. Going into Saturday night’s event at San Bernardino, Whitt has a two-point margin over Hale. Street, pony and bomber cars also are on the program. . . . A 40-lap event for sportsman car headlines Saturday night’s racing at Saugus. Street stock oval and Figure 8 and jalopies will also race.

Ascot Park will feature a 150-lap enduro for domestic and foreign compact cars, and the Outlaw mini-stocks will compete in a 20-lap main event. On Monday night, Curb Motorsports NASCAR Winston Racing series continues with Marcus Mallet trying to his second straight pro stock victory.

Last Sunday Mallet quickly put away Jim Pettit of Seaside, Calif., then held off Jerry Meyer for the 30-lap win. Pettit, who was running second when he dropped out with three laps to go, also dropped from the top spot in the NASCAR Pacific Region standings, being replaced by Jeff Silva of Aptos, Calif. Bomber oval and Figure 8 cars also compete on the holiday program that will capped by the final demolition derby of the year.

Street and mini-stocks return at Ventura Raceway Friday night after a three-week layoff for the Ventura County Fair.

SPRINT CARS--Ron Shuman of Tempe, Ariz., defending California Racing Assn. champion who had both bad and good luck last weekend, is hoping for more of the latter this weekend. The sprinters will compete Saturday night at Ascot, then Sunday and Monday evenings on Shuman’s home track, Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix.

Last Saturday night at Ascot, three separate wrecks left only nine cars running and Shuman with a straightaway lead and only a few laps to go. But suddenly he found himself without power and John Redican went on to the victory. The long night of crashes also caused him to miss his 11:15 p.m. flight to Indianapolis, where he was going to sub for injured Gary Bettenhausen in the USAC dirt car Hoosier Hundred at the Indianapolis Fairgrounds. With a fresh start in the morning, he made it in time to qualify and finish third in the race after leading from laps 14-41. Jack Hewitt won with Johnny Parsons second.

Most of the 10 drivers who were involved in the unintentional destruction derby last week are expected back this weekend. Series leader Jerry Meyer, who jumped into his own No. 28 car after having his regular Bruce Bromme mount sidelined in one of the crashes, managed to finish seventh and currently leads Shuman, 3,156 points to 3,046, heading into the three-race weekend.

MOTORCYCLES--Phil Collins, the transplanted Briton, will try to keep his hot streak sizzling at Ascot Park’s South Bay Speedway tonight when he shoots for his sixth straight win in the final event before next Thursday’s U.S. National qualifying meet. With four of the six qualifiers out of the way, Collins is third behind Bobby Schwartz and Steve Lucero but his hot riding at South Bay could give him the edge as he attempts to become the first British rider to win the U.S. title.

Speedway racing is also scheduled at Orange Country Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Friday night and at Speedway U.S.A. in Victorville on Saturday evening. The final U.S. qualifier will be held on Sept. 8 at Costa Mesa and it will set the field for the Oct. 7 championships, also at Costa Mesa. . . . The Continental Motosports Club holds its weekly races Friday night at Ascot Park.

Rick Johnson of El Cajon, Ron Stanton of Sherwood, Mich., and Jeff Ward of San Juan Capistrano will carry the American colors as the United States seeks an unprecedented ninth straight victory in the Motocross des Nations Oct. 10 in Gaildorf, West Germany. Johnson will ride a 125cc Honda, his teammate Stanton will be on a 250cc machine, and Ward, on a Kawasaki, will be the U.S. entrant in the 500cc event.

SPEED TRIALS--Three drivers bettered world records in the recent rain-shortened Southern California Timing Assn. speed trials at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Howard Nafzger of Tucson erased a 50-year-old mark when he rode his Kawasaki-powered streamliner through the measured mile at 241.740 m.p.h. The old mark, 203.500 m.p.h., was set in 1939 by Maj. Goldie Gardner. Jack Dolan of San Diego drove his 1975 Buick V-6 at 199.628, eclipsing the mark of 171.110 set by the late Al Holbert, and Gordon White of Alexandria, Va., clocked 153.198 m.p.h. in a 1948 Kurtis midget powered by an Offenhauser engine, beating the record of 145.885 by J. Bearce in 1986.

Fastest speed of the meet, which was cut to four days by heavy rain, was 367.833 by Nolen White of San Diego in a Chevy-powered streamliner, one of several cars attempting to better the 409.27 set in 1965 by Bob Summers of Ontario, Calif. Some of the streamliners will return to the salt flats for the third annual World of Speed, Sept. 29-Oct. 3.

MIDGETS--The United States Auto Club’s Western States series continues Saturday night when Robby Flock, Sleepy Tripp and Co. invade the quarter-mile Silver State Raceway in Carson City, Nev. A 30-lap main event tops the program.

HOLIDAY FARE--On the last holiday weekend of the summer, all three major series in the country will provide racing action. The NASCAR Winston Cup drivers are at Darlington, S.C., where Darrell Waltrip will get a million-dollar bonus if he wins the Southern 500 Sunday. The CART Indy cars compete at Mid-Ohio Raceway in Hilliard, Ohio, in the Red Roofs Inn 200 on Sunday, and the Camel GT sports cars of the International Motor Sports Assn. will compete in the Nissan Grand Prix of San Antonio, also on Sunday.