Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Vasser hopes to keep team’s streak alive

Friday, April 14, 2000 | 9:53 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- In addition to being one of the most popular stops on the CART circuit, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach has proven to be a springboard for success in the FedEx Championship Series.

Each of the past four winners on the streets of Long Beach has gone on to win the series championship. Each of the past four winners of the Grand Prix of Long Beach also has happened to drive for Target/Chip Ganassi Racing.

Las Vegas resident Jimmy Vasser started the impressive streak in 1996 to start an unprecedented string of four straight championships for Ganassi.

"It seems like such a long time ago that I won the Grand Prix of Long Beach," Vasser said. "I can't believe Team Target has already won three times here since my victory.

"I'm thinking of this race like it's my Long Beach five-year class reunion, and I plan to be the life of the party. It would be great to get a win here and give Team Target five straight."

Vasser, who qualified 11th for last weekend's snowed-out race at Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway, is coming off a fourth-place finish in the season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 26.

Although he drove his Lola/Toyota from the 10th starting position at Homestead, Vasser said he was not completely satisfied with his last race -- but he admitted it was better than teammate Juan Montoya's, who blew an engine early in the race.

"In one respect, look at what happened to Juan ... it could have been worse," Vasser said of his outing. "In another respect, all those guys (who finished ahead of me) were behind me at some point in the race and they got us in pit stops.

"I'm a little disappointed perhaps in that a win could have slipped through our fingers, but that's racing. Overall, I was just happy to get the points."

Vasser, a Southern California native, said he is looking forward to this week's race along the shores of downtown Long Beach.

"The Toyota-Lola has been running extremely well and the team is really clicking," Vasser said, "so there's no reason we can't have a great race."

* NASCAR: Hank Parker Jr.'s entry in the NASCAR Busch Series race Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway will honor the 19 Marines who lost their lives during a training mission last Saturday near Tucson.

Parker's No. 53 Rick Rathbun's Team Marines Racing Chevrolet will carry the name of each of the victims who were killed when the Marine Corps aircraft -- an MV-22 tilt-rotor Osprey -- crashed while attempting to land during a nighttime training mission. ...

Dick Trickle will be back in the Power Team Chevrolet for Sunday's Diehard 500 at Talladega. It will be Trickle's second start as a replacement for Geoffrey Bodine, who plans to return to the car for the April 30 race at California Speedway in Fontana. Bodine is recovering from injuries he sustained in the Feb. 18 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona. ...

Fred Graves, who served as crew chief for Robby Gordon's Winston Cup team this season, left his position to serve in the same capacity for Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan's NASCAR Winston West and Winston Cup teams. Gaughan will attempt to qualify for the April 30 NAPA Auto Parts 500 Winston Cup race at California Speedway.

* CART: Bryan Herta will substitute for injured Walker Racing driver Shinji Nakano in Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and the April 30 Rio 200 in Brazil.

Nakano continues to recover from injuries sustained in a testing accident at the Milwaukee Mile on March 31. Nakano suffered multiple bruises on his brain as a result of the accident and was ordered to sit out three races.

Herta, co-owner of the Las Vegas Karting Center near Jean, is under contract with Forsythe Championship Racing, which has temporarily suspended its CART operation. Herta has two CART victories, both on the Laguna Seca Raceway road course in Northern California.

* IRNLS: Sam Schmidt, the Henderson resident and former Indy Racing League driver who was paralyzed in a testing crash in January, will join Memo Gidley as inductees into the U.S. F2000 Hall of Fame later this year.

Schmidt won the U.S. F2000 national championship in 1996 and moved to the Indy Racing League in 1997. He earned his first career Indy Racing victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1999. ...

Greg Ray, the 1999 IRL champion, turned the fastest lap of this week's four-day Indianapolis 500 Open Test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ray's lap of 222.833 mph bettered the laps posted by Scott Sharp (222.343) and Eddie Cheever Jr. (222.162).

Jason Leffler was fourth fastest at 221.125 in a Treadway Racing backup car, while Mark Dismore, Sharp's Kelley Racing teammate, was fifth at 218.558. ...

Jaques Lazier will make his return to racing in the Vegas Indy 300 on April 22 at LVMS. Lazier suffered a back fracture at the season-opening Delphi Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway in January.

* NHRA: Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon, eliminated in the quarterfinals of last weekend's SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, has numerous reasons to be optimistic going into this weekend's O'Reilly Nationals at Houston Raceway Park.

Dixon's crew chief, Dick LaHaie, was responsible for tuning both of the winning cars at both NHRA events at Houston last season -- first with Doug Herbert in April and again in October with Dixon.

As if that weren't enough to excite Dixon about this weekend's race, he also became the first driver in NHRA history to surpass the 4.5-second barrier with his 4.486-second pass at Houston last April.

"It is really nice going back to Houston," Dixon said. "We have had a lot of nice things happen to us there lately, so it would be great to keep that streak going and with Dicko on our side, we have a great chance to see that happen."

* BACKMARKERS: NASCAR Late Models, Speed Trucks, Legends, Mini Stocks, Chargers and Grand American Modifieds will be among the divisions competing in the Las Vegas Motor Speedway short-track season opener Saturday night beginning at 6 p.m. Gates open at 5. ...

Las Vegas racing brothers Terry and Deyon Young finished third and fifth, respectively, in the 28-lap American Race Truck main event last Saturday night at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway. ...

The U.S. Navy has pulled its sponsorship of the Aug. 25-27 Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Association event at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and UHRA commissioner Ken Muscatel said the move would make it "difficult to pull off the race this year." The UHRA previously had lost its race date this summer in Norfolk, Va.