Stewart, Shuman and Boat Are Big Stories at 55th Turkey Night

The 55th Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix will be run tonight at the Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale, a one-quarter-mile dirt oval.

Interest in the 100-lap race, one of the most prestigious midget events in the country, revolves around three drivers:

--Tony Stewart, who will try to use Turkey Night to accomplish what no other driver in U.S. Auto Club history has accomplished--win three series championships in the same year. The Rockville, Ind., driver has already won USAC sprint car and Silver Crown dirt car titles this season.

--Ron Shuman, winner of eight Turkey Night races, among them two at Bakersfield. The Tempe, Ariz., veteran finished second to Lealand McSpadden, also of Tempe, in the Sprint Car Racing Assn. season, which ended last Saturday in Ventura. Shuman was second to first-time winner Troy Cline of Hawthorne in the season finale, but when McSpadden finished third it gave him his second series crown, 1883-1875.

--Billy Boat, 1995 USAC Western States champion from Phoenix, who won a record 11 consecutive regional races in midseason.

But what about Jordan Hermansader, the defending champion from Rancho Palos Verdes?

Last year he was the fastest qualifier, started from the pole and led all 100 laps for his second USAC victory. He also scored his first at Bakersfield, in 1991.

“I guess you could call Bakersfield my favorite track,” the 22-year-old owner-driver said. “I had my best finish so far this season there too, a fourth place. I’d like to do this year exactly what I did last year.”

Among those he beat last year were Boat, Stewart and McSpadden. Shuman, after winning in 1992 and 1993, failed to qualify for the main event.

Although he is only 22, Hermansader has been racing since he was 7, when his father, a former drag racer, put him in a quarter-midget. Jordan turned professional at 18.

“I’m sort of a little guy that can beat the big guys,” he said. “And right now, I’m the only one who can be a back-to-back winner Turkey Night.”

Hermansader works in the Cosworth engine assembly shop in Torrance, putting together race car powerplants, but he uses a Van Dyne engine, built in Huntington Beach, in his midget. Last year, he drove a chassis built by Stan Fox to victory, but this year is in a new Beast, built by Bob East in Indianapolis.

“Down the road, I’d like to try the Silver Crown series, or maybe an Indy car in the IRL [Indy Racing League], but first I want to win at Bakersfield again,” Hermansader said.

*

Motor Racing Notes

INDY CARS--Former Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk has been signed by Jonathan Byrd to drive a Cosworth-powered Reynard in the five-race Indy Racing League season. . . . Emerson Fittipaldi will join team owner Carl Hogan in a newly formed Marlboro Latin America team for 1996, but the team will remain affiliated with Roger Penske. Penske’s own two-car team will include Al Unser Jr. and Paul Tracy, back after a year with the Newman-Haas team.

STOCK CARS--The third annual Asphalt Turkey Nationals will be run at Kern County Raceway Friday and Saturday, featuring sportsman, late model-pro stocks, mini-stocks, legend cars, street stocks, G. American V-8 modifieds, I-4 modifieds and daredevil stocks.