Motor Racing / Shav Glick : 4 Bids for San Bernardino Complex in Devore

While Riverside International Raceway officials are continuing their search for a place to relocate their 28-year-old motor racing facility in 1987, San Bernardino County authorities are pressing for their own multipurpose racing complex at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore.

Daniel Greenwood, Riverside president, said that the field of potential sites has been narrowed to four--Glen Helen, Alberhill, near Lake Elsinore, and two others whose location he would not reveal.

Gary Patton, San Bernardino County Regional Parks Dept. director, said, however, that he has four bidders for the Glen Helen site but that none of them involve Riverside.

“The Riverside people elected not to submit a proposal,” Patton said. “Frankly, I don’t think they intend to build a new race track anywhere. We have four unopened proposals and we expect to act on them in the next week or two.”

Greenwood admitted that he had not submitted a formal proposal for Glen Helen, but said it was only because of the way the request was worded.

“We expect to get together with the San Bernardino (County) supervisors very soon,” he said. “We still consider Glen Helen a viable site and remain interested. We did not make a proposal because they requested certain historical data we felt we did not need, or want, to reveal.”

The four Glen Helen bidders are:

--Pro-Motions, Inc., of Costa Mesa, headed by Gary Sigman of Carson, an off-road and motorcycle racer. His associates are David Hubert, an Orange County fire captain, and Russ Tolleston, a savings and loan consultant.

--Quinn Vaughan, Inc., also of Costa Mesa, former operators of the Orange County International Raceway drag strip, headed by Larry Vaughan, Jerry O’Brien and Vic Wilson, founder-operator of Saddleback Cycle Park in Orange County.

--Lipari Enterprises of Corona, headed by Thomas Lipari, the promoter of Corona Raceway before the track was closed earlier this year because of the area’s construction boom.

--Don Brown of Riverside, a sand drag racing promoter.

Patton said: “We hope to name a committee of seven to evaluate the proposals and hopefully select one so we can get on with building the facility. Our goal is to pattern the development after Laguna Seca (on the Monterey peninsula), where they have combined a regional park with a complete motor racing complex in a cooperative venture between government and private enterprise.”

Glen Helen is a 1,500-acre site, but the county plans to purchase 400 additional acres and lease 400 more. It is adjacent to U.S. Forest Service land that can be made available for events such as rallies or long distance off-road races.

Patton said that if Riverside does not relocate, he hopes that Glen Helen can pick up race dates from sanctioning bodies for 1987. Riverside is scheduled to operate at its old site through the 1986 season.

STOCK CARS--Ninety-nine cars will take the green flag Saturday night at Ascot Park in a 250-lap midsummer factory-stock endurance event that is restricted to cars without special speed equipment. To assure that no one does too much preparation, any car in the race may be claimed for $500. Entries include Lincolns, Fords, Cadillacs, Plymouths, Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Mercuries. Both previous winners, Larry Hough of Inglewood and Butch Gilliland of Stanton, drove Buicks. Entrants include Yavonne Fekete and Debbie Wright, wives of NASCAR pro stock drivers. . . . A national series for factory stocks, the Firestone Firehawk Endurance championship, will come to Riverside International Raceway for a six-hour race Sunday, Aug. 11. Former Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones is scheduled to drive. . . . Sportsman cars will return to Saugus Speedway Saturday night along with street stocks, Figure 8s and a destruction derby. . . . Sunday night’s Curb Motorsports Winston Racing Series program at Ascot Park will be augmented by the Cops and Robbers Demolition Derby, a charity event featuring 24 drivers from area police and sheriffs’ departments competing against regular Ascot drivers. The Cops are looking for revenge, since last year’s winner was Dorothy Awtrey of the Robbers’ team. . . . Davey Allison, 24, son of former Winston Cup champion Bobby Allison, will make his Grand National debut Sunday in the Talladega 500. Also at Talladega will be A. J. Foyt, 50, who choose to race his stock car there when a date conflict arose with the postponement of the Michigan 500 Indy car race. The Talladega race will be broadcast over KWNK (670 AM) at 10 a.m. Sunday.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Lance King and Sam Ermolenko will return from England for one week of racing before heading back to Europe for the Inter-Continental final Aug. 3 at Vetlanda, Sweden. That will be the final qualifier for the World final Aug. 31 at Bradford, England. Friday night they will be on the tiny 190-yard dirt oval at Costa Mesa against local favorites Brad Oxley, Mike Faria, Alan Christian and Steve Lucero. After the Inter-Continental, King and Ermolenko will be back to ride in the World Team Cup Aug. 10 in Long Beach Veterans Stadium against teams from England, Denmark and Sweden. Last year, King finished third in the World final. . . . John Richardson is promoting a speedway show Friday night at the Santa Barbara County Fair in Santa Maria on a specially prepared one-tenth mile oval in the rodeo arena. . . . The final event to accumulate points to qualify for the U.S. national championship race will be Aug. 31 at San Bernardino’s Inland Speedway.

TRIALS--Two Northern California riders, national champion Scott Head and state champion Kip Webb, finished 1-2 in the El Trial de Espana last weekend at Cactus Flats, near Big Bear Lake. Then followed Dave Pyle of Temple City, who moved here recently from Tennessee; David Webster of La Habra and Matt Pritchard of Whittier.

SPRINT CARS--The Kraco-CRA series will travel to Santa Maria this weekend for a second appearance at Doug Fort’s Santa Maria Speedway, a one-third mile dirt oval where Dean Thompson won earlier this season.