MOTOR RACING : Harper Makes a Turn for the Better

For the layman, trying to understand Will Harper of Tarzana describe the revolutionary new rear end on his Sportsman car is about as easy as trying to negotiate the turns of Daytona Speedway at 195 m.p.h.

Or the turns at Saugus Speedway at 70 m.p.h., for that matter.

But hear Harper out--it has its rewards. He is on to something new--something fast--and he owes it all to Dan Press.

Press, a virtual Saugus Speedway legend, approached Harper two weeks ago with a new rear end he designed that allows the rear wheels to act independently of each other when going into a turn. A conventional rear end usually forces the rear wheels to lock up and, in effect, fight each other, slowing the car.

Press’ invention creates no such conflict between the wheels, allowing for faster, smoother glides through turns and no loss of momentum. Harper first tried the new design two weeks ago at Saugus and finished a solid second to pole sitter Gary Sigman of Carson. Harper started third and tailed Sigman the entire way.

Harper, the Sportsman points leader and defending champion, was giddy afterward, knowing he had found a gold nugget in the Gold Track. And it was a timely discovery; the crucial Winston 100 for Sportsman cars--worth double points--will be raced tonight.

“Two things are really neat for me,” Harper said. “One is that we get to test something on the ground floor. Usually, we’re like, ‘How’d that guy get that?’

“And the second thing is to have a guy like Dan Press helping me. I mean, that guy has forgotten more than I know. It’s such a good, positive thing for me. And an honor. The guy just has so much winning energy.”

Add Press: Harper is not exaggerating. Press, of Frazier Park, is a former two-time Saugus Speedway champion who has logged more main-event wins than any driver in the track’s 51-year history. He also is the defending Southwest Tour champion.

But Press is more than a driver. He is a designer and a businessman. The Gold Track is used by Southwest Tour cars and on the East Coast, but no Sportsman driver out west has tried one. Hence his interest in Harper.

“We wanted to get some firsthand testing,” Press said. “Will’s one of the good drivers and we wanted some good feedback. We wanted to work with somebody that understood the car real well.”

Press, too, drives with the Gold Track on the Southwest Tour and finds it similarly helpful.

“It frees the car up all the way around the corner,” he said. “It saves tire wear and helps the car handle better.”

Press paused and allowed himself a small chuckle.

“It should help my business too,” he said.

Tsk, tsk: An unfortunate scene unfolded at Ventura Raceway last weekend in the Mini Stock figure-eight race.

It seems that in the intersection--as nerve-wracking a place as you’ll find on a race track--Jim Trisdale of Oxnard, heading one way, rammed his car smack into Forrest Nickerson of Santa Paula, heading another way.

The collision was, obviously, quite a sight. But the ensuing events were of even greater interest.

It seems that some spectators took exception to Trisdale’s driving. So, as the tow truck carted his car past the grandstand, some front-row fans gave Trisdale an unfriendly salute, and Trisdale responded in kind.

Race officials cringed.

“He blew it,” official Monte Monteleone said. “He gave it right back to them. I think, more than anything, he should feel embarrassment.”

Trisdale probably will feel more than that. Disciplinary action by the speedway is pending.

Dog days of August: Short tracks will be the order of the month as the Southwest Tour comes barreling in for four weeks of action on tight, nasty one-quarter and one-third mile paved ovals at Stockton 99, Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, Saugus Speedway and Silver State Raceway in Nevada.

Such troublesome tracks figure to make even more interesting races for crowded fields that will include Valley-area drivers M. K. Kanke of Granada Hills (2nd place, 1,453 points), Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale (3rd place, 1,420 points) and Ray Hooper Jr. of Palmdale (5th place, 1,355 points).

For a guy like Hooper, a graduate of Saugus Speedway, the sight of the tiny tracks is most welcome.

“The shorter the track,” he told NASCAR Newsletter, “the better I do.”