Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Father-and-Son Team Gets Into Mint Condition

Jim Wright, 28, a sandal manufacturer from Corona, and his father, Billy, who sold Bibles door-to-door for 20 years, will try for an unprecedented achievement Saturday in the 18th running of the Mint 400, off-road racing’s roughest, and richest, event.

Jim, with his father in the passenger seat of the Porsche-powered Raceco, will try to become the first driver to win the overall championship of the Southern Nevada desert race three years in a row. In the last two 400s, Jim has driven and Billy has ridden the entire distance of what is considered the toughest course in racing.

Former motorcycle champion Malcolm Smith and Riverside dentist Bud Feldkamp were the last to win consecutive races, in 1977 and 1978, but they split up the driving.

Billy is along for more than just a dusty ride, however. Last year, when Jim fell victim to driver hypnosis and drove off the course, his father grabbed the wheel and held on until Jim recovered.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Billy said. “Jim just drove straight off the course, hit a yucca tree and ran over a bush before I got a hold of the wheel and he came to his senses.”

The Wrights needed nearly 9 1/2 hours to negotiate four laps of the 106-mile course laid out in the desert and mountains north of Las Vegas. The course, if anything, will be more difficult this year, according to race director K. J. Howe of the sponsoring Mint Hotel.

“For the third straight year, we have altered the course dramatically,” Howe said. “About all it has in common with last year is that it will be dirty, rocky, hot and dusty, and probably less than a quarter of the cars will finish.”

The Wrights are undaunted by such projections.

“I want to win this race more than any I’ve ever raced before,” Jim said. “I’m trying to keep my cool. I’m psyched up for it. It’s the first race of the year for me and I don’t want to blow it. Having my father with me gives me a lot of confidence.”

The elder Wright said that selling Bibles for a living can teach a man to deal positively with adversity.

“Every young man should do that (sell Bibles) for a couple of years,” Billy Wright said.

The Wrights compete in Class 2 for unlimited two-seat cars and will be seeking their fourth championship in that class, as well as their third overall.

More than 300 cars--open-wheeled single- and two-seaters, production sedans, Baja bugs and both mini- and full-size trucks--are expected to start and will be racing for nearly $300,000 in prize money and contingency awards. Vehicles will start two abreast every 15 seconds from the Las Vegas Speedrome, 12 miles north of the city, starting at 9 Saturday morning.

All of the vehicles will be on display during technical inspection along Fremont Street in the heart of Las Vegas’ casino district Friday.

CAMEL GT--The car that spun and stalled in the middle of the Riverside track during last Sunday’s 600-kilometer race, triggering a three-car accident, was a Camaro driven by Lisa Cacares, not a Nissan 280 driven by Sebring GTU winner Cary Eisenlohr of Manhattan Beach, as reported by race officials. Eisenlohr’s car, which ran into the dust-obscured stalled car, was driven at the time by co-driver Adrian Gang. The accident occurred, observers said, because officials were slow in displaying a yellow caution flag that might have warned Gang and Frank Honsowetz, driver of the third car, before they reached the stalled Camaro. . . . Nearly all of the drivers who competed in the Times/Nissan Grand Prix will be at Laguna Seca this weekend for a 300-kilometer sprint.

DRAG RACING--Top fuel dragster teammates Gary Beck and Larry Minor are looking for a repeat of last year’s Fuel and Gas Championships at the Famoso strip north of Bakersfield in this weekend’s version of the 28th annual March Smokers Meet. Beck beat Minor with a 5.49-second run to 5.67 in the ’84 final when both bettered 260 m.p.h. Once the most famous independent race in drag racing, it is now part of the National Hot Rod Assn.’s Pacific Division of the Winston World Championship Series. Close to $150,000 will be at stake in 11 racing categories, from top fuel to sportsman. Qualifying for an entry of 525 cars will be Friday and Saturday. Eliminations will start at noon Sunday.

SPRINTS & MIDGETS--With California Racing Assn. sprint cars headed East for a series of seven races in 10 days, U.S. Auto Club’s Western regional midget series will take over Ascot Park Saturday night. Sleepy Tripp, winner of 13 main events in the last two years at Ascot, is looking for his first 1985 win. Also Saturday night is a TQ feature in which Robbie Flock will be looking for his first win after dominating last year’s series. . . . Points races in the Kraco-CRA series this weekend will be Friday night at I-70 Speedway in Odessa, Mo.; Saturday night at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Ind.; Sunday afternoon in the Tony Hulman Classic in Terre Haute, Ind.; and Wednesday night at 81 Speedway in Wichita, Kan.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Attendance is up at all of the Southland’s short-track stadiums as the season enters its sixth week. Young Steve Lucero of Riverside has been the surprise of the new season, winning the scratch final on Ascot’s opening night and coming back to win the handicap main the following week on a borrowed bike after his Weslake machine was stolen. . . . San Bernardino’s Inland Speedway will resume racing Wednesday night after a week off for the fair.

RALLY--Pro rally drivers from the Western U.S. will compete Saturday in the Rim of the World pro rally, starting at 2 p.m. from Lancaster. Cars will be flagged off from the parking lot at Highway 14 and Avenue I. California champions Rickey Watanabe in the open class and Mike Whitman in the stock class are entered. Most of the sections will be contested in the Angeles National Forest, near Lake Hughes. . . . The Amerathon, heralded as the world’s longest automobile rally, is being broken up into two parts. The first, or North America section, will start June 1 from Anaheim, with return set for June 20 after a run as far north as Prudhoe Bay, Coldfoot and Anchorage. The South American leg will start July 13 in Caracas, Venezuela.

STOCK CARS--Open competition racing will return to Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield Saturday night but Jim Thirkettle will be missing from the 40-lap main event. The veteran Sylmar driver was disqualified and suspended for a race for “overly aggressive driving” two weeks ago when he attempted to go from third to first on the last lap and allegedly caused a multicar pileup. . . . Saugus Speedway has scheduled an Ego Challenge race for would-be race drivers Saturday at 6 p.m. as a prelude to the modified, sportsman, street stock and Figure 8 main events. Amateurs can race against the clock in their street machinery on Saugus’ flat oval track. . . . Claimer stocks will race Friday night at Saugus. . . . Bakersfield Speedway’s Auto Club Racing Enterprises 14-race season will open Saturday night, featuring street stocks and pro-modifieds. . . . Pro stocks will race Sunday night in the Curb Motorsports series at Ascot Park.

MOTOCROSS--The Continental Motosport Club will open its spring season Sunday at the Quail Canyon course in Hungry Valley, near Gorman on the Ridge Route. . . . Last November’s Superbowl of Motocross in the Coliseum will be shown at 3 p.m. Saturday on Channel 4. This year’s Superbowl of Motocross is set for Saturday night, May 11.

HONORS--Daytona 500 winner Bill Elliott, who also has two other NASCAR wins to date, was a unanimous choice as first quarter winner in the Eljer Driver-of-the-Year balloting. Following Elliott were Mario Andretti, A. J. Foyt, Neil Bonnett, Dale Earnhardt and drag racer Kenny Bernstein.

LAND-SPEED RECORD--Craig Breedlove, a record setter 20 years ago in the Spirit of America, is planning an assault on Richard Noble’s record of 633.468 m.p.h. in a new Spirit of America Sonic II. The car, a 44-foot three-wheeler with 30,000 pounds of thrust, is expected to be completed in February. Breedlove plans a record attempt in the summer of 1986 at Bonneville, Edwards Air Force Base or Black Rock desert, where Noble set his record two years ago.