San Diego Union Tribune - San Diego,CA,USA By Bill Center.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20040408-9999-1s8motors.html

Sprint Car series, in need of a track, has a new partner in Barona
Speedway
By Bill Center UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER April 8, 2004

It's hard to tell which needs the other more, the SCRA Sprint Car
series or Barona Speedway.

But it's pretty clear the future of both organizations rests heavily
on the success of the other.

"Barona Speedway has become very important to us," SCRA president and
seven-time regional sprint car champion Ron Shuman was saying the
other day as he was discussing a pivotal year for his organization.

"You might say Barona is our home."

SCRA's home used to be the half-mile dirt oval at Perris Auto
Speedway in southern Riverside County.

But late last season, Perris and SCRA split – triggering a war
for
control of sprint car racing in the west.

Soon three other longtime SCRA host tracks – Manzanita (in
Arizona),
Ventura and Santa Maria – joined Perris in dropping the SCRA tour
in
favor of joining the U.S. Auto Club.

Suddenly, Shuman found himself in a battle he never wanted – or
saw
coming. Not only had he lost 19 race dates, an interloper had waltzed
into the territory.

And while the SCRA-USAC sprint car war is in no way as big as the
CART-IRL Champ Car war or the American Le Mans-Grand American
struggle for the control of American road racing, it is big to the
partisans of short-track, open-wheel racing.

"We're in a fight for out life," admits Shuman. "We didn't ask for
this war. But now it's a matter of survival."

And San Diego County's little quarter-mile dirt oval on Wildcat
Canyon Road some five miles northeast of the Barona Casino has become
a key battleground.

Barona will have nine SCRA sprint car dates this season starting with
a two-day kickoff show April 16-17. Not only is that a key date for
Barona, it is a key date in the SCRA-USAC struggle.

On April 17, at the same time that Barona is hosting its
first "official" SCRA race, the USAC sprinters will be just up the
road at Perris. Car owners, drivers and fans will be forced to choose
which tour they want to back.

Last year, there were about 45 sprint cars in the region. On most
nights, Shuman could draw a field of around three dozen cars. He
still expects 25 to 30 cars to be on hand for the Barona debut.

"I've got loyalty," said Shuman, who drew 40 cars to his 2004 season
opener at Tulare last Sunday, a night after USAC held an event an
hour's drive up the road.

"Two owners who told me before the problems started that they weren't
going to race in 2004 are going to race the entire season with us."

But he also admits that "some people who said they would stick with
me are no longer with me."

Shuman said some sponsors are committed to running a series that
includes Perris. And many of Shuman's – and the SCRA's –
strongest
backers worry if he can indeed survive against the weight of USAC's
national image and the loss of some key tracks.

"I've still got my head held up," he says. "We've been handed a bunch
of rotten lemons. But I still think there's a recipe for lemonade."

And part of the sugar being stirred into the mix is Barona Speedway.

For the past three years, Barona operator Todd Salazar had been
courting the SCRA for a couple of spots on the calendar. Nothing more
than an exhibition had worked out ... until Perris gave the SCRA the
boot.

"I give Salazar a lot of credit," said Shuman. "He very nicely hung
in there. And when the opportunity did come, he welcomed us with more
than open arms."

In fact, Salazar opened up his pocketbook.

Over the winter, Salazar rebuilt Barona Speedway to meet the needs of
the full-sized SCRA sprint cars, which haven't run on dirt in San
Diego County since South Bay Park Speedway closed almost 20 years
ago. "Todd worked his fanny off to make this happen," said
Shuman. "He rebuilt the pits to accommodate our haulers. He got all
the rocks out and put more clay into the track. Any change asked for,
he made. And he did a lot of things that we didn't request, but
appreciate.

"Even before everything else blew up, we were trying to get a couple
of dates for Barona. The guys who ran the exhibitions down here and
tested here really like Todd's enthusiasm."

Sprint cars are a pricey item for Barona. The sanctioning cost alone
is $16,500 a night. Barona is going to have to at least quadruple its
average crowd count to make it work.

And if SCRA can't survive the USAC onslaught, then Salazar might have
made a lot of costly changes for naught.

"Salazar is not going to have a more enthusiastic partner than us,"
promised Shuman. "We'll do whatever it takes."

One of the things SCRA has done is schedule an open house on the
night of April 16 that will serve to give local fans and the media a
taste of sprint car racing before the next night's actual opener.

Although the non-winged NAPA Auto Parts SCRA tour is not as big as
the national – and winged – World of Outlaws series, it does
have
some top drivers.

Most notable is Cory Kruseman, the all-time leader with 63 SCRA wins.
Kruseman campaigns a car owned by Tony Stewart of Nextel Cup fame.

As for what triggered the SCRA fallout with Perris and the other
tracks now aligned with USAC, the answer is no surprise – money.

"We weren't asking for more money," said Shuman, who had long fought
on behalf of drivers and car owners. "But they wanted us to take a
$2,000 a night cut and put us back to 1994 levels."