Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Miss Circus Circus ‘parts’ making a return to town

Friday, Sept. 11, 1998 | 11:21 a.m.

BRIAN HILDERBRAND is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. His motor sports column appears Fridays. He can be reached on the Internet at bh@lasvegassun.com. For the latest in the world of auto racing, check out the Sun Racing web site at http://www.lasvegassun.com/sports/ racing/

Miss Circus Circus will make an unexpected return to the choppy waters of Lake Mead when the Unlimited Hydroplanes visit Southern Nevada later this month.

Sort of.

Kim Gregory, owner of the Las Vegas-based KG Racing, will make his first foray into Unlimited Hydroplanes with one of the late Steve Woomer's boats, which formerly ran as Close Call and Smokin' Joe's.

The boats, however, were ones Woomer purchased from Bill Bennett, who at one time campaigned Miss Circus Circus.

"Actually, what this boat is is a whole lot of Circus Circus parts coming back to town," Gregory said of the boat he will race under the name Wild Fire. "The engines and gear boxes and so on are all parts that were purchased by Steve Woomer from Bill Bennett, so it's all coming back."

Woomer died of a heart attack prior to this season and never got a chance to run the Unlimited Hydroplane.

"The boat's in great shape," Gregory said before testing Wild Fire Thursday in Tri-Cities, Wash. "It was set and ready to run and on its way to Phoenix the first of the year when Steve had the heart attack and died. It had never turned a lick but was already prepped for the whole season, so it's a real clean piece."

Gregory has been running Unlimited Light hydroplanes for two years and is viewing the purchase of one of Woomer's boats as an opportunity to step up to the sport's big time.

"Basically the only way that we could make our team a professional business type of situation was to get in the Unlimited class," Gregory said. "That's the only way you're going to attract the kind of sponsorship dollars it takes to do that."

Gregory has hired former Miss Budweiser pilot Mark Weber to drive Wild Fire and will campaign the boat next weekend in San Diego and Sept. 25-27 in the Las Vegas Cup on Lake Mead. George Stratton of Las Vegas will serve as the back-up driver.

Gregory is hoping Weber can duplicate last year's success here, when he piloted Miss Budweiser to victory while subbing for the injured Dave Villwock.

"Mark Weber, of course, drove Miss Budweiser last year and he got put in a very difficult position (relieving Villwock) and, I thought, did a great job under some extremely tough pressure," Gregory said.

"I'm very confident in Mark; he's wound up and he wants to make a go of it. He never really had the 100 percent Bud boat so we're going to give him the 100 percent boat here and see what he can do with it. He won Lake Mead last year and Lake Mead is tough, its water is very rough."

Gregory and Weber will have their hands full in their first two races with Wild Fire: Villwock and Miss Budweiser have won six of the first seven races in the 1998 Ralphs Thunder Tour.

* NASCAR: The pit crew chief for fourth-generation driver Adam Petty was crushed to death Monday when the car he was working on during an ASA race in Minnesota was lowered off the jack too soon and Petty sped away over him. Crew chief Chris Bradley, 40, of Grand Rapids, Mich., was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead two hours later. Petty, 18, is the son of NASCAR driver Kyle Petty and the grandson of NASCAR legend Richard Petty. His great-grandfather, Lee, won the first Daytona 500 in 1949. Adam Petty's Sprint Spree Race Team was working during a stop on the 215th lap of the Miller Lite 300. According to the American Speed Association, Bradley was adjusting the Pontiac's sway bar during a late-race caution. ... Home improvement retail giant The Home Depot will sponsor Joe Gibbs Racing's second Winston Cup car, to be driven by Tony Stewart, beginning in 1999. Stewart has been driving for Gibbs in the Busch Series this season under the Shell Oil colors. ... Former Las Vegas Motor Speedway general manager Ray Wilkings is running the new Irwindale Speedway in Southern California. The track, scheduled to open next March, features a 1/3-mile and half-mile asphalt racing surfaces and will host more than 60 racing dates, including the NASCAR Winston Racing Series, next season.

* CART: Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy, who has had a rough season until late, is full of optimism as the series heads to Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif., this weekend. Tracy, winless this season in the Team Kool Green Reynard/Honda, won both the 1993 and 1994 Laguna Seca races. "I'm going to Laguna with more confidence than I have had in a while," Tracy said. "I think we have overcome most of our problems in car setup and can concentrate on running up front. It felt good to be competitive last week in Vancouver and we had a productive test at Laguna the week before that. I've always liked the track and have won a couple of races there, so I'm hoping we can continue the turnaround of our season." ... Likewise, Las Vegan Jimmy Vasser also is looking forward to the Grand Prix of Monterey, having won on the 2.238-mile road course last year. In 1996, Vasser wrapped up the PPG Cup title at Laguna Seca with a fourth-place finish. ... When Alex Barron led 12 laps at last weekend's Molson Indy Vancouver race, it marked the first time a Toyota-powered car has run out in front of a CART race since entering into the series in 1996. ... Vincenzo Sospiri replaces P.J. Jones as driver of the No. 98 Castrol Eagle/Toyota beginning this weekend. Jones is headed for Patrick Racing as a replacement for Nevadan Scott Pruett.

* IRL: Series points leader Kenny Brack, winner of the past three IRL races, is rumored to be Chip Ganassi's pick to replace 1998 PPG Cup champion Alex Zanardi if Zanardi leaves the CART FedEx Championship Series for Formula One at season's end, as expected. ... Team Menard has appealed the penalties imposed by the IRL following the Radisson 200 earlier this month at Pikes Peak International Raceway. A private hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 23. The rear wings on both Team Menard cars were found to be in violation of league specifications during a post-race technical inspection. The team was fined $25,000 and drivers Tony Stewart and Robbie Buhl both had 15 points deducted from their season totals.

* BACKMARKERS: Las Vegas Motor Speedway is one of the 17 NASCAR-sanctioned speedways in the new NASCAR 99 racing video game to be released this month for the Nintendo 64 and the Sony PlayStation platforms. NASCAR 99 is produced by Electronic Arts. ... Las Vegas resident Davey Hamilton, who is second in IRL series points, finished second in the 42nd annual Budweiser International Classic in Oswego, N.Y., last weekend in a supermodified owned by Mike Muldoon. Hamilton won the event last year. ... It was only a matter of time: LVMS has announced that it will host the wildly popular Monster Trucks during the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series weekend Nov. 7-8. Among the featured entrants will be Big Foot, Executioner, Sampson and Firestone Wilderness. A special dirt course will be set up in the LVMS infield of the superspeedway to accommodate the Monster Trucks. ...

The NASCAR Winston Racing Series concludes its season Saturday night at the 3/8ths-mile paved LVMS oval. Mike Ray, who has 14 wins in 17 starts in the Late Model Sportsman division, will headline the show which also will include Limited Late Models, Grand American Modifieds, Mini Trucks and Ultra Trucks. Gates open at 4 p.m. and preliminary events are set for 7 p.m. Ray strengthened his lead over Bobby Hogge IV of San Jose, Calif., in the NWRS Pacific Coast Region standings. Ray has a competition performance index rating of .9738 to Hogge's .8001 entering the final weekend of competition.