Pro's Choice: Motorcycle Racer Sides With Safety

WERA Pacific Nationals

-- What: Race No. 4 of the Western-Eastern Road Racing Association series. -- Where: Seattle International Raceway (a 2.25-mile course), east of Kent. -- Tomorrow: 9-10:30 a.m. - practice for all classes; 11:30 a.m. - 600cc superstock race; 12:30-4:30 p.m. - four-hour endurance race. -- Sunday: 9-10 a.m. - practice; 12:30-5 p.m. - races for Formula USA, Formula II, 750cc and 1100 cc superstocks and future stars.

Because Joe Pittman of Oak Harbor knows all about the dangers associated with riding a motorcycle - on-coming cars, curbs, fire hydrants - you won't find him riding a two-wheeler on a public roadway this weekend.

But you will find him racing an exotic, high-powered Yamaha at more than 100 mph at Seattle International Raceway.

"I don't say it's not dangerous," Pittman, 28, said of motorcycle road-racing. "I just feel safer doing it than riding on the street. It's not like I'm saying you can't get hurt racing. But if I'm going to get hurt, I'd rather it happen when I'm doing something I like rather than get hit by a drunk driver or something."

Pittman is one of several Puget Sound-area riders who will compete in a Western-Eastern Road Racing Association event at SIR. He will ride a Yamaha in two classes - Formula USA for highly modified bikes and Formula II.

He probably would be the first to acknowledge that he is not favored to win either class, although he is considered the top local hope. Rather, he hopes to improve his best finish of the season, a fifth in Formula USA at Shannonville, Ontario, en route to improving his standard of living.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm trying to more or less break even."

Pittman quit his job as a parts-department manager for an automobile dealer in Oak Harbor to concentrate full time on the WERA and American Motorcycle Association road-racing circuits.

Notes

-- Racers on the NASCAR Northwest Tour will make the first of two stops at Wenatchee Valley Raceway, East Wenatchee, tomorrow night (8 p.m., 125 laps, quarter-mile paved oval).

-- The NASCAR Winston West points race tightened considerably when Rick Carelli of Denver didn't finish Sunday's Winston Cup Series race at Sears Point in Sonoma, Calif. Carelli, winner of the first two Winston West races, saw his 40-point lead dwindle to 12 over Bill Schmitt of Redding, Calif., and Bill Sedgwick of Granada Hills, Calif., going into a race tomorrow night at Shasta Speedway in Northern California.

-- There probably was a time when a race-car driver would have been the last person sought to endorse a highway safety campaign. But as Derrike Cope has proved, times have changed. Cope, the Winston Cup driver from Spanaway, has been named an honorary Kansas Highway Patrol trooper for participating in a state-wide campaign encouraging seat-belt use.

-- Tickets for the Portland 200 Indy-car race June 21 at Portland International Raceway are on sale in the Seattle area at TicketMaster outlets. A new 2,250-seat grandstand has been installed on the infield side of the track. Seats are being called "the best in the house" and priced accordingly - $90 for three days in the lower five rows, $150 for three days in the upper 20 rows.