MOTOR RACING : Kaeding Seeks Sprint Car Success Without a Wing

With 28 victories, Brent Kaeding is the most successful sprint car driver in California this year. He has won his fourth Northern Auto Racing Club championship, his second straight Golden State series, four World of Outlaw races and several other open events.

But he has never won at Ascot Park in a sprint car.

One reason is that he drives 80 to 90 races with a 25 square-foot wing atop his sprint car and then has to unbolt it to race once or twice a year at Ascot in the California Racing Assn.--the last bastion of non-winged sprint cars.

“It’s hard to turn it around. It’s so different running with a wing and then running without it,” Kaeding said from his automotive machine shop in Campbell, a suburb of San Jose.

“The technique is totally different. With a wing, the idea is to run as straight as possible and not spin the tires. You drive almost like you drive on pavement. Without a wing--especially at Ascot where the turns are so tight--you turn the car sideways and back it into the corners. And you keep the tires spinning so it doesn’t flip on you.”

Kaeding will be at Ascot Saturday night for the 12th annual Don Peabody Classic, a 50-lap race held in honor of the former CRA president and United States Auto Club sprint car coordinator who was killed in an airplane crash in 1978.

And Kaeding will be back again Thanksgiving night to drive Ron Weeks’ midget in the 100-lap Turkey Night Grand Prix--a race he won in 1985.

Kaeding, 32, has run only one sprint car race without a wing, and one midget race this season. He finished second in a CRA event in Chico last April and failed to place in one of the Thursday afternoon TV midget programs on the quarter-mile track at Ascot.

“Qualifying is so important at Ascot because it’s tough to pass a guy,” Kaeding said. “This year the CRA seems to be even more competitive than usual. There are 15 to 20 guys who run every week who can win. That makes it tough on us, rolling in there without a wing.

“I like running both ways, though. Wing racing seems to be safer, which is why the other tracks have gone to them. That big ol’ wing is like a mattress up there if you get upside down, and the car is much more stable with all that air pushing you down.”

Kaeding was leading the World of Outlaw standings in March after victories at Firebird Raceway in Arizona, San Jose, Houston and Tulsa, but he dropped off the circuit to return home.

“I was tempted to hang on, but it’s so expensive out on the road, and I had my businesses to take care off,” he said.

In addition to his machine shop, Kaeding also is the No. 1 distributor of the Gambler sprint car chassis, the most widely used in the sport.

He won 19 of 36 Northern Auto Racing Club races at tracks in Calistoga, Hanford, Placerville, Santa Maria and Chico.

A second generation driver, Kaeding sometimes races against his father, Howard, although the father is better known as a stock car driver.

Kaeding finished 10th after starting 13th in a tuneup race last week at Ascot.

“We missed the combination in qualifying and had to start so deep in the field that we decided to try some things we thought might help for the coming week,” Kaeding said. “I think we over-engineered ourselves.”

The Alex Morales family clinched its seventh CRA owners championship in that race when Ron Shuman won his eighth main event. It was the first for the Morales clan since 1978, when Rick Goudy won.

All Shuman needs to repeat as the drivers’ champion in the Parnelli Jones Firestone series is to finish ninth or better in the season finale Saturday night.

Rip Williams, who was Shuman’s chief challenger three weeks ago, dropped from contention last week when his car slowed, was hit in the rear by Mike Sweeney and burst into flames when the fuel cell ruptured. Williams was hospitalized with minor burns on his hands but is expected to be ready to drive this week.

Curiously, Kaeding helped the Morales family win when he sat in for Shuman at Chico. Shuman was injured the previous night and Kaeding replaced him in the Tamale Wagon, so the second-place owner’s points went to Andy Morales.

Kaeding won two CRA wingless races last year at Hanford and the defunct Baylands track in Fremont.

“That showed I could win without a wing,” he said. “Now we’ll see how we do at Ascot this Saturday.”

OFF ROAD--Robby Gordon was penalized 30 minutes for taking a shortcut in his Ford pickup during last Thursday’s Baja 1000, but even that was not enough to keep the driver from Orange from winning the overall championship. Gordon’s father, Bob, was also penalized 15 minutes for taking a shortcut. He finished third overall in his two-seat Chenowth.

Evan Evans of Riverside, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident last July, won the High Desert Racing Assn/SCORE International passenger sedan championship in a Jeep Cherokee when he drove the first 72 miles of the 1,000-mile race before turning the car over to Brian Stewart, who crossed the finish line 24 hours 40 minutes later for the Class 6 win.

The Baja 1000 was marred by the death of a 10-year-old spectator who allegedly ran onto the course and was struck by a racing vehicle and killed instantly. The driver was not held and continued in the race.

Feature race of the day Sunday, and the last in a five-race series at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino, will be the Miller Off-Road Challenge at noon.

MIDGETS--The USAC Jolly Ranchers western regional series will continue Saturday night with a 40-lap main event at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale. The series will conclude Nov. 25 at El Centro.

MOTORCYCLES--Carlsbad Raceway will hold the third round of the Dodge Truck fall series on Sunday. . . . Speedway riders of the Sportsman Speedway Assn. will compete Sunday at San Bernardino’s Glen Helen Park and there will be a motocross there as well.

STOCK CARS--Ventura Raceway will end its season Friday night with a program of street and mini-stocks. . . . Monte Monteleone, chief steward of the Winston Racing Series at Ascot Park, shared honors with Brynda Stiles, operator of the Antioch Speedway, as NASCAR Pacific Coast Region team players of the year. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the betterment of the weekly racing series.

LAND SPEED--Al Teague of San Gabriel set a world record of 397.266 m.p.h. in his B Streamliner at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The two-wheel-drive, 28-foot-long car, powered by a Keith Black Chrysler engine that develops about 1,400 horsepower, bettered the old mark of 346 m.p.h.

VINTAGE CARS--The Avanti Palm Springs Vintage Grand Prix will be held Friday through Sunday on the city’s downtown streets. There will be races in six classes--sedan, sports racing, production, Formula One, other formula cars and antiques from 1949 and earlier. Formula Russell cars also will compete in their pro series.

KARTS--Two season-ending events will be held this weekend. The Southern California Karters will run at Willow Springs Raceway, with the Los Angeles Kart Club holding its Holiday Grand Prix Saturday at Saugus Speedway.

NOTEWORTHY--Frank Lewis has been elected to a second term as president of the CRA. He out-polled Lealand McSpadden and will serve for two years.

NECROLOGY--Clarence (Pop) Miller, 86, of Bellflower, longtime race car owner who gave Parnelli Jones his first ride in a sprint car in the 1950s, died Monday at Doctor’s Hospital in Lakewood. Funeral services will be held today at 10:30 a.m. at Hunter’s Mortuary, 5443 Long Beach Blvd. Burial will be at Forest Lawn in Cypress.