RODEO TO RACE CARS.

Byline: Tim Haddock Auto Racing

Jerry Cain has gone from rodeo king to Spec-Truck series champ. Now his goal is winning a NASCAR Winston West Series race.

The 42-year-old Canyon Country resident will start his third season of Winston West competition with the season opener at Phoenix International Raceway on March 18. But he is on the fence about whether he will complete a full season. He is committed to the first four events on the 12-race schedule. How he performs in those events will determine if he stays with the series or focuses full time on the Super Late Model division at Irwindale Speedway.

Cain has tasted success in the Super Late Models at Irwindale Speedway, having finished third in all three races he entered at the half-mile oval last season. He said he would have won the last Super Late Model race he entered if it weren't for a battery that died on him during the race's final lap.

Having started his auto racing career seven years ago in the Sportsman class at Saugus Speedway, Cain is almost a newcomer to the sport but not to competing. While at Taft High in Bakersfield, Cain won the 1975 California high school rodeo championship. When he turned 15, Cain started his career in pro rodeo and competed in about 130 events before calling it quits.

His two best events were team roping and bull riding, although he quickly admits bull riding isn't the smartest event in which to excel.

``I didn't even like to ride bulls,'' Cain said. ``I was just good at it. I started riding calves, then steers and cows. They were no big deal. But riding a bull is like stepping in front of a train. You don't get hurt, you could get killed.''

After his rodeo career ended, Cain turned his attention to Sea-Doo and jet ski racing. He became such an adept watercraft racer that he won an amateur title in 1991. But in 1993, after racing one of his friend's stock cars at Saugus Speedway, Cain sold all of his Sea-Doos and jet skis and bought a Chevy Monte Carlo to race regularly at Saugus Speedway.

``Lee Ladd introduced me to the sport,'' Cain said. ``If I could turn back the clock, I would have started racing stock cars instead of starting in rodeo.''

He remembers the night he finally broke through and won a Sportsman trophy dash race at Saugus Speedway, the last night of racing before the Santa Clarita track shut down at midseason, ending his rookie campaign.

Cain won a Spec-Truck championship in 1997, racing on the touring series at The Orange Show in San Bernardino and at tracks in El Cajon and Lake Havasu among others throughout Southern California. For the past two years, Cain has focused mainly on stock car racing, on the Winston West Series and in the Super Late Model division at Irwindale Speedway.

Cain had four Monte Carlos for racing on the Winston West Series last season. But he has decided to scale his operation down to two cars for 2000. He still has a Super Late Model class Monte Carlo and he plans on racing in selected Featherlite Southwest Series races.

``With only 12 races, it really gives you a chance to heal,'' Cain said. ``But if you only raced on the Winston West Series, it would be disappointing. It's too short. For us though, it's OK.''

Among the races Cain is looking forward to is the Laguna Seca Raceway event in Monterey on May 21, the fifth race on the Winston West schedule.

``I've never been there,'' Cain said. ``I can't wait to drive the corkscrew. But I am going to miss Sears Point (Raceway in Sonoma). I really wish we could go back.''

Cain started 11 races on the Winston West Series in 1999. He had two 11th-place finishes, his season bests. The first came at The Orleans 150 at Las Vegas Motorspeedway on March 5 and the second at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash., on July 18.

Another area driver who will be returning to Winston West Series action is Bill Sedgwick of Acton. Sedgwick won one race last season, the Grainger Industrial 200 at Portland Speedway in Portland, Ore. Sedgwick started 12 races in 1999. In addition to his one victory, he had eight top-10 and six top-five finishes.

--Purse set: Irwindale Speedway has announced that the opening-night purse for the NASCAR Super Late Model event on March 18 will be $15,000, with $3,000 going to the race winner.

The track will also offer $100 for the fastest time and $100 for the trophy-dash winner. The second-place main-event finisher in the 100-lap race will receive $1,500 and the third-place finisher will win $1,000.

--A Goody's result: A couple of area drivers raced in the Goody's Dash Series NASCAR touring truck event Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. Mike Wallace, a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular, won the Discount Auto Parts 200. Lance Hooper of Palmdale was 17th in a field of 52 cars. Rick Ware of Los Angeles was 44th.

--Front-row seat: Palmdale native and NASCAR Busch Grand National Series rookie Ron Hornaday Jr. will start on the front row for Saturday's NAPA Auto Parts 300 at Daytona International Speedway.

Hornaday had the second-best speed of the day, 187.289 mph, and will start his No. 3 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet outside row one next to pole winner Hut Stricklin.