AUTO RACING : World’s Leading Drivers Set for Hawaii

The Hawaiian Super Gran Prix scheduled to debut Jan. 24 in Honolulu is shaping up as one very interesting event.

The race, with everyone in identically prepared Shelby Can-Am race cars, will feature drivers from Formula one, IndyCar, NASCAR, IMSA and the World of Outlaws.

Among the drivers who reportedly have accepted invitations to run the race that will pay $1 million to the winner are new Formula One champion Nigel Mansell, IndyCar PPG Cup stars Al Unser Jr., Michael Andretti and Mario Andretti, NASCAR Winston Cup stock car stars Bill Elliott and Kyle Petty, New IMSA Camel GT champ Juan Fangio II and World of Outlaws sprint champion Steve Kinser.

Another likely entrant is three-time Formula One champion Nelson Piquet, who is recuperating from serious foot and leg injuries sustained in a crash during practice last May for what he hoped would be his first Indianapolis 500. Piquet recently got up on crutches for the first time and has told friends that he is determined to be back behind the wheel in time for next May’s Indy.

Racing on the temporary circuit that is being built around Aloha Stadium could speed Piquet’s recovery--or set it back.

The race also has had some turn-downs, too.

Formula One stars Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna both said no, while Benetton teammates Michael Schumacher and Riccardo Patrese initially said yes, but then had to back out because of their winter test schedule.

In any case, if all or even most of the drivers who have reportedly accepted actually show up, it should be one heck of a show.

For one thing, it would provide the only likely chance for Mansell, who is switching to Indy-car racing, and Michael Andretti, who is moving to Formula One, to go head-to-head in 1993--unless Michael decides to run the Indy 500.

Mansell has apparently planned to undergo an operation in December to remove a small bone from his left foot--the remnant of a long-ago accident in karting--but expects to be back on his feet in time to race in Hawaii.

The promoters of the Hawaiian race expect to field at least 15 cars in the main event.

There was a quiet announcement out of Paris last week that went unnoticed by many but could have long-lasting repercussions in the world of international motorsports.

The Federation International du Sport Automobile (FISA), which oversees worldwide racing from its base in France, and the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States (ACCUS), which is its American arm, reached an agreement that should end the war of words between FISA and Championship Auto Racing Teams, the major sanctioning body of Indy-car racing.

The agreement gives CART a FISA sanction on races in North America, as well as Surfers Paradise in Australia, where the IndyCar season will begin for the third straight season in 1993.

Besides that arrangement, CART has been authorized by FISA to conduct as many as six more international events--as long as they are run on ovals.

The rumors that Honda, which recently withdrew it’s $100 million-a-year engine program from Formula One, will wind up in Indy-car racing in the fairly near future were given a boost last weekend before the IMSA season finale at Del Mar, Calif.

Parker Johnstone, a star of the Camel Lights division in Acura racers, told a press conference that he expects American Honda to run a limited GT Prototype program in IMSA next season, then move into the IndyCar PPG Cup series in 1994.

The driver said that Honda already has a 2.65-liter Indy-car engine that it has been testing on dynos for “several years.”

Honda officials have remained mum, as has Indy-car driver-team owner Bobby Rahal, who reportedly has had substantive talks with Honda but has contracted to use the new Chevrolet Indy V8-C engines next season.

The current points championship in NASCAR’s Winston Cup series is closer than anything that the elite stock car series has ever seen this late in the season.

Going into next Sunday’s race at Rockingham, N.C.--with just two more after that--struggling Bill Elliott retains a 39-point lead over struggling Davey Allison, while four other drivers are charging toward the front of the standings.

Alan Kulwicki and Mark Martin have taken the most advantage of the recent problems by Elliott and Allison--the two drivers who have led the standings from the third race of the season. Kulwicki trails Elliott by 49 points and Martin by 93.

Harry Gant is 100 back, and Kyle Petty--the most consistent driver in the series since the middle of the season--is sixth, 116 points behind.

With a maximum of 185 points available at each event, any of the six--with some very bad luck by the other quartet--could be leading the points after the Rockingham race.

Among them, only Elliott has won a series championship.

Allison never has finished better than third (1991), Kulwicki eighth (1990), Martin second (1990), Gant second (1984) and Petty seventh (1987).

The ongoing recession continues to hit the teams in the pocketbook, with big dollar sponsorships getting harder and harder to come by. But the seats are still being filled with hardy race fans.

NASCAR has reportedly filled more than 90% of the available seats in the first 26 races of the 29-race Winston Cup season, while CART officials says that attendance has been up--markedly in some cases--at 11 of the 15 events run so far in 1992, with no appreciable falloff at the other four.

Two major racing championships were decided out West last week.

Juan Fangio II, who came into the weekend at Phoenix International Raceway needing only one point to win the title, got help from Toyota teammate P.J. Jones in qualifying when Jones won the point that goes with winning the pole, shutting Davy Jones of Jaguar out of a title shot in the race.

Fangio then added icing to the cake by winning the race.

At Sears Point Raceway in Northern California, Jack Baldwin took third place to beat out Chevrolet Camaro teammate Scott Sharp, the defending series champion, for his first SCCA Trans-Am title.