Celebrity sons take bumpy rides

MALIBU, Calif. - They bear surnames famous in film and pop music: Gable and Darin. But all the fame and fortune didn't assure them success over the bumpy trails winding down the Baja California peninsula.

John Clark Gable and Dodd Darin were just another team to beat across the finish line at the Baja 500 off-road race.

Childhood friends Gable, son of screen legend Clark Gable, and Darin, son of '50s teen music idol Bobby Darin and actress Sandra Dee, teamed up to drive a truck in the grueling off-road race starting and ending in Ensenada, Mexico.

When Gable and Darin hopped into their pickup to compete, they might as well have been named Smith and Jones.

"Money, names, connections don't matter when you're in the race," Darin, 38, said. "There's no talking or kibitzing once it starts. You don't get a pass."

Darin's father was born Walden Robert Cassotto, in the Bronx. Darin died in 1973 after heart surgery. Dodd was 12 and spent the night at the Gables' home.

"My father was someone who never forgot where he came from," Darin said. "He was someone who taught me sound values. Sure, I was a celebrity kid, but he made sure I saw where he grew up and how he hustled in night clubs for food.

"I may have had a privileged upbringing, but he taught me how to be a caring human being. My father was real, sincere, honest. Show biz can jade that, but not him. That's what he passed on to me."

Clark Gable played a race car driver in "To Please a Lady" in 1950. He starred in nearly 100 films, garnering best actor Oscars for "Gone with the Wind," "Mutiny on the Bounty," and "It Happened One Night."

John Clark Gable was born about four months after his father's Nov. 16, 1960, death.

"My mom never told me that he liked racing so much. I know she wanted me to be a heart surgeon or something," said Gable, 39. "My dad rode his Triumph (motorcycle) in the dirt back in the days when there wasn't even such a thing as a dirt bike."

Gable, who began riding motocross bikes on the Gable Ranch in Encino when he was 5, had attracted Yamaha as a racing sponsor by the time he was 11. In his 20s, Gable began racing off-road trucks, placing as high as second in the 1992 Baja 1000. Gable, who is NASCAR and Formula Ford certified, won his first open wheel race at the USAC Russell Circuit, Laguna Seca, on Father's Day 1993.

"Because of my father's legacy, I'll always have a few irons in the fire in the movie industry, but my true love is racing," Gable said. "If I end up doing a few films to sponsor myself, then I'll do it that way. I've got the driving talent to race professionally and I have the desire. I will race. I have to. It's what I live for."

John Clark Gable's filmography is short: "Clark Gable: Tall, Dark and Handsome" (1996); "A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story" (1994); "Bad Jim" (1990); and he was done some work as a screen stunt driver.

Although Gable and Darin have been best buddies since kindergarten, this was their first ride together - in a relatively comfortable Ford F150 in the Trophy Truck class. Darin's father participated in the motocross circuit and drove go-carts, but the June 3 race was the son's first off-road auto experience.

Unlike Gable, Darin has concentrated on the family's business, music licensing. And in 1994, with his mother's help, he wrote: "Dream Lovers, The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee."

Darin is working on turning the book into a feature film about the lives of Bobby Darin, who won a Grammy for "Mack the Knife," and Dee, the original "Gidget."

Hollywood backgrounds aside, Darin and Gable had the gritty experience of a bone-jarring, 441.6-mile ride around the Baja peninsula. The pair was in truck No. 99, which Gable picked because it was the jersey number of hockey great Wayne Gretzky.

The first-time team did not finish the race due to long hours put in replacing a steering box and shredded right rear tire and rim. Their chase team also broke down and was unable to help in the repairs. Gable and Darin took 19 hours to traverse a course that usually takes about 9 1/2 hours to complete, crossing the finish line covered with dust before dawn the day after the race.

"My mom tried to discourage me from racing but I just knew it was in my blood. It's in his too," Gable said of his 11-year-old son, Clark. "Even though I never knew my dad, speed and racing are things we will always have in common."