Even Off the Track, Shuman Is in Charge

After winning eight Turkey Night Midget Grands Prix, seven sprint car championships and more races than he can count, Ron Shuman--arguably the finest open-wheel, dirt-track driver in West Coast history--decided to retire to become an administrator.

Shuman, 45, ran for the presidency of the Sprint Car Racing Assn., the Perris-based organization of non-winged sprint cars. And just as in racing, he won, defeating incumbent Glenn Howard by eight votes.

The one thing Shuman says he doesn’t miss is driving race cars.

“It got to where, I still felt I was competitive and wanted to win, but I’d lost the urgency to keep on going to races,” the Tempe (Ariz.) veteran said. “I’d won so many races and so many championships, I needed a new challenge.

“I found it. Running the SCRA, trying to upgrade it, is my new challenge. And I’m liking it. There’s no doubt, it’s challenging.”

The Flying Shoe, as Shuman has been known for years, has set three goals for his presidency of the SCRA, whose championship he won last year:

* Establish a $100,000 series point fund, which would pay $20,000 or more to the champion.

* Get two live TV dates a year at Perris Auto Speedway.

* Create a U.S. non-winged sprint car champion by joining hands with the Indiana-based U.S. Auto Club, the only other major sprint car association running without wings.

“It’ll take awhile, maybe two or three years, but I think we can do it,” Shuman said. “Television, which is what you need for sponsors, has made people more aware of dirt track sprint car racing.

“If we had a $100,000 payout instead of the $40,000 now, it would help keep guys coming to every race, just like NASCAR. It would give them something to shoot for. Instead of the $5,000 the driver and [car] owner get now, $20,000 would make a bigger incentive.

“It took the World of Outlaws 10 years, from 1982 to 1992, to get booked live on TV. I’d like to have two shows next year. The lights at Perris are as good or better than any track in the country and [co-owner] Danny Kazarian made sure all the cables and wiring were done for TV before the track was built.

“And I want to build a relationship with USAC so that my guys can race in Indiana during their Speed Week in July when they run seven times in nine days. Then I’d like to set up a couple of weekends where the USAC guys could run out here, so we could crown a national champion.”

If there had been one in years past, it more than likely would have been Shuman.

He was the first driver to win sprint car racing’s Triple Crown, the Knoxville (Iowa) Nationals, Western World and Pacific Coast Nationals in 1979. He was a six-time winner of the Pacific Coast Nationals and a four-time winner of the Western World at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix.

Among his victories were 77 in the CRA and SCRA, 13 with the World of Outlaws, plus 12 in midgets, three in sprint cars and three in USAC Silver Crown cars.

“One reason I don’t miss it is that I went out a champion,” he said. “I won the second-to-last race I ever drove, and I won the championship in the last race. Actually on the last lap of the last race.”

For the second time in two years, Shuman passed SCRA points leader Richard Griffin in the season’s final race.

In 1996, he overcame a 31-point deficit and won when Griffin crashed two cars while trying to qualify. Doctors would not permit Griffin to race after the second crash, opening the door for Shuman, who had to finish first to win the title. He did.

Last year, Shuman needed to finish two positions ahead of Griffin in the season finale at Perris. With five laps remaining after a caution flag, Griffin was third and Shuman sixth.

“Griffin thought he was home free, my number wasn’t even on the board, and he was running right behind Cory Kruseman and Rip Williams,” Shuman said. “But I hooked up with the track and got to making good laps running around the bottom. It paid off. I got up to second behind Rip on the last lap and Griffin finished fourth.”

Shuman won the title by two points, 2,124 to 2,122.

The SCRA will run its fourth race Saturday night at Perris. Griffin, finally racing without looking over his shoulder at Shuman, is leading the series, since J.J. Yeley, winner of the first two races, is not a points-scoring SCRA member.

NASCAR

The biggest racing program in Las Vegas racing history will be run this weekend when Winston Cup teams test their skills on the 2-year-old Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s 1.5-mile D-shaped oval.

All 107,000 seats were sold in four hours when they went on sale last summer.

In keeping with Las Vegas’ glittering image, more than $4 million will be at stake, with $3.25 million of that posted for Sunday’s Las Vegas 400. Qualifying for the pole and the first 25 positions for the 267-lap, 400-mile race will held today at 3 p.m. The rest of the 38-car field will qualify Saturday.

Also scheduled Saturday is the Sam’s Town Las Vegas 300, a Busch Grand National race. The World of Outlaws’ winged sprint cars will race tonight and Saturday night on a half-mile clay oval inside the Speedway complex.

After two dramatic races, won by Dale Earnhardt at Daytona and defending champion Jeff Gordon at Rockingham, Rusty Wallace is the Winston Cup leader with 335 points to 302 for Earnhardt and 300 for Gordon. To prepare for Sunday’s race, Wallace tested his new Ford Taurus at Homestead, Fla., also a 1.5-mile oval.

“Homestead has a lot of the same characteristics as Las Vegas such as little banking in the corners, so we’re pretty satisfied we’re ready,” said Wallace, who has finished fifth and second in this year’s races. “One of the weirdest things is that I’ve been out to Las Vegas several times during the last few years doing promotional work on behalf of NASCAR and the track, but I’ve yet to drive a race car on the track. The facility is all first-class, the surface looks as good as you’ll find. I can’t wait.”

As part of a promotional campaign, Wallace’s car will carry an Elvis Presley theme. The race will be shown on Channel 7 at 11:30 a.m.

FORMULA ONE

Ken Tyrrell, who masterminded three world championships with Jackie Stewart in 1969, 1971 and 1973, has retired from operation of the Tyrrell Formula One team. The Tyrrell organization was acquired by the newly formed British American Racing team last November, but Tyrrell had been expected to remain with the team until 1999.

In resigning, Tyrrell cited differences in management priorities between his team and British American Racing, headed by Dr. Harvey Postlethwaite. “I want to stress that there is no animosity involved in the decision,” said Tyrrell, one of the founders of the Formula One Constructors’ Assn.

SUPERCROSS

There may be no correlation, but Jeremy McGrath of Canyon Lake keeps on winning and the AMA Supercross series keeps on playing to record crowds. McGrath won his fourth consecutive race on his Chaparral Yamaha before 61,305 last week in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. The series continues Saturday night at Houlihan’s Stadium in Tampa, Fla.

LAST LAPS

Four of CART’s championship car teams--Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers, Cal Wells’ Arciero Wells Racing, Bruce McCaw’s PacWest Racing Group and Barry Green’s Team Kool Green--have tested California Speedway’s 1.3-mile road course in preparation for races at Long Beach on April 5. Mark Bludell, winner of the inaugural Marlboro 500 last September at California Speedway, logged more than 400 miles in the PacWest’s Reynard- Mercedes-Firestone combination. Others who tested the infield layout included Paul Tracy, Robby Gordon, Dario Franchitti and rookie Alex Barron.

Ten inductees have been elected to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Novi, Mich. The living members are Rick Mears, four-time Indy 500 winner; Buck Baker, former NASCAR champion, and Don Nicholson, drag racing driver and builder. Deceased inductees include Denis Hulme, Can-Am and Formula One champion; Steve Wittman, air racer and experimental test pilot; Carl Kiekhaefer, Mercury outboard builder and industrialist; Carroll Resweber, four-time AMA Grand National champion; Clint Brawner, Indy car crew chief; and Tommy Milton and Jimmy Murphy, both Indy 500 winners in the 1920s.