Friday, April 3, 1998 | 8:31 a.m.
BRIAN HILDERBRAND is a Las Vegas SUN sportswriter. His motor sports column appears Fridays. He can be reached on the Internet at [email protected]. For the latest in the world of auto racing, check out the SUN Racing web site at http://www. lasvegassun.com/sports/racing/
As a native Southern Californian, Richie Hearn grew up watching the Long Beach Grand Prix and dreaming of the day he, too, could pilot an Indy car around the beachside street course.
Now that he has fulfilled his boyhood dream, the Henderson resident is thankful the CART FedEx Championship Series visits Long Beach only once a year.
"There's a lot going on for our team," Hearn said of the distractions of racing at his 'home' track as he prepared for his third Long Beach Grand Prix. "It's tough, it's certainly tougher than when I go to Nazareth (Pa.) because I've got something planned every night and a lot of people want a piece of you and I don't have a lot of spare time.
"If I had to do that every race, I would get really burned out. This race, and now Fontana, is like a home race so I have to deal with it. I've done it for a few years now so I kind of know how to tune it all out and concentrate on the racing."
The racing side of the sport has demanded Hearn's full attention through the first two weeks of the CART season. After switching from the disappointing Lola chassis to the more competitive Swift during the off-season, Hearn's Della Penna Motorsports team has been trying to play catch-up since the season opener last month in Miami.
Hearn finished 13th in Miami and 27th last week in Japan after blowing an engine 74 laps into the 201-lap race.
"We had a really good run going at Japan ... but we lost a motor early so it didn't do anything for us," Hearn said. "Homestead was just a lack of testing, really. We got everything so late -- the cars and the money (from new chief sponsor Budweiser) -- and we hadn't done a lot of miles and it shows when you get in a race situation.
"We learned a lot at those two races; they were good events for us but we didn't come away with any points so it was kind of disappointing."
Hearn is confident that the combination of the Swift chassis, Ford engine and Firestone tires will allow him to be competitive this season.
"I think the package we have, if we get it right, will work really well -- as opposed to last year," Hearn, who finished 21st in points in 1997, said.
"Last year, I don't care who you were, that car would never do well. Last year was just a real drag. Halfway through the season we knew that we weren't going to be competitive so you're just kind of going to the races, kind of going through the motions and that's not a healthy situation to be in.
"I think the package we have now is good enough to where we can run strong but I would have liked to be a little more prepared for the first couple of races. We have everything that can win, it's just a matter of putting it all together."
While a win Sunday in Long Beach would be a dream come true for Hearn, the 27-year-old has a more modest goal this weekend.
"You're ultimate goal is to win -- I'm here to win -- but to be realistic, I'd be real happy with a top 10 and get some points, get on the board and carry that momentum into the next race," he said.
"You've got to take small steps first and we ran strong enough in the first two races to do that and we didn't. So we still need to take that step, to get points. Even though I know we can do better, everybody would be happy with that."
* NASCAR: NASCAR officials had a busy week, imposing fines on two drivers and four crew members for separate rules violations last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bill Ingle, crew chief for Ricky Rudd's Winston Cup Tide Ford, was fined $2,000 for improperly attached weight on Rudd's car. Newt Moore, crew chief for Kenny Wallace's Square D Ford Racing Team, and two crew members were fined $500 each for running onto the race track after Wallace had been involved in an accident. Busch Series drivers Michael Waltrip and Mike Dillon were fined $2,000 each for their fistfight in the pit area during last week's Moore's Snacks 250 at Bristol. Waltrip and Moore traded blows and wrestled each other to the ground following an accident that took both cars out of contention. ... After a layoff of nearly three months since the Jan. 18 season opener, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series resumes this weekend at the Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex.
* CART: Las Vegas resident Jimmy Vasser will have some added incentive to win Sunday's Long Beach Grand Prix. Vasser won at Long Beach in 1996 and his Target/Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Alex Zanardi, was victorious there last year. "If I let Alex win two out of three at Long Beach, I'll never hear the end of it," Vasser, a Southern California native, joked about the so-called 'rubber match.' "I always enjoy going home to California and Long Beach has been kind to me. With the extra incentive of the rubber match with Alex, I think I'll have a successful race." Vasser is coming off a seventh-place finish in Japan.
* IRL: The boys at NASCAR weren't the only ones who were busy levying fines. The Pep Boys Indy Racing League fined Kelley Racing a total of $20,000 and seven points for two violations during the Dura-Lube 200 on March 22 at Phoenix International Raceway. Kelley Racing and race-winning driver Scott Sharp were fined $15,000 and seven points after their car failed to pass the post-race fuel capacity inspection. The team also was fined $5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct for driver Mark Dismore's failure to obey race officials to close up the field prior to the lap-197 restart. Many observers believed Dismore's "block" of second-place driver Tony Stewart prevented Stewart from making a late run at Sharp in the 200-lap event.
* BACKMARKERS: Professional Sports Car Racing, Inc., has announced that Toshiba Copiers will be the title sponsor of the Nevada Grand Prix, to be held April 24-26 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. ... The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will serve as the title sponsor of the 1998 Las Vegas Formula One Professional Racing Outboard Performance (PROP) Tour. The Formula One PROP Tour will make two stops in Southern Nevada this year: May 29-31 in Laughlin and Sept. 25-27 at Lake Mead.
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