Motor Racing : Jeff Swindell Keeps Winning Races but Losing Ground to Davis

For Jeff Swindell this year, it seems the faster he goes, the farther behind he gets.

But, because he’s No. 2 to Bobby Davis in this year’s World of Outlaws sprint car standings, he’ll just have to try harder. Even that may not be enough.

Going into programs at Ascot Park Friday and Saturday nights, the Memphis, Tenn. driver admits that he is going to need help if he is to catch Davis.

“He is almost going to have to miss a race for us to have a chance,” Swindell said earlier this week between jaunts up and down California. “We missed one earlier in the spring when we crashed twice and it really puts you at a disadvantage.”

A little better luck wouldn’t hurt Swindell, either.

He is the series leader, with 11 victories, in the Fram dash, a seven-lap event between the top qualifiers that determines the starting positions in the main event, but has won only four features.

“We could have won about 20 (races),” Swindell said. “But the whole year has been a combination of dumb luck, a few car failures. It just seems like it is never going to end.”

It didn’t Tuesday night at Hanford, Calif. After setting a track record in qualifying, and finishing second in the dash to earn a front-row starting spot, Swindell led for the first 10 laps, then tangled with a car he was lapping and spun. He finally finished 12th as Davis went on to win the race and increase his lead in the standings.

Swindell had another chance Wednesday night, when he was the pole starter in the rescheduled main event at Chico, Calif. The race was originally scheduled last Saturday, but heavy rain in Northern California forced a postponement.

That forced Swindell to return to Chico after Hanford’s races before heading south to Ascot, and that schedule was especially tough on him, because he hoped to finish a new car for the coming race on the Syracuse mile.

Whereas most of the traveling Outlaws are from the Midwest and East, Swindell’s car owners and his crew chief are Californians. The car owners are the Williams brothers of San Jose and the crew chief is Kelly Pryor, who lives in Redondo Beach.

Although this is his first year with the Williamses, Swindell and Pryor have worked together for about four years.

“Kelly is a top hand at keeping things together and that is very important, the way we are always on the road,” Swindell said. “Before working on sprint cars, he was a top drag race chief, working for Shirley Muldowney, among others, so he knows his stuff.”

Jeff is the younger brother of Sammy Swindell, one of only two champions the World of Outlaws has had in its first 11 years. Steve Kinser is the other. This year, however, Kinser and the older Swindell elected to race for a rival group, United Sprint Assn.

Does Jeff miss not racing against his brother and Kinser?

“Not really,” he said. “In fact, it has probably helped all of us move up a few spots in the payoff, but the biggest thing is it has really added to the competition.

“When they were around, they tended to dominate things. But now, any one of a group of drivers can win, and I think the fans like that better.”

Although Davis is the one he wants to beat the most, Swindell will also have to handle Keith Kauffman, Joe Gaerte, Jac Haudenschild, Cris Eash and Tim Green, all Outlaw regulars, as well as a group of Northern Californians, headed by Brent Kaeding, Chuck Miller and Jimmy Sills. Kaeding, Miller and Sills all have won World of Outlaws events this season.

Three Arizonans--Lealand McSpadden, Ron Shuman and Billy Boat--as well as Chuck Gurney of Livermore, Calif., all of whom race regularly at Ascot in cars without wings, are expected to put the big 5-by-5 airfoils on their cars for this weekend.

A 20-lap main event will be the highlight of Friday’s racing, and there will be a 30-lap feature Saturday night.

HYDROPLANES--Chip Hanauer, whose seven-race winning string in APBA Gold Cup events ended last Sunday when the turbine in his Miss Circus Circus quit on the first lap of the final, will try to give his sponsors a victory in their hometown Saturday in the Budweiser Las Vegas Silver Cup races on Lake Mead. His chief challenger on the two-mile course figures to be the new Gold Cup champion, Tom D’Eath, in Miss Budweiser in the 10th and final race of the season. Miss Budweiser, defending race champion, needs only a few points to win the boat championship, and Hanauer is also a virtual cinch to win the drivers’ title. He has a 1,300-point lead with only 1,600 points available. Other hopefuls include Mr. Pringles, driven by Scott Pierce; Winston Eagle, driven by Larry Lauterbach; Holset/Miss Mazda, Mike Hanson, and Oh Boy! Oberto, George Woods Jr. Qualifying runs will be held today and Friday with the heats and final on Saturday, starting at 11 a.m.

SPEEDWAY MOTORCYCLES--Denmark’s Erik Gundersen, badly injured in a four-rider crash in the first heat of the World Team Cup last Sunday at Bradford, England, has regained consciousness and was in critical but stable condition Wednesday.

Gundersen, a three-time world champion, has a broken neck, among other injuries, as a result of the crash that also involved Lance King of Fountain Valley, Sweden’s Jimmy Nilsen and England’s Simon Wigg. All four were hospitalized. King, who suffered a concussion, was released the next day. According to observers, Nilsen and King, the pole and No. 2 starters touched handlebars and slid into Gundersen, who was charging for the lead on the outside.

“It was the most violent collision I’ve ever seen in 26 years of reporting speedway racing,” said Phillip Rising, editor of Speedway Star.

Gundersen, 29, has been with the Cradley Heath team of the British Speedway League for 11 years and is the team captain. He also has won 15 world titles, more than anybody else in the sport’s history. Local speedway racers will compete in regular programs at Ascot Park’s South Bay Speedway tonight and Orange County Fairgrounds, which holds its old-timers’ night Friday. Saturday is California State Championship night at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino. Next Thursday, Gardena will run its season-ending South Bay championships.

MOTORCYCLES--Last weekend’s rainy weather washed out the San Jose mile race, which was rescheduled for Oct. 1. That means the final three races for the Camel Pro riders will be held within eight days--Sept. 30 at Ascot Park, San Jose the next day and the Sacramento mile Oct. 7. . . . Jeff Stanton and Southland riders Jeff Ward and Mike Kiedrowski continued the United States’ domination of the Motocross des Nations at Gaildorf, West Germany. It was the ninth consecutive victory for the U.S. and it was wrapped up before the final three point races were run. . . . The Continental Motosports Club will hold its weekly racing program Friday night at Ascot Park.

STOCK CARS--For the second consecutive year, the season championship of the pro stock division of the Curb Motorsports Winston Racing Series at Ascot Park is going down to the final race. And once again, Jerry Meyer is the leader heading into Sunday’s last race. Last year, Fred Estrada of Riverside took the title on the final night. This year it is Marcus Mallett who will try to relieve Meyer of the title on the final night. Mallett, who won his sixth consecutive feature last Sunday evening, is only 10 points behind and must finish within six places of Mallett Sunday night to win the title. Sharing the program will be bomber ovals, Figure 8s and hobby stocks.

Saugus Speedway will feature sportsman, hobby oval, Figure 8 and jalopy races Saturday night. A hobby mechanic and officials’ race is also scheduled on the next-to-last night of the season. . . . El Cajon Speedway will hold its sportsman grand prix, which will produce the track champion, either Ed Hale or Tobin Whitt. Also racing will be bomber and pony class cars. . . . Ventura Raceway will feature hobby and mini stocks Friday night.

KARTS--Howie Edelson of Pacific Palisades, a many-time champion, was the overall winner of a race matching American and Soviet drivers before a crowd of 40,000 recently at Riga, the capital of Latvia in the Soviet Union.