SPORTS WEEKEND : MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : Some Funny Business Going On With L.A. Street Race

Who are the L.A. Events people trying to fool?

Last year, after the second L.A. Street Race in Exposition Park, event founder William Burke announced attendance at 100,000. What a joke.

On Monday, after the third race, he announced, “We had more than last year,” which was true, but claiming there were 115,000 for the three-day neighborhood party was ridiculous. It was 15,000 at best.

They must be trying to fool themselves. They can’t fool the sanctioning body, NASCAR, nor the sponsor, Southern California Ford Dealers Assn., because plenty of representatives from both were there.

If indeed L.A. Events expected 100,000 or more, why was only one grandstand erected, with a capacity of 2,800? And it was never filled.

Three drivers who were heavily promoted--Tara Beattie, Tim Woods and Mario Hernandez--didn’t even qualify for the race. Hernandez was substituting for Adrian Fernandez, who was there most of Monday signing autographs, injured wrist and all.

The racing, when there was no yellow caution flag, was intense, exciting and competitive. Which was one reason for all the yellows. As tires wore down, brakes began to fade and the course became slippery, it was almost impossible to keep cars from ramming into one another on the narrow, winding road. It was tough on the machinery, but good theater.

Burke says the fourth race next Labor Day weekend may be at a new location. Elliott Smith of Full Throttle News, a longtime advocate of African American motor racing interests, hopes it stays in the Exposition Park area.

“There may not be many people from right around here at the race, but it is a wonderful morale booster for them, just to have it here,” he said. “It gives them a feeling of importance, to have such an event in their neighborhood. I think that is important.”

That may be reason enough for Burke’s party. But please don’t tell us there were 100,000 people there.

Last question: How did authorities permit 13-year-old Nathan Swartzbaugh to drive in the spec truck race? He did a commendable job, qualifying ninth and running well before dropping out, but 13? The legal racing age for race tracks is 16.

FASTER AND FASTER

When Andy Green has driven 763 mph and Craig Breedlove has been the first to surpass 400, 500 and 600 mph, breaking 300 mph may not sound like much, but to the Kugel family of La Habra it means everything.

When Joe Kugel, 29, eldest son of land-speed patriarch Jerry Kugel, 60, raced the family’s 1992 Pontiac Firebird across the Bonneville Salt Flats at an average speed of 300.788 mph--301.709 on the first run and 299.866 to back it up--it was the first time a stock-bodied passenger car had exceeded the 300-mph mark in a two-way record attempt.

“This is probably one of the last great land-speed record barriers at Bonneville to fall,” Joe Kugel said. “There’s not much left after this. Since the mid-1980s, the big thing has been to exceed 300 mph in a stock-bodied car. And we were the first to do it.”

The record was 222 mph when the Kugels began their assault on 300 in 1997. That year Jerry Kugel hit 275 mph in a one-way run and turned the driving over to Joe, who upped the two-way record to 250, where it stood until it reached 300 last month during the Bonneville Nationals Land Speed Trials on the western Utah salt flats.

“[The record] means a lot to us because we’re in the business of building street rods,” said Jeff Kugel, 27, who may get his opportunity to drive at 300 now that his older brother has claimed the record.

The Kugels bought the ’92 Firebird from fellow Bonneville competitor Dave MacDonald, who had reached a speed of 295 mph on one run. On the Kugels’ record run, the car had a speed of 307.788 mph at the end of a five-mile stretch.

“The hardest part is keeping the car from getting airborne,” Jeff Kugel said. “The key is the car’s weight. Downforce works up to a certain speed, but then the car starts going so fast through the air that the aerodynamics have it almost flying.”

The car weighs more than 5,000 pounds. A Pontiac off the salesroom floor weighs 3,567 pounds.

On the exterior, the Firebird appears to be almost completely stock. It even has its power windows.

For power, the Kugels use a Mi-Tech small block, gasoline-fueled 368-cubic inch Chevrolet engine with Hillborn electronic fuel-injected manifold, and Turbo-Garrett turbochargers. It was built by Mike LeFevers, a partner in the enterprise, and puts out 1,400 horsepower.

“When you move up in power, and get into the 8,000-rpm range, you are literally nailed to the back of your seat,” Joe Kugel said. “That’s when you know that you’re going very, very fast and everything is happening very, very quickly.”

Don Vesco, a longtime land-speed enthusiast from Murietta, also set a record during the trials. He bettered the turbine-powered, wheel-driven record with a 417.529-mph run, eclipsing the 409.986 by Al Teague in 1991.

RIP COMING BACK

Rip Williams, popular Sprint Car Racing Assn. driver, will return to Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night after sitting out a two-week suspension for rough driving.

Williams, winner of eight SCRA main events this year, six at Perris, was fined $500 and put on eight weeks’ probation after an incident while hot-lapping July 31. Then on Aug. 7, Williams tangled with Tony Jones in the second turn in an accident that ended with Richard Griffin’s car upside down.

SCRA president Ron Shuman and board members set Williams down for two weeks. Holding a one-point lead over Griffin at the time, Williams fell 133 points behind during his absence.

“I had tapes of the incident and sent them to people familiar with sprint car racing and all of them said it was nothing out of the ordinary,” Williams said. “I even offered to give up all my points for the year to drive Jack Lory’s car for owner’s points. They turned me down.

“The real losers in the deal were the fans, the sponsors and the tracks. It was unreal. You didn’t see NASCAR suspending Dale Earnhardt.”

Williams, however, made the most of his time off.

“The first Saturday I watched my son play Pop Warner football, like a real dad. And last week I went to Bakersfield and won a [U.S. Auto Club] midget main event. It was the first time I’d been in a midget in three years.”

IRWINDALE CHANGES

Ray Wilkings oversaw the construction of the state-of-the-art Irwindale Speedway and is now its general manager, but his Saugus Speedway roots are still showing. When the half-mile and third-mile ovals opened last spring, Wilkings said there would be no Figure 8, train races or destruction derbies at his pristine track.

Times change. Now the track’s new slogan is, “Where 605 and Live Oak Avenue Collide,” with its first Figure 8 race and a two-way intersection, scheduled Saturday night on the third-mile oval. And on Sept. 18, train racing will make its Irwindale debut, straight from Saugus. In a train race, three cars are chained together lengthwise and race on the Figure 8 course.

All this in addition to the regular super-late model races this week and the late models and spec trucks next week.

LAST LAPS

Desert racers will resume their season this weekend when nearly 150 vehicles compete in the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 along the Nevada-California border, near Primm. Second-generation drivers Ed and Tim Herbst will defend their overall title in their Ford F-150 in the featured Trophy-Truck division. Racing will be over a new course, put together at the last minute after the Bureau of Land Management said they could not use the familiar course near Primm.

Billy Hamill of Monrovia came home from his European commitments to win the U.S. Speedway motorcycle championship last Saturday in Auburn, Calif. . . . Suzuki rider Greg Albertyn of South Africa, who won three world motocross championships, finally won a title in the United States. He clinched the national 250cc title last Saturday.

Dick Rutherford, founder of the $10-million Hawaiian Super Prix, has been replaced as chief executive of the Nov. 11-13 event by Phil Heard, general manager of the CART race in Vancouver. The CART drivers-only race in Honolulu had a setback when it was announced that there would be no pay TV, which was originally announced as the method of financing the promotion.

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This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, Exide NASCAR 400

* When: Today, first-round qualifying (ESPN2, 2:30 p.m.); Saturday, second-round qualifying, 11 a.m.; Saturday, race (ESPN, 4:30 p.m.)

* Where: Richmond (Va.) International Raceway (oval, .75 miles, 14 degrees banking in turns).

* Race distance: 300 miles, 400 laps.

* Defending champion: Jeff Burton.

* Next race: Dura Lube 300, Sept. 19, Loudon, N.H.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL

Autolite Platinum 250

* When: Today, second-round qualifying, 9:30 a.m.; Today, race (ESPN, 4:30 p.m.)

* Where: Richmond (Va.) International Raceway (oval, .75 miles, 14 degrees banking in turns).

* Race distance: 187.5 miles, 250 laps.

* Defending champion: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

* Next race: MBNA Gold 200, Sept. 25, Dover, Del.

CART, Grand Prix of Monterey

* When: Today, qualifying, 2:30 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying, 12:45 p.m.; Sunday, race, (ESPN, noon).

* Where: Laguna Seca Raceway (permanent road course, 2.238 miles, 11 turns), Monterey.

* Race distance: 185.754 miles, 83 laps.

* Defending champion: Bryan Herta.

* Next race: Texaco Grand Prix, Sept. 26, Houston.

FORMULA ONE, Italian Grand Prix

* When: Saturday, qualifying (Speedvision, 4 a.m.); Sunday, race, (Speedvision, 4:30 a.m.)

* Where: Autodromo Nazionale di Monza (road course, 3.585 miles, seven turns), Monza, Italy.

* Race distance: 190.005 miles, 53 laps.

* Defending champion: Michael Schumacher.

* Next race: European Grand Prix, Sept. 26, Nuerburgring, Germany.