Californian Wins Monster Race

A Kingdome crowd of 40,693 last night saw a Monster Truck race go into extra innings and a daredevil injure an ankle.

It also saw Auburn mud-racer Ken Tobin defeat his wife, Sharon, in the semifinals, then win the muddy final when Jim Berg of Seattle couldn't get his vehicle started.

In the Monster Trucks, Gary Sartin of Modesto, Calif., driving the Skoal Bandit, beat Warren Davis of Kalispell, Mont., in Bear Foot in a rerun final. Their first title race over eight junk cars ended in a dead heat.

Hollywood stuntman Spanky Spangler suffered an ankle injury when he was dropped 135 feet into parked junk vans while strapped inside a 1976 Chevrolet.

Spangler was taken to Harborview Medical Center for X-rays late last night. A member of Spangler's crew told a race official that Spangler's seat belt apparently had shifted when he was dropped.

Spangler's earlier stunt of the night threw a bigger scare into the crowd because it went obviously haywire.

Spangler soared what was announced as a world-record 90 feet in a ramp-to-ramp leap in a tiny Honda Odyssey. The cardboard-box landing ramp collapsed as planned, but what was unplanned was Spangler getting a bad angle off the ramp and plowing into the crane on site to lift the Chevrolet for the ``Shooting Star'' stunt.

The crane was parked slightly off to the left and about 15 feet from the end of the ramp.

Why was the ramp so close to the ramp?

``We had to park it there, just in case,'' Spangler non-explained to the crowd.

After the ``Falling Star'' stunt in the Chevrolet, Spangler skipped the post-drop interview, was given first-aid treatment by medics, then was taken to Harborview Medical Center.

Local hopes for victory in the Monster Trucks ended when Yakima's Jeff Bainter was defeated in the semifinals.

Bainter, 27, was the top qualifier among the eight with a wild ride in which his jeep, with a Washington flag in back, almost flipped.

In the first round, he upset Gene Peterson's Big Foot VII.

In the semis, Bainter's Jeep, named High Voltage, blew a tire and Davis advanced.

A female Washington driver, Randi Lynn of Aberdeen, was the slowest qualifier and was eliminated in the first round.

The mud racers were mostly Northwest drivers and included two women, Terri Wilkes, of Snoqualmie and Jobin of Auburn.

Wilkes, 35, a special-education classroom assistant, was the top qualifier in the Captain America car in which her husband, Mike, won a Kingdome event two years ago.

``I just don't want to get stuck,'' Terri said before the competition. ``I don't want to walk in the mud.''

She didn't. She was the surprising top qualifier but equipment problems kept her and three of the four top qualifiers from racing again.

Children who attended the event were dazzled by VORIAN, a jet-dragster that drove onto the floor, then transformed into a 20-foot flame-shooting robot that delivered a recorded mini-sermon about dreaming big. VORIAN has seven on-board computers controlling 465 separate functions.

The start of the competition, which was taped for later showing on ESPN, was delayed more than 20 minutes because of long ticket lines on the stormy night.

Fans cheered and waved wildly when the program started with a parade of the Monster Trucks.

The evening marked the start of the first national-points series in both the Monster Trucks and mud racers.

There are 55 cities on the circuit. Anaheim, Houston and New York held similar shows last night.