ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608190148
SECTION: SPORTS EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
DATELINE: BROOKLYN, MICH.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
NASCAR Winston Cup racing will return to Southern California on June 22, 1997, at the new California Speedway.
The 2-mile oval, under construction on the site of an old steel mill near Fontana, is about 40 percent complete and should be finished by April 1, speedway Executive Vice President Les Richter said Saturday during a news conference at Michigan International Speedway.
``Next April, we hope we're doing the finishing touches, like watering the plants and mowing the grass and getting ready for the June 22 race,'' Richter said. A CART Indy-car race is scheduled for the fall of 1997.
``We plan to have six major race weekends - not the first year and maybe not the second year - but we'll work toward that. We're in discussion with NASCAR about another date in the latter part of 1997,'' Richeter added.
But Richter acknowledged, ``There's a long line of 'em waiting now.''
Richter said he expects the Winston Cup race will be accompanied by a support race from one of NASCAR's other series, such as Winston West. It won't be a Busch Grand National race, ``but there is a possibility of a stand-alone Busch race later on in the year,'' Richter said. ``We're not sure what's going to happen with that right now.''
The California oval will be the same design as Michigan except the banking in the turns will be 14 degrees instead of 18 degrees, he said. Workers have already begun building the grandstands, which will hold 69,000 fans, he said.
PURVIS WINS 200: Jeff Purvis converted a gas mileage strategy into a victory Saturday in the Detroit Gasket 200 BGN event here.
Purvis made a single pit stop on lap 33 of the 100-lap race during the only yellow flag of the event. He took the lead on lap 95, and won by about a car-length over Kevin LePage, who also benefitted from good fuel mileage.
``You've got to win them any way you can,'' Purvis said. ``I didn't know if we could go all the way or not. It ran out of gas on the last lap. It started sputtering a little bit, so I was concerned that last half lap. We had one chance to win here, and that's the chance we needed.''
Mark Martin dominated the race, leading 46 laps, but was forced to make a second pit stop with 19 laps to go.
SECOND-ROUND QUALIFYING: Jimmy Spencer led the second round of time trials for today's GM 400 on Saturday with a lap of 182.987 mph in his Ford Thunderbird. He'll start 26th, although his lap was 18th fastest overall.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB