MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : They Took Honors Going Away

Selecting an All-American auto racing team can be a difficult task in some years, but in 1993 most of the choices for the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Assn. team were easy picks.

Dale Earnhardt, the Winston Cup champion for the sixth time driving a Chevrolet Lumina, and Rusty Wallace, whose 10 victories in a Pontiac Grand Prix brought him close to Earnhardt, were obvious selections in the stock car category. It was Earnhardt’s sixth time and Wallace’s third as first-team choices.

Nigel Mansell, the charismatic Englishman who won the PPG Cup Indy Car championship with a Lola-Ford Cosworth in his first try after having won the Formula One crown a year earlier; and Paul Tracy, the young Canadian who matched Mansell with five victories in a Penske-Chevrolet, were obvious selections in the open-wheel division. Left out was Emerson Fittipaldi, Tracy’s teammate and the Indianapolis 500 winner.

It was Mansell’s first time on the team, in his first venture into American racing. For Tracy, who had replaced Rick Mears on the Penske team and drove in his first full Indy car season, it was his second selection. In 1990, he had received an at-large berth.

Eddie Hill and John Force were standouts for the drag-racing portion of the 12-driver team. Hill, 57, became the oldest professional driver to win a national event, much less a championship, when he earned his first National Hot Rod Assn. top-fuel title with a record-tying six-victory season. Force won the funny-car class in an Olds Cutlass with a record 11 victories.

Each so dominated his class that no other top-fuel or funny-car driver won more than two races. Force also made the first team in 1991, but it was the first time for Hill.

Juan Manuel Fangio II, winner of the Jerry Titus Award last year as the leading vote-getter in AARWBA balloting, again headed the road-racing category after driving a Toyota Eagle to the final International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GT series championship. Fangio won seven races, matching his 1992 total, in edging teammate P.J. Jones for the crown. He was joined by Scott Sharp, the Trans-Am champion, who won six races in his Camaro.

It was the second selection for both road racers, Fangio getting the honor last year and Sharp in 1991.

Steve Kinser, with 13 World of Outlaw sprint-car championships in 15 years, was selected to one of the short-track berths for the 12th time. Kinser won 19 of the Outlaws’ 68 races. The other berth went to Chevrolet driver Johnny Benson Jr., champion of the American Speed Assn. stock car circuit. Benson, a first-time selection, edged Mike Bliss, the United States Auto Club’s Silver Crown champion, by a single vote.

Ron Shuman, who was not on the AARWBA ballot, might have been a more deserving selection. Shuman had the USAC Silver Crown title apparently won at the end of the final race, but when one driver was penalized after the checkered flag, it moved Bliss up one position and he finished the season two points ahead of Shuman. The Arizona veteran also won his eighth Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix, one of USAC’s most prestigious races, and three California Racing Assn. sprint car features.

At-large selections were off-road racer Ivan Stewart and Indy Lights champion Bryan Herta. Stewart dominated off-road racing, winning the SCORE International series in his Toyota truck by sweeping both Baja races, the 500 and the 1000. In the Baja 1000, he drove solo and won the overall championship by beating all the motorcycles as well as four-wheeled competition. It was the first time a truck had won overall since 1979. Stewart also won stadium races in San Diego, Las Vegas and the Rose Bowl.

Herta won seven of 12 Indy Lights races, but his at-large position on the All-America team is a bit suspect because even though the Lights series is promoted as a training ground for future Indy drivers, Herta was selected over established Indy drivers such as Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr., Danny Sullivan and Mario Andretti, all of whom won Indy car races on the major league circuit. The Titus Award winner, which will be chosen from among Earnhardt, Force and Mansell, will be announced Saturday night at the AARWBA banquet in Charlotte, N.C.

Motor Racing Notes

INDY CARS--Andrew Craig, an advertising and marketing executive from England, was named president and chief executive offer of Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. (CART). Craig, 44, who has worked with the International Olympic Committee for the last 10 years while living in Switzerland, will take office March 31. . . . Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George resigned from the CART board of directors, saying he was unhappy with the group’s direction.

STOCK CARS--Kern County Raceway at Willow Springs will feature sportsman, IMCA, mini stocks, street stocks and dwarf cars for its second program Sunday. . . . Imperial Raceway will open its 1994 season Saturday night with a points race for IMCA modifieds, plus pro stocks and factory stocks. The track is three miles north of El Centro on highway 86.

OFF ROAD--The only appearance in the Los Angeles area this year for the Mickey Thompson Stadium Off-Road series and the Camel Supercross for motorcycles will be at Anaheim Stadium as neither event is scheduled for the Coliseum or Rose Bowl. The Anaheim off-road race is Jan. 22, the Supercross on Jan. 29. . . . The SCORE Parker 400 off-road race will be split into two separate events this year. Trucks will race Thursday, Jan. 20, with all other classes racing Saturday, Jan. 22.

MISCELLANY--Eli Gold, co-host of the Motor Racing Network’s racing broadcasters and host of television’s “This Week in NASCAR,” is the winner of the Henry T. McLemore Motorsports Press Award. . . . The Willow Springs Motorcycle Club has retired the No. 26 plates in honor of Jimmy Adamo, a club member who was killed in a racing accident last March at Daytona Beach, Fla. Adamo still holds a class track record at Willow Springs set in 1990. . . . Bill Johnson of Newport Beach, former editor of RaceTime magazine, is launching a new publication, TV RaceTime, which will feature monthly motor racing TV programs.

NECROLOGY--J.W. Hunt, 74, one of sprint car racing’s biggest benefactors, died last Thursday at his home in Plant City, Fla. Hunt, dubbed “the Strawberry King” after making a fortune in the fruit industry, was a familiar figure at Ascot Park, where he often offered substantial bonuses to race winners. He received the Award of Excellence from the World of Outlaws in 1992.