Del Mar Turns Up the Horsepower : Sports Cars to Race on 1.6-Mile Course at Fairgrounds

DEL MAR — Horses will give way to horsepower on the weekend of Oct. 23-25 when the Southern California Grand Prix will be held on a 1.6-mile course limited to the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Race cars will head down a straightaway at 175 m.p.h. and negotiate 11 turns on a wide asphalt course without walls that is expected to make the event a combination of a track race and street race--much like the one held annually in Long Beach.

The details of the Del Mar race were announced Wednesday at a ground-breaking ceremony.

“It’s almost like a street course,” said driver Darin Brassfield, 23, who was given a tour of the proposed course, which will be constructed in September after the completion of the thoroughbred racing season at the Del Mar Racetrack. “There will be no room for mistakes. There will be a higher risk (here).”

The Southern California Grand Prix--featuring drivers Chip Robinson, Al Holbert, Derek Bell and Brassfield--will be the final stop of the 1987 International Motor Sports Assn./Camel GT Sports Car Championship Series. NBC will show it as a delayed telecast Nov. 7 on “Sportsworld.” A series of vintage car races, featuring some cars that first raced at Del Mar in the 1950s, will be held Oct. 16-18 at the Fairgrounds.

This is the first year of a five-year agreement to have the race at Del Mar. There is a five-year option, according to Christopher Pook, president of the sponsoring Del Mar Race Management Inc.

The ground-breaking ceremony came on the heels of a two-year period of controversy between race organizers and Del Mar residents who argued that the noise from the race cars will disrupt their lives.

At the same time race promoters were advocating the need for “good community relations” Wednesday, two men--working for anti-race advocate Harvey Furgatch--distributed anti-noise cards at the fairgrounds. On the cards, a race car was covered by a red circle with a line through it. The message: “Noise and Pollution, courtesy Del Mar Grand Prix sponsors.”

“The promoters have been very insensitive to the community,” said Furgatch, a Del Mar resident who purchased 40 anti-race billboards and thousands of flyers at a personal cost of $17,000. “Most people have no objection to any event at the Fairgrounds, or to auto racing. But this is the wrong place. This is outrageous. To avoid the noise, people are going to have to wear earplugs all the time. . . . We have to protect our own livability. And a lot of property values will diminish.”

This is a familiar cry to Pook, also the chief backer of the Long Beach Grand Prix race that was initiated in 1975.

“It’s very understandable there would be opposition to running a motor event in a community,” Pook said. “There has been this kind of opposition in every town. But it is not the type of event it is portrayed to be . . .

“In Long Beach, we had 10,000 senior residents living on top of the circuit. They were whipped up in a frenzy. When the (first) event took place, there was a lot of egg on people’s faces. The old folks loved it. Spectators didn’t rape and pillage.”

In the first year of the race in Long Beach, Pook said he offered to transport residents who lived on the race course. According to Pook, 800 residents said they would take advantage of his offer to be sent to Palm Springs or Santa Barbara during the weekend of the race. But, he said, when race day came, only 103 people took him up on his offer. Now, about 60 to 70 people regularly take advantage of Pook’s offer.

Pook will not offer a similar deal to Del Mar residents because he said none of them live that close to the fairgrounds.

In making their pitch to the Del Mar community, race promoters stressed that the race will stimulate business and that 46 measures have been taken to comply with the results of an environmental impact report.

Pook estimates that the Long Beach Grand Prix is worth $15 million each year, with an actual infusion of “$6 million in hard cash.” By comparison, the Detroit Grand Prix is worth about $80 million and the Miami race about $50 million. Pook estimates that a crowd of 40,000 will attend the Del Mar race Oct. 25 and that the race weekends will have an economic impact of $4 million to $5 million on the immediate communities--Del Mar and Solana Beach--and $12 million to $15 million on the entire San Diego area. Tickets will range from $10 to $75.

“Del Mar is a unique place,” Pook said. “It’s an identifiable place. People in Los Angeles think of Del Mar as being just down the road. They look at San Diego as being two hours away. That’s important in marketing. . . . A lot of people will be coming from out of town. And the demographics are similar to those in horse racing. People who play with expensive toys don’t eat hot dogs and beans.”

In an attempt to appease residents concerned about the noise, Del Mar Fair Board president Raymond Saatjian says the course has been set up so that the vehicles are not pointed toward Jimmy Durante Boulevard. That will result in the least amount of exposure to homes near the fairgrounds.

In addition, barriers will be set up at the points most sensitive to noise. Saatjian said that a driver will be warned if his vehicle exceeds 110 decibels at 50 feet and eliminated from the race for a second such violation.

“No question about it, the cars are very noisy,” said John Bishop, president of International Motor Sports Assn. “But we have taken radical steps to reduce the noise.”