Column: Great to see Vesser take the checkered

It was great to see Jimmy Vasser take the checkered flag at the CART Houston Grand Prix last Sunday.

Vasser is one of the top drivers with whom I have a personal history, having announced a lot of his races when he was an amateur Formula Ford driver in northern California. In fact, I'll be presenting the "Vasser Cup" to the winner of the American City Racing League championship next Sunday at Sears Point.

The Houston win shows Vasser still has what it takes, and will certainly be a help in securing a ride for next season. Another driver I've known since he was a teenage karting star, Memo Gidley, didn't have such a great day in Houston. In one of the race's more bizarre incidents, he ended up a top Max Papis' car after Papis stalled coming out of a corner. Memo finished 22nd out of 24 drivers, and will also miss next weekend's race in Australia.

Joe Gibbs has apparently succumbed to the need for specialization in motorsports, and has put all his eggs into the most lucrative basket. With his driver Bobby Labonte in command of the Winston Cup Championship points and teammate Tony Stewart leading the Winston Cup win column, Gibbs announced last week that he is pulling the plug on his NHRA drag racing involvement for 2001.

Gibbs had already transferred Interstate Batteries sponsorship money from NHRA to Winston Cup this year, and is expected to take the MBNA money from Cory MacClenathan's Top Fuel car to Winston Cup as well. It's not as though the team had not had success, with 33 NHRA wins and a second in the Top Fuel championship in 1995, '97, and '98. But racing is so expensive today that it takes all the sponsorship money you can get just to run in one form of the sport.

Racing at the top levels has become so competitive that something needs to be done to ensure everyone has a chance to compete. Scott Pruett, for example, is having a tough time in Winston Cup after a successful career in Trans-Am, IMSA and CART.

Pruett's qualifying time at Martinsville last week was .032 second off the pole, but he was put on the trailer because that wasn't quite good enough to make the field. Pruett missed his second race in a row, today's GM/UAW race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, coming up .05 short of making the field on qualifying time.

Unfortunately, since his team is new to Winston Cup, it has not accrued enough owner points to get a provisional starting spot. This situation hit its low point at Watkins Glen, when rain washed out qualifying and the field was set according to points, there by denying a lot of drivers the opportunity to compete.

With all the money the sponsors spend in Winston Cup, something needs to be done to spread the provisionals around a little more, so that drivers who are competitive on a given weekend get their chance to race.

FIRESTONE FEARS UNFOUNDED

Fears that I voiced earlier this year about the Firestone/Ford fiasco endangering Firestone's support of racing appear to be unfounded. Bridgestone/Firestone President Yoichiro Kaizaki stated last week that his company would continue supplying tires for auto racing despite the massive Firestone recall in the United States. While apologizing for the recall in a Tokyo news conference, he reiterated the company's support of racing on the eve of the Japanese round of the Formula One championship.

"We'll stay in F-1 and Cart,'' Kaizaki said.

WWF RACING?

Speaking of Formula One, I think some of their drivers may have picked up a few pointers from watching the World Wrestling Federation on TV while they were in this country for the recent U.S. Grand Prix at Indy. At a press conference at Suzuka, Japan, last Thursday, top championship contenders Mikka Hakkinen (McLaren) and Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) engaged in a little WWF-style trash talking. After Hakkinen promised to brake three meters later in every corner, Schumacher said that he would brake five meters later.

"See you in the gravel trap," laughed Hakkinen, and Schumacher rejoined, "We'll meet together."

(Roger Diez is the Nevada Appeal motorsports columnist. Write to him at racytalker@aol.com. )