THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608180201
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BROOKLYN, MICH. LENGTH: 70 lines
Winston Cup racing will return to Southern California on June 22, 1997, at the new California Speedway.
The 2-mile oval, under construction on the site of an old steel mill near Fontana, is about 40 percent completed and should be finished by April 1, speedway executive vice president Les Richter said Saturday during a news conference at Michigan International Speedway.
``Next April, we hope we're doing the finishing touches, like watering the plants and mowing the grass and getting ready for the June 22 race,'' Richter said.
An IndyCar race is scheduled for the fall of 1997.
``We plan to have six major race weekends - not the first year and maybe not the second year, but we'll work toward that,'' Richter said. ``We're in discussion with NASCAR about another date in the latter part of 1997.''
Richter said he expects that the Winston Cup race will be accompanied by a support race from one of NASCAR's other series, such as the Winston West.
It won't be a Busch Grand National race, ``but there is a possibility of a stand-alone Busch race later on in the year,'' Richter said. ``We're not sure what's going to happen with that right now.''
The California oval will be the same design as Michigan, except the banking in the turns will be 14 degrees instead of 18, he said, and workers have begun building the grandstands, which will hold 69,000 fans.
The race will be the first in Southern California since 1988, the year of the last road race at Riverside. The last oval race in Southern California was in 1980 at Ontario, which closed just as the sport was beginning to take off.
``If Ontario Motor Speedway had lasted until 1983 . . . we wouldn't be here today,'' Richter said.
PURVIS WINS BUSCH RACE: Jeff Purvis converted a gas-mileage strategy into a victory Saturday in the Detroit Gasket 200.
Purvis made a single pit stop on lap 33 of the 100-lap race during the only caution period of the event. He took the lead on lap 95 and won by about a car length over Kevin Lepage, who also used a gas-mileage strategy.
``You've got to win them any way you can,'' Purvis said. ``I didn't know if we could go all the way or not. It ran out of gas on the last lap. It started sputtering a little bit, so I was concerned that last half-lap. We had once chance to win here, and that's the chance we needed.''
Mark Martin dominated the race, leading 46 laps, but was forced to make a second pit stop with 19 laps to go.
Chesapeake native Elton Sawyer finished 25th, a lap down, and his wife, Patti Moise, was 30th, two laps back. Rookie Elliott Sadler of Emporia, Va., finished ninth.
ROUND 2: Jimmy Spencer led the second round of qualifying for today's GM 400 with a lap of 182.987 mph in his Ford Thunderbird. He'll start 26th, although his lap was 18th-fastest overall.
Derrike Cope claimed the 27th starting spot and Morgan Shepherd moved up from 32nd to 28th. Most drivers stood on their Friday times.
Provisional starting spots went to Jeremy Mayfield, Greg Sacks and Mike Wallace. Jason Keller and Ron Hornaday Jr. failed to make the race.
MARTIN WINS IROC: Mark Martin passed Johnny Benson Jr. on lap 33 of the 50-lap IROC finale to win the race and clinch his second IROC championship.
Benson was second, followed by Terry Labonte, Robbie Gordon and Al Unser Jr.
In the championship, Martin had 61 points, followed by Gordon with 54 and Benson with 50.
``There's a little extra pressure for me to do well here because I've been a little disappointed with my Winston Cup racing this year,'' Martin said. ``Early, I thought we were history. We were back pretty good and I didn't see any prospects of passing.
``Halfway through the race, my car started coming on really good. I saw Johnny starting to have a little bit of trouble and I tried to capitalize on it when I could.''
Martin won his first IROC championship in 1994. He was second last year.
The race will be telecast by ABC on Sept. 15. by CNB