Vasser Key to Ganassi’s Sweep

If Jimmy Vasser finishes fifth or better in the season-ending Indy car race Sunday at Laguna Seca, it will give car owner and former driver Chip Ganassi a clean sweep of CART honors this year.

Alex Zanardi, Vasser’s teammate from Italy, has already clinched the $50,000 Jim Trueman award as rookie of the year after winning two races and five pole positions in one of Ganassi’s Reynard-Hondas.

Vasser, a native of Canoga Park who lives in Las Vegas, holds a 14-point lead over former PPG Cup champion Michael Andretti going into the Toyota Grand Prix of Monterey. With 22 points available--20 for a victory and one each for top qualifier and leader of the most laps--even if Andretti were to sweep the board, the 10 fifth-place points for Vasser would give him the $1-million championship prize.

Vasser has 142 points, Andretti has 128, and still mathematically in the hunt is former champion Al Unser Jr. with 125.

The success of Vasser, winner of four races and the PPG Cup points leader since the first race, and Zanardi have helped Honda win its first Manufacturer’s Cup in its third season.

Zanardi clinched the rookie award Sunday at Vancouver, where he won his third consecutive pole and his chief rival, Canadian Greg Moore, dropped out because of an oil leak. Even though Zanardi also failed to finish after crashing on the 18th lap with fellow rookie P.J. Jones, he has a 34-point margin over Moore.

“We do not have something like rookie of the year in Europe, so it is a little different for me,” Zanardi said. “However, I am very happy because it is an award you can win only once. I cannot come back next year and say I want to be rookie of the year. So, it makes me very happy for myself and also for the team.”

With only Laguna Seca remaining on the 16-race CART schedule, cars powered by Honda V-8 engines have won 10 races and 11 poles this season, after having won only one race and two poles in the previous two seasons.

“To excel against this level of world-class competition from Mercedes, Ford and Toyota shows the dedication and focus of our efforts,” said Robert Clarke, general manager of Honda Performance Development in Santa Clarita. “This championship is a tribute to all of those Honda staff members who dedicated themselves to our Indy car project.

“Overcoming the difficulties and troubles of 1994 to our success today has simply come from hours of hard work.”

Other Honda drivers on the CART circuit include Gil de Ferran, Parker Johnstone, Adrian Fernandez and Andre Ribeiro.

Motor Racing Notes

MIDGETS--The U.S. Auto Club will celebrate its 100th anniversary of oval track racing Saturday night with a Western States midget and TQ midget program at Perris Auto Speedway. Along with a USAC sprint car race in Louisville, Ky., it will commemorate a five-mile race on the Narragansett Park oval during the Rhode Island State Fair on Sept. 7, 1896. Ironically, Rhode Island now is the only state without a race track.

MOTORCYCLES--National speedway champion Greg Hancock, British League points leader Billy Hamill and two-time U.S. champion Mike Faria will return from Britain to race in the U.S. National Speedway championship Sept. 28 at the Costa Mesa Speedway on the Orange County Fairgrounds. Other former national champions entered include Steve Lucero, Brad Oxley and Bobby Schwartz. . . . Speedway motorcycles and sidecars will race tonight at Costa Mesa.

SPRINT CARS--Drivers from the Sprint Car Racing Assn. will be at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale on Saturday night. Rip Williams’ ninth victory of the season last week at Perris made him the all-time SCRA winner with 17 main events. . . . The World of Outlaws will be at Kings Speedway in Hanford Wednesday night and Santa Maria Speedway on Sept. 13-14.

VINTAGE RACING--The Goodguys eighth Fall Classic Nostalgia Drags will be run tonight and Saturday night at Bakersfield’s Famoso Raceway. It is the fifth stop on the six-race $150,000 Goodguys/Red Line Oil West Coast championship series. Twelve classes will be featured, among them top-fuel front-engine dragsters. Paul Romaine of Indianapolis leads in the top-fuel class. . . . The Vintage Auto Racing Assn. will hold a series of road races at Willow Springs Raceway.

DRIVER OF YEAR--Winston Cup driver Dale Jarrett, on the strength of victories in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and the GM Goodwrench 400 at Michigan, was voted third-quarter leader in driver-of-the-year balloting. Funny car drag racing champion John Force finished second, followed by Indy car driver Alex Zanardi, the World of Outlaws’ Mark Kinser and Winston Cup points leader Terry Labonte.

MISCELLANY--John Ward, longtime chief design engineer for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers Inc., is leaving Gurney “due to philosophical differences” in their Toyota Eagle program. . . . SCORE International’s Laughlin Desert Challenge, originally scheduled for this weekend, is now planned for Oct. 4-6. The change was made at the request of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, which had concerns about the hot September date and its effect on desert wildlife.