The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 67

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR E-ll I AUTO RACING SUNDAY, MAY 24, 1992 Kalitta finally on top of USAC midgets won the 24-car feature, holding off Chris Simmons of East Gran-, by, Conn. The race included former Indy-car starter Dennis VI-tolo, but he crashed on the backstretch when he collided with another car. Craig Taylor was the fast qualifier at 21.254. He was second at IRP twice at Winchester once. Kalitta, the 1991 rookie of the year in midgets, collected $3,000 for the victory before an estimated 4,000 cold fans.

He finished third in last year's point standings and figures to move closer to the leaders in this year's chart. restart Kalitta resumed his run to the front. The night's fast qualifier he1 ran 21.542 seconds went to third position on Lap 24 and swept past Drinan and Jones in a slick move on Lap 26. From there, he was gone. Literally.

The lead grew to seven car lengths in a hurry and he was never seriously challenged. "I was Just happy to get around (Drinan and Jones)," said the winner. "I had no idea where they were after that. I just tried to keep the pace up." Kalitta said he had one helmet tear-off and quickly used that up when a car in front of him let loose oil. He had to resort to physically wiping his vision clean with his driving glove.

"I dropped back (for a minute), finally wiped my tail off and the car worked real good," he said. Kalitta had finished second in a midget four times, all last year. By CURT CAVIN STAR STAFF WRITER Clermont, Ind. Doug Kalitta had never finished on top of a USAC midget race until Saturday night. He picked a fine time to accept the checkers.

The Ypsilanti, driver won the 47th annual Night Before the 500 race at Indianapolis Raceway Park, outdistancing Kenny Irwin, Danny Drinan and Stevie Reeves to the finish line. For all practical purposes, It was not close. Kalitta, 27, patiently watched Drinan and Page Jones, the front-row sitters, deliver punch after punch in the early half of the race. The two first-lap burners knifed back and forth with each leading portions of two laps during a four-lap flurry. Officially, Drinan led laps 1 through 22, 24 and 25, with Jones leading 23.

Drinan's 25th lap earned him a $250 bonus for leading the half-way lap. After starting eighth, Kalitta roped his way up to fourth on a backstretch pass of Kenny Nichols on Lap 18. Three cars brought out the yellow flag with a crash on Lap 20 Chuck Gurney, Robbie Stanley and Andy Michner and on the ASSOCIATED PRESS Pittsboro, Ind, driver Jeff Gordon celebrates victory in Champion Spark Plug 300 NASCAR race at Concord, N.C. Cool Gordon blazes to Charlotte victory MOTOROLA I it PORTABLE HANDHELD Ji Made ln The USA I Includes Battery Charger I FULL FEATURED 190 i- Sj 1 Yaar GTE MoWnet Sewn i I Agreement Requrcd SoOjed ill To CrMfl Approve CALL 297-9797 i I CENTURY 1 CAR PHONES I I 71.1 Street Annie Cook Excellence in sales and Satisfaction Guaranteed! ei)AVE 773-6630 REALTORS 773-2195 By TOM FOREMAN JR. ASSOCIATED PRESS Concord.

N.C. Jeff Gordon, not yet 21, Is starting to feel like a racing veteran. The 1991 Grand National rookie of the year climbed to the next level Saturday by avoiding trouble, getting ahead of Dick Trickle and winning the Champion Spark Plug 300. "Everything's going our way, but to win this race boosts your confidence level up to another level," the Pittsboro, driver said. "In the last two or three races, we've had this little thing or that little thing happen and we started to fall back down the ladder," he said.

"All of a sudden, here we are back at the top of the ladder. We're going to go on to Dover next weekend thinking we can win that race." Nine caution flags resulted in a constant change in leaders in the Grand National NASCAR race. When Gordon got into contention, he had to chase down Trickle and Dale Earnhardt in the middle laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Earnhardt ran into trouble, and while Trickle and Gordon were either side by side or within a car's length of each other in the last 50 laps, Gordon opened up a slight lead and held it for the final 37 laps. At one point, Trickle and Gordon got a little too close.

On Lap 163, their cars actually touched, but the two managed to avoid disaster and Gordon got by for good. a firm, fflfirfifri ITEX? 33 irrr i The midget program had a support series, a collection of the Indy-like Formula 2000 cars running IRP for the first time. The series, started two years ago on the West Coast, runs 10 races on each coast. Two races Saturday night's and an upcoming event at Heartland Park In Kansas count toward both divisions. The IRP is considered the big oval race of the season.

The 40-lap main event featured USAC veteran Jim Keeker, who, despite his vast knowlege of the oval, crashed In Turn 4. He was not hurt and ran the midget feature. Greg Tracy of Tustin, 2 OFF DISTRIBUTOR CAPS 5" to 13- WIRE SETS 4 CYL. ....15 6 CYL 19" mmsk 8 cyl. .24 95 EACH SIMULATED FUR BUCKET SEAT COVERS, 1400.

Champagne, A silver and black LIFETIME WARRANTY' 2" FROM mm TO VALVE COVER OR MANIFOLD GASKETS 3a KXma iUL 1 X'f saws "I didn't call it a pass. I called it a slam," Gordon said. "It was racing. We definitely touched. It was a rub, and rubbing's racing." With Trickle on the verge of a second-place finish, he lost control of his Pontiac going into Turn 4 and hit Todd Bodine's Buick in the last lap.

That wreck allowed Bobby Labonte to finish second after starting the day in ninth position. Morgan Shepherd was third in a Ford, followed by Dale Jar-rett and Sterling Marlin, both in Chevrolets. Gordon, who started the day fifth in the Busch Series point standings, earned a $113,844 bonus for taking the pole and winning the 200-lap event. That bonus breaks the mark of $73,225 won by Harry Gant last October. After a 10-minute break at Lap 102.

Earnhardt and Trickle both overtook Gordon on Lap 107. Earnhardt's prosperity was short-lived when his engine apparently quit and he had to put his Chevrolet behind the wall. It gave Gordon something to crow about, especially after Earnhardt had offered some pre-race advice. "He said, 'Boy, you got your car running 32.50s Gordon said, referring to lap times. "He said, 'Well, you better get them or I'm going to run your butt down and going to blow you "As soon as I passed him, I waved." "The car is a good car, but it's a new car and you always go through a lot of tinkering with a new car when you're trying to figure them out," Allison says.

"We have 'new car I guess. "We tried to get the car to do a couple of things by making the same kind of adjustments that we used to make to 007. But it didn't respond to the same things that 007 liked." When he collided with Petty's Pontiac at the end of The Winston, Allison reaggravated a shoulder injury he suffered at Bristol earlier this year. He also bruised a lung. Because Allison doesn't feel 100 percent, his all-out philosophy will have to change.

"I have to convince myself that I can't run my normal race as hard as I can go all day long," he said. "I have to discipline myself to run a comfortable pace where I'm as good as I can be at the end of the race." Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt said there could be a surprise winner namely Richard Petty, who is making his farewell tour in 1992. "You know how you feel when you think something big and amazing is about to happen something that's totally unexpected and fantastic," Earnhardt said. "Maybe it'll take The King to break the Ford winning streak." Petty hasn't won since 1984 at Daytona. Ford hasn't lost since the 1992 season started, a streak of nine races.

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$QO TTtf $40 $46 PRICES NOT APPLICABLE TO PARTS i A A By TOM FOREMAN JR. ASSOCIATED PRESS Concord, N.C. Davey Allison will have to rely on a stranger to help him track down NAS-CAR's $1 million bonus in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 (noon, WTBS). After wrecking the Ford Thun-derbird he affectionately called "007" In winning The Winston all-star race last weekend, he'll be driving an untest- at Allison Charlotte Motor Speedway. If he can get the new car to the checkered flag ahead of the pack, he'll capture the bonus awarded by Winston to the driver winning three of NASCAR's four most prestigious races.

First, though, Allison said he has to get comfortable, not only with the new car, but with a body made sore by an end-of-the-race crash with Kyle Petty in The Winston. "I could take this a lot better if I had either one of two things," Allison said. "I could stand the bruises a lot easier if I had 007, or, I could stand the loss of 007 if I didn't hurt in so many places all over my body." Allison said the car has done Only 20 laps prior to Saturday's final practice session. PAS 610 PREMIUM RADIAL TIRE 60,000 MILE WARRANTY SOLAR 400 PREMIUM RADIAL TIRE 40,000 MILE WARRANTY ALL ALL 34 $40 $48 VISA MART SPECIAL ORDER ITEMS. COPYRIGHT 1S02 NATIONWISI AUTOMOTWI, INC.

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