THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505060450
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SONOMA, CA. LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
It started as a small project to raise money for the Winston Cup Racing Wives Auxiliary.
But the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America, which begins Monday morning in nearby Santa Clarita after Sunday's Save Mart 300 here at Sears Point International Raceway, has turned into a $500,000, eight-day extravaganza.
Among those who plan to participate, besides Petty, Harry Gant, Ernie Irvan, Michael Waltrip, Geoff Bodine, Todd Bodine and Steve Grissom, are NFL receiver Jerry Rice and entertainers Lorenzo Lamas, Cher, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Jay Leno, Sammy Kershaw, Tanya Tucker and Billy Ray Cyrus.
The riders will stop in Newport Beach, Calif., Las Vegas, Phoenix, Odessa, Texas, Fort Worth, Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville before ending on May 15 in Charlotte.
Petty said he came up with the idea when a group of bikers, including Phoenix International Raceway president Buddy Jobe, joined him and others on their ride back to North Carolina from Phoenix.
``It was neat seeing a bunch of bikes ride together like that,'' he said. ``We talked about it and talked about it and then it kinda died, and then we talked about it again.
``It's way too big,'' he said. ``It got a lot bigger than anybody anticipated. The main thing is we get to ride back across America and we're doing it for a good cause. It will raise a lot of money for a lot of charities.''
CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY: Look for a NASCAR race at the new California Speedway in the spring of 1997.
Les Richter, the former NASCAR president of competition who is now executive vice president of the new southern California facility, said the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors last week approved the ``final, final'' permits for the construction of the two-mile track.
Workers have now begun preparing the property for construction, a job that includes cleaning up four separate areas polluted with toxic wastes.
``That's under way and we'll start doing the construction work around the first of October,'' Richter said. The two-mile track ``will be a replica of Michigan, but the banking on the turns won't be as steep,'' he said.
The track will be located in San Bernadino County near Fontana about 30 miles east of Los Angeles.
PRACTICE CASUALTIES: Practice at Sears Point is always filled with incidents and Friday was no exception.
Geoff Bodine and Joe Nemechek ran off course and damaged their cars, but only slightly.
Perhaps the most snake-bitten driver of the day was Rusty Wallace, who damaged two engines. He said he was having an oil line problem.
Jeff Burton and Randy LaJoie also blew engines, Lake Speed damaged a transmission and Morgan Shepherd over-revved his engine and damaged a couple of valves.
MORE TREATMENT FOR IRVAN: Ernie Irvan has been visiting doctors in the San Francisco Bay area this weekend, and reportedly may be undergoing a medical procedure in his continuing effort to improve the sight in his left eye.
``That's one of the reasons we're here in San Francisco - to see one of the doctors for him to check me over some more, just to get as good a recovery as we can.
``Hopefully, we'll pinpoint a lot . . . seeing these doctors here. Maybe it will be good; maybe it will be bad.''
BODINE IN ROUSH TRUCK: Roush Racing has called a press conference for today, reportedly to announce a deal with Winston Cup driver Todd Bodine to compete in seven NASCAR truck races in a Ford F-150 prepared by Roush Racing.
Bodine drives the Butch Mock-owned No. 75 Ford Thunderbird in the Winston Cup series.
And Ward Burton, driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the Cup series, has been signed by owner Buz McCall to drive in 11 Grand National races this year. by CNB