MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : He’s Chasing a Dream to Drive Down South

You can understand that Mike Chase is a race car driver when you learn that he named his son A.J., after the Texas original.

Chase, who spent much of May as a guest in A.J. Foyt’s garage and pits at Indianapolis, has returned his attention to his own career. First, there is the $35,901 Winston 200 race, No. 4 in NASCAR’s West Coast stock car series, Saturday night at Saugus Speedway.

Then he will begin preparing to drive in four Winston Cup races, starting with the Pepsi 400 July 6 at Daytona Beach, Fla., and the DieHard 500 at Talladega, Ala., July 28.

“That’s my goal right now, racing full-time in the Winston Cup (series),” Chase said by phone from his team’s Blue Ribbon Racing garage in Bakersfield. “Next year I want to run the entire series and go for rookie of the year.”

Daytona will be the second superspeedway race for Chase. He drove in the Champion 400 last August at Michigan, starting 27th and finishing 24th.

Chase, 39, had the unusual good fortune last Sunday to drop out of a race and gain points in his quest of his first Winston West championship. Last year he was rookie of the year.

The curious circumstance came about when his main challenger, Butch Gilliland of Anaheim, failed to qualify for the Sears Point road race--the only time West Coast drivers face turning right as well as left this year--and Chase qualified and finished 40th.

“Sears Point is tough on us circle track guys,” Chase said. “When I drove it for the first time Friday, I didn’t think I would qualify either. I was slower than a turtle, but we came back Saturday to get in against the big guys.

“We accomplished what we were after. We made the field and ran as far as we could before the transmission broke, what with all that shifting you do on a road course.”

The Sears Point race, part of the Winston Cup schedule, was a race within a race for West Coast drivers. Davey Allison was declared the winner in a controversial finish with Ricky Rudd, but as far as the western drivers were concerned, Bill Schmitt of Redding was first and Bill Sedgwick of Granada Hills second. Chase was 40th, but seventh among his own group.

Chase, who won the season’s first two races at Monroe, Wash., and Mesa Marin, his hometown track, holds the West Coast lead with 516 points to 471 for John Krebs of Roseville, Calif. Then comes Sedgwick, the two-time defending Saugus winner, with 469, followed by Gilliland with 468, Schmitt with 445 and 63-year-old Hershel McGriff with 445.

“It’s funny, we originally were going to run the full Winston Cup season this year with (car owner) Dick Moroso, but when that deal fell through we decided to run five West Coast races,” Chase said. “When we won the first two, we decided we’d better run them all and try for the championship, then go down South next year.”

Chase, who drives a Buick Regal, credits much of his change in fortune to a new crew chief, Leon Ruther, a veteran of more than 30 years in West Coast racing. Ruther worked with Jimmy Insolo and McGriff when they won championships and with Sedgwick last year when he won seven races and came within one point of the championship.

“Don Freymuller, my car owner, and I wouldn’t have gone to the first race if Leon hadn’t agreed to work for us,” Chase said. “He’s a magician with the car, and I’m confident he’ll have it set up right for Saugus. We tested there last week, and I feel a lot better about it than I did when I saw it for the first time last year. Sedgwick is definitely the man to beat. He’s got so many miles on the track, but I feel we can win.”

Chase’s plans to race with Moroso ended just before the Daytona 500 when he learned that Moroso planned a two-car rookie team that included sprint car champion Sammy Swindell.

“We’d already rented a home back there, but when I heard his deal, I pulled in my horns and came home,” Chase said. “Old-time drivers told me it would never work, and I’m sure they were right.”

Swindell lasted only one race before Moroso dumped him for Bobby Hillin, who in turn has been replaced by Buddy Baker.

“I don’t know how many thrills I can get out of racing, but being in A.J.’s pits at Indy was sure a big, big one,” Chase said. “He’s been my idol for as long as I can remember, and to get to hang around with him, thanks to our mutual friend, George Snider, was something I’ll remember always.”

Notes

MOTOCROSS--Former national champion Johnny O’Mara, who retired earlier this year, has been even more successful in his new venture--mountain bicycle racing. O’Mara has won his last 12 races for the Yeti team in regional competition and will be going for a second national championship Saturday at Big Bear Lake in a Norba series race. O’Mara won the opening race last month in Durango, Colo. Two days of mountain racing in the Snow Summit ski area will be climaxed Saturday at 2:30 p.m. with the expert men’s race.

Three Team Kawasaki riders, Jeff Ward, Jeff Matiasevich and Mike Kiedrowski, will appear Monday morning at 10 a.m. during the D.A.R.E. Fair at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa as part of an anti-drug abuse program conducted by the Newport-Mesa school district and the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa police departments. The three are in town preparing for the Supercross in the Coliseum on June 22.

MIDGETS--Sleepy Tripp, fresh from a record-breaking 134th victory in a United States Auto Club midget race two weeks ago at Oildale, will go for No. 135 in a western regional main event Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. The program also includes three-quarter midgets.

STOCK CARS--Saturday night: Winston Racing Series sportsman cars at Cajon Speedway in El Cajon, late model modifieds at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, street stocks at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino and dirt cars at Santa Maria Speedway. . . . Friday: Street stocks at Ventura Raceway.

MOTORCYCLES--Brad Oxley, 1987 national speedway champion, is on a roll at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Oxley, 31, was high-point man on the Speedway American TV series and has won main events the last two weeks. Bobby Ott has returned from British League racing to ride this week on Southland circuits. . . . The American Road Racing Assn. will hold a series of Grand Prix events Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway.

MISCELLANY--Jim Duvall, 48, of Long Beach, averaged 92.86 m.p.h. in winning the Race for Sight offshore powerboat race last Sunday off Marina del Rey. Bob Nordskog, 78, finished fourth in the 26-boat fleet. . . . Ak Miller of Pico Rivera, a pioneer in the use of propane-powered cars for racing, has been named grand marshal for the Chevrolet Pikes Peak hill climb July 4.