Another Big Day for the Foyts

It might not have been as satisfying to A.J. Foyt as winning a fifth Indianapolis 500, but what happened last Sunday at Kansas Speedway ranks high among his highlights.

“It was like hitting a double jackpot at Harrah’s,” said the 67-year-old racing legend.

His grandson, A.J. Foyt IV, won the first race of the Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series, and his other driver, former Brazilian jet skier Airton Dare, won his first IRL race since joining Foyt’s team last February.

“I was so happy for [A.J. IV], I could have cried and probably did,” said Grandpa Foyt.

Typically, A.J. the taskmaster didn’t let the kid celebrate for long.

“A.J. IV asked me if I still wanted him to work the Indy car race as Airton’s right-front tire changer. I told him, ‘Hell, yeah! Just because you won a race, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to work.’ ”

In a way, it was the youngster’s work on Dare’s car that got him his ride in the Infiniti series, a development program for the IRL. On May 25, the day before the Indy 500, A.J. IV celebrated his 18th birthday and the present from his grandfather was the seat in the No. 14 Harrah’s Dallara.

“He’s done a hell of a job for Airton,” said the proud grandfather. “He’s been changing that right front all year now and he and Airton commute together. He stops Airton [coming into the pits] and I send him out. We had some fast pit stops, we had a 7.5-second stop, so you don’t want to change your crew in midstream.”

Did A.J. expect his namesake to do so well in his first big race since leaving the go-kart ranks a year ago?

“Hell, no, I didn’t expect that,” he said. “The biggest thing I wanted him to do was to keep his nose clean and not get in anybody’s way, and it’s just one of those deals that everything was perfect. We never turned a bolt on the car. It’s just one of those days where he adapted to it real quick. He had not tested and had no experience on a track this size.

“The race car performed well, the Infiniti engine performed well, and he drove like a true champion. They put a lot of pressure on him and he held up really well. I just kept telling him, ‘Stay tight, stay tight.’ ”

A.J. IV not only won the race, he won the pole with a qualifying lap of 180.330 mph, three miles an hour faster than the NASCAR Winston Cup pole speed set by Jason Leffler last September.

He took the lead from the start and led 63 of the 67 laps around the 1.5-mile oval, losing the lead to Ronnie Johncox for four laps before regaining it. After Foyt’s main challengers, Johncox, Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Aaron Fike were involved in a crash on Lap 47, Jason Priestley of “Beverly Hills 90120” fame moved into second but was never a threat.

“It was exciting,” the young Foyt said. “I have never run side by side at these speeds with anybody. We did it for three and four laps at a time, and nobody made a mistake until a couple of them got together behind me and took out some good cars.”

A.J. said the race was probably more taxing on him than on his grandson.

“I felt like I drove a harder race on the radio than he did in the car. He’ll be hard to live with now, but like I told him, he’s like a racehorse. He broke his maiden. From now on, it’s going to get harder and harder.”

A.J. IV is familiar with race horses. He lives on a ranch near Hockley, Texas, where his father, Tony, raises thoroughbreds.

Dare’s win, the first for a Foyt-owned car since Kenny Brack won the Indy 500 in 1999, was quite different from young Foyt’s. Rookie Tomas Scheckter seemed to have the race in hand before he crashed, giving the lead to IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr. with Dare running second.

“When they dropped the yellow and I saw that Scheckter was in the wall, I thought I was happy for second place,” Dare said. “Then when A.J. told me that they’re going to go green for a few laps before the end, I started to think about winning my first race. As soon as they dropped the green flag, I think Hornish missed gears or something and he gave us an opportunity to go by him.

“Since then, my cell phone has been busy with calls from Brazil, all my friends. The race was on TV there. Then a lot of people are telling me that I gave a big hug to my dad at the end of the race, but that was actually A.J. My dad was in Brazil watching. I got a lot friends in the media back home and they know that I was out of a job in the beginning of the year and how hard it is to be with a good team, which I am now.”

Early in the year, Dare was in Homestead, Fla., walking around the pits with his helmet bag, when Foyt’s driver, Donnie Beechler, crashed and was hospitalized while practicing for the season opener.

“I was just walking around, talking to a lot of people and a lot of them were asking for millions of dollars to put me in a team,” Dare said. “And I never, ever expected A.J. Foyt to call me, and then when he did, I just went from there. I have to say, I have learned more in six months than ever before in my career. Working with A.J., it’s kind of like when you meet your first girlfriend. The more you see each other, the more you know how each other works.”

Sprint Cars

Rickie Gaunt has found a new way to win a main event in the Sprint Car Racing Assn.--get confused on how many laps it is. The most surprised person at Perris Auto Speedway on the Fourth of July was Gaunt when he rounded the corner in the feature and saw the white flag being displayed on Lap 29.

“I thought it was 50 laps,” he said. “I wasn’t paying attention at the pit meeting. I thought it was a Firecracker 50. When the white flag came out, I thought I might win only because I didn’t have enough time to screw up.”

He won his ninth SCRA race and will be back Saturday night for another 30-lap main.

Points leader Richard Griffin, who has won at Tulare, Santa Maria and Las Vegas, will be looking for his first win at Perris this year.

Also on the program will be U.S. Auto Club Ford Focus midgets for 20 laps. Todd Hunsaker of Chino Hills leads Phil Goodwine of Mira Loma by 37 points.

Motorcycles

Mazda Raceway, formerly Laguna Seca, will host the Honda International Superbike Classic this weekend, featuring both world and national championship races. In the world series, Australian Troy Bayliss has won 13 of 16 rounds on his Ducati and holds a substantial lead over Honda rider Colin Edwards of Conroe, Texas. Ben Bostrom, whose brother Eric is one of the favorites in the national event, won last year’s round of the world championships.

Nicky Hayden, 20, comes into Round 12 of the 16-race AMA national series having won seven races on his Honda. With five rounds remaining, Hayden has a shot at Fred Merkel’s 1984 record of 10 AMA superbike wins in a single season. He holds a 42-point lead over Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom.

Former supercross champion Jeremy McGrath, who is not riding in the AMA outdoor motocross season, kept himself in shape last week by winning three races in the 35th Mammoth Motocross event. Just after his 30th birthday, McGrath won his first vet pro main event, plus the 125cc and 250cc features. The seven-time champion plans to marry fiance Kim Maddox next month.

Last Laps

Figure 8s, those heart-stopping races during which everyone has to run through an intersection, will liven Saturday night’s Irwindale Speedway program. The Figure 8s will follow a program of super late models, super stocks and ultra wheel super trucks.... .

Desert racing, SCORE International style, returns Saturday with Henderson’s Terrible 250, fourth of six races in the Optima Desert Series. It will be a five-lap open-desert race over a 50-mile course between Nevada Highway 95 and the McCullough Mountains....

The APBA Gold Cup for unlimited hydroplanes, crown jewel of powerboat racing, will be contested Sunday on the Detroit River. Mike Hanson will defend his title in U-9 Tubby’s Grilled Subs against four-time winner Dave Villwock in U-1 Miss Budweiser, and Nate Brown, last week’s winner at Madison, Ind., in U-16 Miss Elam Plus.