Steele Is Hopeful of Banking Again on Twin Wins

By SHAV GLICK

March 26, 2004 12 AM PT

Driver Dave Steele has prospered in two areas -- in $50,000 bonus midget races, and in races at Irwindale Speedway. So Steele is eager to go racing Saturday night at Irwindale, where promoter Steve Lewis has put up a $50,000 bonus for any driver winning both midget races in the Mopar Twin 25s, the second after starting at the rear of the field.

The 29-year-old open-wheel specialist from Tampa, Fla., won the 50 grand the first time Lewis put it up, two years ago at Indianapolis Raceway Park. On Irwindale’s half-mile oval, he won the feature event the night the track opened March 27, 1999, and he has won the prestigious Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix twice, in 2001 and 2003.

“I’m looking forward to winning that bonus again,” Steele said after arriving at Irwindale from Phoenix, where last weekend he won a Silver Crown race and finished second to J.J. Yeley in the Copper World Classic midget feature. “I read the manual on how to do it at Indy. They changed the format a little bit, but it’s still obtainable.”

At Indianapolis two years ago, after Steele had won the first 25-lap race, the entire field of 24 was inverted. When several of his main rivals were caught in an early tangle, Steele shot ahead of them, then picked off the other cars one by one, collecting a record purse for a midget race of $60,280.

On Saturday, the first race winner will start at the rear of the field, with the second through 14th finishers inverted. In other words, the 14th-place car will start on the pole and the second-place car will be in the seventh row, in the middle of the pack.

“It’ll make it more difficult than I had it in the first race, but with a caution [flag] or two and some breaks, it can be done,” Steele said. “It’s only 12 1/2 miles, though, and it can go pretty fast.”

Steele led all 100 laps in winning the Silver Crown race in Phoenix for the third time. He also set a track record of 138.201 mph in his Mopar-powered Nicholas Racing midget in winning the pole, but lost a race-long duel to Yeley when he was passed on the white-flag lap.

Yeley will be at Irwindale in one of Steve Lewis’ three Beasts built by Bob East and powered by Ford engines prepared by Ed Pink. Bobby East, son of the chassis builder, and two-time USAC champion Dave Darland will be in the other Lewis cars. In a twist, the elder East is co-owner with Nextel Cup driver Tony Stewart, of the Silver Crown car that Steele drives.

Young East will be Lewis’ No. 1 driver in hopes of winning the Laguna Beach-based team’s 10th USAC championship since Stevie Reeves won his first in 1993. Yeley, the 2003 champion, and Darland, who won a USAC/CRA sprint car race last week at Manzanita Speedway, will run only selective races this season.

Mopar driver Tracy Hines, winner of the first Mopar Twin 25s last year at Irwindale, will be back to carry the sponsor’s banner on a weekend off from his regular duties in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series.

Champ Car drivers Michel Jourdain Jr. and Patrick Carpentier will mix it up with Ford Focus regulars in a 25-lap race Saturday night to open the USAC California Ford Focus midget car series. They will run on the third-mile oval inside the main track. Todd Hunsaker and Josh Lakatos won the split championship last ear, Hunsaker in the south and Lakatos in the north.

“I want to be the Andrew Lloyd Webber of motorsports,” Lewis said as he outlined his expansive plans for the Eibach Springs Festival of Speed, a potpourri of events at Irwindale from quarter-midget racing to a Japanese drifting exhibition to a display of about 40 of Southern California’s legendary racing cars. The festival will start at noon.

Among the cars to be displayed are a replica of “Old Calhoun,” J.C. Agajanian’s Willard Battery Special that Parnelli Jones drove to victory in the 1963 Indianapolis 500; the yellow Greer-Black-Prudhomme top fuel dragster in which Don Prudhomme won more than 200 races; the Gurney Eagle F5000 in which Vern Schuppan drove the first lap around the Long Beach Grand Prix course in 1975; the Cooper-Climax T54 that started the rear-engine revolution at Indianapolis when Jack Brabham drove it to a ninth-place finish in the 1961 Indy 500, and the 1951 Lincoln Coupe entered by Bob Estes in the 1951 La Carrera Panamerican road race.

Also on display will be vintage midget and sprint cars from Walt James’ Western Racing Assn. collection, many of which raced at Gilmore Stadium.

And it’s all free -- until the Mopar Twin 25 cars start lining up for their first heat. Then it’s $20 for general admission, with children 12 and under free. Reserved seats are $25.

Details: (800) 515-8445.

Open Wheel Movement

Two of CART’s biggest names, Pat Patrick and Al Unser Jr., will join forces later this year -- in the Indy Racing League. Patrick, one of the founders of CART in 1978, will enter a car for Unser, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, in this year’s 500, then they will run the rest of the IRL schedule.

Unser drove last year for Kelley Racing in the IRL and won in June at Texas. In CART, Patrick’s drivers won 27 races and 21 poles and in 1989 Emerson Fittipaldi won the series championship for Patrick Racing.

Bobby Rahal, Adrian Fernandez and Patrick have continued the move to the IRL by former CART stalwarts, but Paul Newman insists that the Newman-Haas team will not follow suit.

“Any rumor that Newman-Haas is leaving the Champ Car World Series is a figment of somebody’s imagination,” co-owner Newman said in a statement.

“We remain committed to the series and are looking forward to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach season-opener on April 18.”

The team’s drivers are Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais.

Champ Car racing, which needs 16 cars to meet its contract for the April 18 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, added three more to its dwindling roster when the Herdez team announced that Ryan Hunter-Reay would drive as Mario Dominguez’s teammate, that Justin Wilson would drive for Eric Bachelart and that Carpentier would drive a third car for Jerry Forsythe’s team. That brings the number of cars to 15.

Hunter-Reay, from Boca Raton, Fla., won CART’s final race in Australia last year but was left without a ride when Stefan Johansson disbanded his American Spirit team.

Will Scott Dixon, the defending IRL champion from New Zealand, be the next to leave for Formula One, following Cristiano da Matta, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve?

Dixon, now driving for Chip Ganassi in IRL, will test the BMW Williams F1 cars today at Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France. In April, he will undergo a three-day test at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Montoya, one of Williams’ current drivers, has already signed a contract with McLaren for the 2005 season.

Last Laps

Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield will open its season this weekend with two main events, a NASCAR Grand National West (formerly Winston West) 75-lap race Saturday night, followed by an Elite Division Southwest Series 75-lap race Sunday. Scott Lynch will open defense of his West series championship in the Orleans Racing Dodge.... After a week’s absence, the VRA sprint cars return to Ventura Raceway for a 30-lap main event Saturday.

Irwindale Speedway had its first NASCAR disqualification of the year on opening night. Craig Rayburn’s winning super stock car failed to pass tech inspection Saturday night and the victory was given to defending series champion Lee Ladd.... Greg Pursley and Rod Johnson, both of Canyon Country, won heats in the twin 50 super late model stock car doubleheader.

This Week

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP

Food City 500

* When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, noon); Sunday, race (Channel 11, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (oval, .533 miles, 36 degrees banking in turns).

* Race distance: 266.5 miles, 500 laps.

* 2003 winner: Kurt Busch.

* Next race: Samsung/RadioShack 500, April 4, Fort Worth.

BUSCH SERIES

Sharpie Professional 250

* When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, 10:30 a.m.); Saturday, race (Channel 11, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Bristol Motor Speedway.