Irwindale Speedway cancels 2012 season

Irwindale Speedway cancels 2012 season  Cars race in the NASCAR All-Star Showdown at Toyota Speedway at Irwindalelast year. (Todd Warshaw / Getty Images / January 30, 2011)

It opened 13 years ago with great fanfare, was called perhaps the best short track in minor league NASCAR racing and, on occasion, drew such star drivers as Tony Stewart and Joey Logano.

But Irwindale Speedway, which struggled in recent years with dwindling crowds and race entries, said Monday it has canceled its 2012 racing season.

The track's one-sentence announcement did not elaborate on the reasons for the cancellation, nor did it address growing speculation that the half-mile oval track next to the 605 freeway would be shuttered or sold.

Speedway General Manager Bob DeFazio did not return a call seeking comment, and track majority owner Jim Williams was not available for comment. The track's website had been taken down.

George Silbermann, NASCAR's vice president of regional and touring series, called the announcement "an obvious disappointment."

"Irwindale Speedway is a great facility that brought some tremendous racing to fans in Southern California," he said in a statement. "We wish the track the best of luck and hope racing returns in the near future."

The Irwindale track is a banked, paved oval with relatively modern fixtures and grandstands with 6,500 seats. The $10-million speedway had drawn positive reviews as a fan-friendly venue where drivers enjoyed competing. It frequently sold out in its earlier years.

In 2008, its name was changed to Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, but the track's naming rights contract with the automaker ended in December.

After the speedway's grand opening in March 1999, which was marred by the death that day of sprint-car driver Casey Diemert in a practice crash, the track mainly staged weekly Saturday night races for NASCAR's minor league series.

The track also staged annual events such as the "Turkey Night" race for midget and sprint cars on Thanksgiving; drivers for that event at times included Stewart and Kasey Kahne. Another was the Toyota All-Star Showdown that brought together top drivers in NASCAR's various developmental series.

Irwindale also was a favorite track for the sport of "drifting," in which cars slide sideways, or drift, through the corners, accompanied by plumes of tire smoke and screeching brakes.

When the speedway opened, legendary driver Parnelli Jones said the track would help fill the void left by the earlier closures of other large and small Southern California race tracks, including Riverside, Ontario, Ascot Park and Saugus.

But the economic slump of recent years, combined with the many entertainment choices available to Southern Californians, took their toll on Irwindale's attendance, track officials had said.

The same factors have helped hurt attendance at the two-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, where NASCAR's premier Sprint Cup Series will race in March.

Antron Brown favored to win top-fuel title

Antron Brown favored to win top-fuel title On Feb. 21, it will be two years since Antron Brown and Susan Zimmer never met and became joined forever. It was Brown's 200th-something National Hot Rod Assn. event, Zimmer's first.

Brown is a drag racer, one of the best on the NHRA circuit. He drives in what is known as a top-fuel dragster, the sexiest class of racing on the 23-event national circuit that begins this weekend at Fairplex in Pomona, and will end with its grand finale right back there Nov. 8-11.

The top-fuel dragster is long and skinny, with a 7,000-horsepower engine behind the driver's cockpit. The rear wheels are huge; the front pair look like your 2-year-old's training wheels. The racer brings to mind the famous column written years ago by The Times' late, great Jim Murray as a preview to an Indy 500. Murray began with: "Gentlemen, start your coffins."

Brown describes his first session in a top-fuel dragster as "mind-boggling," and adds, "There's nothing on the planet to compare to it."

He talks about G-forces as the car leaves the starting line, then more when the clutch engages about halfway through the 1,000-foot course with the car already going 250 miles an hour. They can go from zero to 100 in slightly less than one second.

"We are carrying roughly the same horsepower," he says, "as you'd have if you add up the first five rows of a side-by-side NASCAR race start."

When Brown went to the starting line on Feb. 21, 2010, in a first-round race, he was somebody to watch, already a title contender in top fuel, even though the season had just begun. He was eight days from his 34th birthday, but had been an NHRA veteran in the motorcycle division since 1998. He was a top athlete in New Jersey, even turning in a 10.2-second clocking in the 100 meters, good enough for a shot at the Olympic trials.

But he grew up watching his dad and uncle drag race on weekends, and began riding a motorcycle for NHRA events when a distant relative, former NFL cornerback Troy Vincent, started a team. Brown raced for Team 23, Vincent's NFL number, for 10 seasons before being recruited to move to top fuel.

That was an unusual move, needing a special athlete and personality. Brown was both and was immediately successful, becoming the first to win in Pro Stock Motorcycles and top fuel. That was 2008 and by the time he got to the grand finale at Pomona last year, he might have won the championship, had he not lost a second-round match to Larry Dixon.

As the season begins anew at Pomona, he is favored to win it all this year. That would give NHRA something rare in all of auto racing — a black face in the championship seat. For Brown, the hard work, team support of his crew and the simple joy of prevailing in a national-level competition resonate more than any racial milestones.

He is fond of saying, "I'm just an American."

Zimmer liked racing. She was 52, a receptionist in a dental office in Rice Lake, Wis., and on vacation in the Phoenix area to see family and friends. Two years before, she had lost her husband, a Rice Lake firefighter, to cancer.

Her boyfriend, Jim Lathrop, had been to previous NHRA events and took Zimmer along that day. She was walking near the grandstand as Brown focused on the starting lights on the pole in front of him. Races are won and careers are made in this sport by 1/1,000th of a second, and Brown's athletic quickness at moments such as this was, and still is, exceptional.

The race began in the usual explosion of ear-shattering noise and sensory-challenging blurs. One hundred miles an hour in the first second and the speed would increase 200 mph more.

Then something went wrong. Brown's car vibrated, the left rear wheel came off, his dragster got sideways on the track and flipped over and over. The huge wheel that had separated and was bouncing down the track in the same direction as the flipping car, caught up, hit Brown's car again and used it as a catapult.

The cement wall kept Brown's now fiery car from somersaulting off the track or he would not be with us today. Even then, he hit the wall at 138 mph.

"It's the worst accident I ever had," Brown says. "Somehow, I got through it. When I saw the fire, I got out as fast as I could. I realized everything was moving, that I was OK."

In the ambulance, he was told a woman had been hit by his flying tire. Zimmer had been airlifted to a hospital and died there.

In the aftermath, Brown found Lathrop and they talked.

"It was like four or five times, on the phone," Brown says. "Each time was at least 45 minutes. He helped me, I helped him."

Time passes, but doesn't heal all. Brown is in the prime of his career, pursuing a major goal. But he isn't doing it in a vacuum, certainly not as somebody who blithely puts bad things behind them. He never met Zimmer, but she is there.

"It is the kind of thing that stays with you forever," Brown says.

Jimmie Johnson expected to win 6th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title

Jimmie Johnson expected to win 6th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title  Jimmie Johnson takes his turn in front of reporters Thursday during NASCAR's media day at Daytona International Speedway. (Tom Pennington / Getty Images for NASCAR / February 16, 2012)

Despite struggling to a sixth-place finish in last year's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Jimmie Johnson was picked to win the series championship by members of NASCARMedia.com during Thursday's annual media day at Daytona International Speedway.

Johnson, a five-time Sprint Cup champion, received 147 votes in the annual preseason poll, two more than Carl Edwards. Edwards finished second in last season's championship points behind Tony Stewart, who was third in the poll, followed by Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle.

"To be honest, I'm stoked they did," Johnson said after receiving the honor. "They know racing and know how much last year will motivate us. Now, we need to go out and do our best to make them all look good."

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. received 74 points to grab the top spot among Nationwide drivers. The 24-year-old is looking to become the first repeat champion since Martin Truex Jr. in 2004-05.

Johnny Sauter barely edged out Ty Dillon, younger brother of Austin Dillon, by one vote to capture the top spot in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series poll.

Field grows for Daytona 500

The field for this year's Daytona 500 is going to be a crowded one, as several late entries bumped up the total number of drivers to 49.

Terry Labonte and Bill Elliott will join the field looking to take part in the race, which will be run at 10 a.m. PST Feb. 26 and air on Channel 11.

Thirty-five cars are already set for the field, leaving 14 drivers to battle it out for the final eight spots.

The front row will be decided by qualifying, which begins at 10 a.m. PST on Sunday.The rest of the field will be determined by two Gatorade Duel races, which take place at 10 a.m. PST on Thursday.

Thanking the right people

Even at an early age, Trevor Bayne exhibited qualities that would someday make him a good NASCAR driver.

The defending Daytona 500 winner relayed a story to the media that during a recent visit back home, he found a box of old papers from his kindergarten days and one foreshadowed his future career.

"It was from Thanksgiving and it was like, 'What am I thankful for?' " the 20-year-old said. "First thing I did was thank my sponsors, so I feel like I was born to do this."

Keselowski all a-Twitter

NASCAR continues to find new ways to embrace younger fans, and one way is with drivers using social media to interact with the public.

Keselowski is one of the drivers who fully embrace the social media lifestyle.

So much so that the 28-year-old sponsored an online contest that provided several lucky fans with a chance to have their Twitter handles featured on his No. 19 BKR RAM truck, which he will drive in the season-opening NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona on Feb. 24.

"The world has changed and social media is certainly a large part of that," Keselowski said. "And that affects the sport of NASCAR as wel

Cruz Pedregon confident of his chance against multiple-car teams

Cruz Pedregon confident of his chance against multiple-car teams  Cruz Pedregon is confident his team can put in a strong performance this week at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona. (Rusty Jarrett / Getty Images / September 17, 2010)

The multiple-car teams owned by John Force and Don Schumacher dominate drag racing's funny car class, but one-car team owner and driver Cruz Pedregon isn't about to concede an advantage.

After finishing a close third in the championship standings last year, Pedregon, 48, is confident he can win his third funny car title this season despite constantly facing the Force and Schumacher entries.

"By no means were we disappointed; we were excited" with last year's finish and consider it "a boost, no question" going into this year, he said.

Pedregon drove his Snap-On Tools Toyota to the ninth-fastest time Thursday at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona in the opening round of qualifying for the Winternationals, the season's first race in the National Hot Rod Assn.'s premier Full Throttle Series.

There are two more days of qualifying Friday and Saturday. The 16 fastest cars advance to final eliminations Sunday.

A Torrance native who now lives in Brownsburg, Ind., Pedregon and his brother Tony — who has his own one-car team — are drag racing veterans who each have two funny car titles. Tony qualified a tick faster than his brother Thursday, in eighth.

One benefit for the multiple-car teams is that their drivers and crews can share information that might give them an edge in speed. Cruz Pedregon said he hopes to bridge that gap by sharing information with his brother's team.

"We don't need to be light years better, we just need to be a little better and a little more consistent," said Cruz Pedregon, who also has a new crew chief in Lee Beard, a veteran who came from the Schumacher camp.

"We don't have the hoopla and the glamour of the four-car teams," Cruz Pedregon said, "but I like how we stack up against those guys."

Much of the preseason hoopla surrounded Courtney Force, the 23-year-old daughter of John Force. She is making her funny car debut this weekend.

She started well with the sixth-fastest run Thursday at 4.210 seconds and 303.16 mph over the 1,000-foot track.

Her 62-year-old father, a 15-time funny car champion, edged her for fifth with a run of 4.192 seconds and 302.89 mph under clear skies and temperatures in the high 70s.

Alexis DeJoria, another female driver who's garnered attention as a rookie this season, qualified 10th.

A Schumacher driver, Jack Beckman of Norco, topped the charts with a pass of 4.139 seconds and 308.14 mph. Defending funny car champion Matt Hagan, also of Schumacher's team, qualified fourth at 4.177 seconds and 307.23 mph.

In the sport's other elite division, top fuel, defending Winternationals winner Morgan Lucas was the provisional low qualifier with a run of 3.382 seconds and 320.28 mph.

Alexis DeJoria is another force to reckon with

Alexis DeJoria is another force to reckon with  This will be Alexis DeJoria's first full season in the professional nitro funny car division.

Courtney Force, a daughter of drag racing legend John Force, isn't the only funny car rookie who figures to get a lot of attention on the National Hot Rod Assn. circuit this year. There's also Alexis DeJoria, whose father is businessman John Paul DeJoria.

It would have been easy for Alexis DeJoria to have chosen to live life in the fast lane, a la Paris Hilton. Instead, she has chosen a different kind of fast lane and has been drag racing competitively since 2005.

This will be her first full season in the professional nitro funny car division.

According to Forbes magazine, her father's net worth is in excess of $4 billion. He co-founded John Paul Mitchell Systems with hairdresser friend Paul Mitchell in 1980 and among his other businesses is Patron Spirits, which is best known for its high-end tequila.

His 34-year-old daughter, a single mother of a 9-year-old girl, started out driving a super gas 1963 Corvette. Alexis DeJoria had most recently been competing in the non-professional alcohol-burning funny car division. She became not only the fastest female driver ever at that level but also the second-fastest driver, male or female.

Toward the end of last year's NHRA schedule, she joined the big boys in nitro funny car and competed at that level in four of the last five NHRA stops. By limiting herself to four competitions, she was able to retain her rookie status going into this year.

"With each race, there was significant improvement," she said. "We had some good learning experiences, got to race in difficult conditions and really jelled as a team. For us to do everything that we did in such a short period of time was phenomenal."

She had her best run in the second day of qualifying at the NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona on Nov. 11. In that run, her elapsed time for 1,000 feet was 4.158 seconds with a top speed of 306.88 mph. The NHRA distance was reduced from a quarter-mile (1,320 feet) to 1,000 feet in 2008 for safety reasons.

In the first round of the Sunday eliminations at Pomona she left the starting line a fraction too early and was disqualified.

"She gambled a bit with her reaction time, but that's all right," said Jim Oberhofer, who was then her crew chief. "I always tell drivers, 'If you're not red-lighting every now and then, you're not trying.'"

This year's 23-event calendar NHRA begins with the Winternationals at Pomona, Thursday through Sunday.

"She is by far the front-runner for rookie of the year," said funny car driver Jack Beckman.

Only one woman has ever won an NHRA national event in nitro funny car. Ashley Force Hood, an older sister of Courtney Force, won once in 2008, twice in 2009 and once in 2010. (Shirley Muldowney, another drag racing legend, raced top-fuel dragsters.)

An interesting battle between Courtney and Alexis could be brewing, with both fathers directly involved. Courtney drives for her father's racing team, as did Ashley. Alexis' father doesn't own her racing team, but Patron Spirits is her main sponsor.

Not long after finishing high school, Alexis, who was living with her mother in Venice, went to work for her father at Paul Mitchell headquarters in Beverly Hills, starting out as a receptionist.

"In drag racing, I started at the bottom," she said. "I did the same thing when I went to work for my father. I started at the bottom. I didn't want any special treatment, I just wanted to do my job and be like the rest of the people there."

She was working her way up through the company ranks when the drag-racing bug bit. She had been to the drag races in Pomona with her father as a teenager and fell in love with the sport. But this was different. She wanted to be a participant.

She used some of her own savings to attend Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School in Pomona, where Beckman served as one of her instructors and signed her first license.

Asked about the appeal of drag racing, besides the excitement of going fast, Alexis said: "There is basically no room for error. It is do or die. You get just one shot. One mistake and you're done. So many things can go wrong. But when nothing goes wrong and all the planets are aligned, it is so gratifying because of all the things you went through to get to that point." 

Courtney Force is making the climb in family business

Courtney Force is making the climb in family business  Courtney Force will try to follow in her legendary father's footsteps when she makes her NHRA Full Throttle Series debut in Pomona on Thursday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / February 1, 2012)

Drag racing has a new Force to be reckoned with.

Courtney Force, 23, the youngest daughter of drag-racing legend John Force, will make her debut in the sport's top series this weekend at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona that start Thursday.

She's driving one of the 7,000-horsepower Ford funny cars for her dad's Yorba Linda team in the National Hot Rod Assn.'s premier Full Throttle Series, where the nitro methane-fueled dragsters reach a blistering 300 mph in 1,000-foot races.

John Force Racing's other drivers are her 62-year-old father, who has won a record 15 funny car titles; Robert Hight, the 2009 funny car champion and Courtney's brother-in-law, and Mike Neff.

Courtney Force is following her sister Ashley Force Hood, 29, who in 2008 became the first woman to win an NHRA funny car event and won three more times before stepping aside last year to have a baby.

After racing in the NHRA's lower levels and spending last year practicing in her funny car, Courtney said she's ready for the pressure of being the next Force in the spotlight.

"I know that everyone is going to compare me to Ashley," Courtney said. "She's been there to tell me, 'No one can compare you to me.' She always makes me feel better about it. But I want to prove myself."

John Force, whose gregarious personality long has made him a fan favorite, said "Ashley is like her momma, Courtney is like me. Ashley is really kind of an introvert. If you shove her into a crowd, that's hard for her. Courtney thrives on it like I do."

Either way, "I want them to be respectful to the other drivers," he said. "If you win, be humble. If you lose, always tell the other guy, 'Good job.' "

Drag racing was a bittersweet environment for Courtney while growing up. "I felt like I barely knew my father," she recalled. "He was gone so much.

"I called him all the time crying, asking him, 'Please, can you just quit your job?' At that point I hated drag racing. It was tough not having my dad home, wanting him to come see my cheer[leading] competitions and my dance recitals."

Yet she also spent enough time at drag races to fall in love with the sport. She doodled pictures of dragsters in grade school and, before she was a teenager, knew she wanted to race.

Being at the tracks "wasn't just about me being with him," she said of her dad. "I loved the smell of the nitro. I just loved the whole circuit. It was my other family."

John Force also has one other racing daughter, Brittany, 25, who's also cutting her teeth as a driver in the NHRA's secondary series.

They all were tested in 2007 when John Force was badly injured in a racing crash and spent two months in the hospital. Six months earlier, another team driver, Eric Medlen, had died from injuries in a practice crash.

Force later told Ashley, Courtney and Brittany they could stop racing if they didn't feel safe.

But Courtney said "I had faith in my dad. He came back and worked with the engineers at Ford and they put together a safer race car. Obviously [a crash] can happen and I'm aware of that, but I do feel a lot safer in my car."

And when the team this year landed a new sponsor with Traxxas, a maker of radio-controlled hobby cars, Courtney got her ticket to drag racing's top level.

Courtney isn't overly superstitious but does put on her racing gear — the gloves (left glove first), helmet, fire suit and so forth — in the same order each time before climbing into the car.

She's frequently on Facebook as well as Twitter (courtneyforce), where she has more than 10,000 followers, and "I do it all myself," she said. "It's hard writing back to everybody, but I try to do my best."

As for dating, Courtney said "I don't have a boyfriend. I meet so many great guys, but it's really hard to hold down a relationship" at this point in her career. "I didn't want to be distracted."

Especially if she gets off to a poor start this season. Fans "remember where Ashley left off, but they don't remember her struggles in the beginning," Courtney said.

"I'm not Ashley," she said. "The only thing I can do is start from the ground up and try to prove myself to everybody, especially the fans. I definitely know it's going to take some time."

Tony and Don Schumacher are pushing for a safety innovation in drag racing

Tony and Don Schumacher are pushing for a safety innovation in drag racing  Clouds and smoke loom throughout the Pomona Raceway track during a blustery Saturday at the NHRA Winternationals. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / February 11, 2012)

Champion drag racer Tony Schumacher is talking about the various objects that have struck his dragster during his career.

"I've hit two birds with my front wing," he says, adding that if his head "hit a bird at 300 mph" in a race, "it's going to hurt. It could kill you."

That's one reason why Schumacher endorses the effort by his father and team owner, Don Schumacher, to make one of the most novel changes in the sport's history: Putting a canopy over the driver on top-fuel dragsters, the fastest cars in the National Hot Rod Assn.

As the NHRA's Full Throttle Series wraps up its season opener Sunday with final eliminations at the Winternationals in Pomona, the Schumachers are hopeful that the canopy will at least be on their team's cars within the next couple of months.

"Everybody should want this," Tony Schumacher said. "We believe in the safety side of it."

But the canopy has to be approved by the NHRA, and that's not going to happen overnight.

The sanctioning body first has to test the canopy car to see whether the cover provides an aerodynamic advantage and whether it would impede rescue workers' efforts to pull a driver out of a crashed car.

The canopy has a release lever in the cockpit, and outside knobs that rescue workers would grab to lift the cover.

But Glen Gray, NHRA vice president for technical operations, said "you have to look at the worst-case scenario. You have to look at the car not sitting upright, it's on its side, it's up against a wall, or the parts to release [the canopy] have been damaged and are jammed.

"If that happens, then what's our next alternative?. You may fix one perceived problem and create another problem that's much worse."

The canopy, which would be manufactured by Aerodine Composites, weighs about 25 pounds and is expected to cost roughly $15,000.

Development has been "a six-figure project," said Don Schumacher, whose earlier innovations include the roof escape hatch in NHRA funny cars. "It's taken us two years . . . to where it's more than something just cosmetic."

Don Schumacher said he "really became a proponent" of the canopy after driver Mark Niver, who raced in an NHRA second-tier series, was killed in July 2010 when his dragster crashed and the front end of his car folded back and struck the cockpit.

"People do things after someone gets hurt," Tony Schumacher said of safety innovations. Drag-racing legend Don Garlits, for instance, pioneered the rear-engine dragster still used today after he was seriously injured when his front-engine car exploded in 1970.

"There are probably some dangers to having [the canopy]," said Tony Schumacher, who tested the canopy car last month in Florida. "There are a lot more dangers to not having it."

Final qualifying

Schumacher was sixth in the last round of qualifying at Auto Club Raceway and defending Winternationals top-fuel winner Morgan Lucas took the No. 1 spot with a run of 3.783 seconds and 325.06 mph.

In funny cars, three-time Winternationals winner Robert Hight of John Force Racing jumped to the top qualifying spot with a pass of 4.060 seconds and 316.52 mph.

One last round of qualifying was scheduled Saturday afternoon but was rained out. The fastest 16 cars in each class advanced to final eliminations that start Sunday at 11 a.m.

Scary accident

Mike Austin, who drives in the NHRA's second-tier top alcohol class, escaped injury when his dragster skidded out of control and crashed during an eliminations round.

About halfway through his run, Austin's car flipped and sailed over the right-side guard wall. Austin walked away from the wreckage and was examined and released by medical personnel, the NHRA said.

John Force claims another Winternationals title

John Force claims another Winternationals title  Legendary drag racing champion John Force. (Mark J. Rebilas / US Presswire)

Judging by her debut, much-heralded rookie Courtney Force has a solid future as a driver in drag racing's elite funny car division.

After all, she's the daughter of 15-time NHRA funny car champion John Force and enjoys the reflexes and ambition befitting her 23 years of age.

But in the world of funny car drag racing, in which the cars rocket past 300 mph in a mere 1,000 feet, it was John Force who proved Sunday that there is no substitute for experience.

After Courtney was eliminated despite a strong showing all weekend, John Force went on to win his sixth NHRA Winternationals event by defeating Mike Neff, another of the drivers on Force's Yorba Linda team, in the finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.

Spencer Massey edged his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Antron Brown to win in top fuel, the other premier class in the National Hot Rod Assn.'s Full Throttle Series.

Despite his legendary career, the win Sunday was something of a comeback for the colorful Force, who struggled last year with only one victory after winning his last title in 2010.

Force praised his crew, saying "a driver has got to be good to win, but he's got to have a [strong] car. I'm a blessed man."

Force also said he was proud of Courtney, who won her first round, against Bob Tasca III. Tasca jumped in front but lost traction, suddenly slowed and Courtney swept past him.

But on a cool, overcast day, Courtney lost to Neff in a quarterfinal despite making her best pass of the weekend at 4.143 seconds at 313.88 mph.

"I am very happy with how it went," Courtney said. "Getting qualified alone was a big accomplishment. I didn't picture [getting] this far into Sunday."

Massey's win came after he had set an NHRA national top-fuel speed record for 1,000-foot races of 328.62 mph when he defeated seven-time champion Tony Schumacher in the semifinal round.

Top-fuel and funny car races were shortened to 1,000 feet from the traditional quarter mile, or 1,320 feet, as a safety move in 2008 after funny car driver Scott Kalitta was killed in a racing crash. The quarter-mile speed records in both classes had topped 330 mph.

Massey noted that he had to wait several seconds at the starting line for Schumacher to get set. With Massey's 7,000-horsepower engine burning fuel at a rapid clip, the delay made his car lighter and might have contributed to the record speed, Massey said.

Brown had defeated defending Winternationals top-fuel winner Morgan Lucas to reach the final with Massey.

"We wanted that win today, but our teammates were really good," Brown said.

Courtney Force had shared much of the pre-race attention with Alexis DeJoria, another funny car driver who competed in four races last year but is still deemed a rookie.

DeJoria lost in the first round to John Force, but she made the legend work for it, losing by only a few feet after shooting down the drag strip in 4.141 seconds at 310.27 mph.

"We ran a real solid run, he just ran a little bit better," DeJoria said. "I've been watching John Force race for years, and I've really been looking forward to racing against him."

Robert Hight, the 2009 funny car champion and fourth driver on Force's team, was a surprise loser in the first round to Todd Lesenko because Hight had arrived Sunday as the fastest qualifier.

In the pro stock division, four-time champion Greg Anderson won the Winternationals for the fifth time by defeating Jeg Coughlin, another four-time title winner, in the final.

Winternationals begin NHRA racing season Thursday at Pomona

Winternationals begin NHRA racing season Thursday at Pomona  Matt Hagan rolls through his prerace burnout before driving his DieHard Advanced Gold Dodge Charger to a 4.033-second pass en route to the No. 1 qualifying position in Funny Car racing last fall at the NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. (Marc Gewertz / NHRA / Associated Press / November 12, 2011)

Drag racing's best return to Pomona this weekend to kick off their season with the NHRA Winternationals.

In the sport's two elite divisions, top fuel and funny car, the racing is expected to be just as close as when it ended at the same track, Auto Club Raceway, last November.

Titles in both classes in the National Hot Rod Assn.'s Full Throttle Series — in which the cars reach speeds of more than 300 mph in 1,000-foot races — were decided on the final day.

Del Worsham won the top-fuel championship for the Al-Anabi Racing team over Spencer Massey, and Matt Hagan of Don Schumacher Racing captured the funny car title over teammate Jack Beckman of Norco.

Worsham, who turns 42 on Saturday, afterward retired as a driver and was replaced by rookie Khalid alBalooshi, a native of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates who had been racing Al-Anabi dragsters in the NHRA's second-tier series and internationally.

Al-Anabi, owned by Sheikh Khalid Al Thani, a member of the ruling family of Qatar, also parted ways with three-time top-fuel champion Larry Dixon and replaced him with Shawn Langdon.

Don Schumacher's other top-fuel drivers include Antron Brown, who finished third in the championship standings last year with six wins, and his son Tony Schumacher, the seven-time champion who finished a disappointing fifth in the points after a winless season.

"Every driver knows at some point there's going to be adversity, and we had it last year," said Tony Schumacher, a Canoga Park native who reeled off six of his titles in consecutive years from 2004 through 2009. "We just have to do better this year."

In funny car, the team led by 15-time champion John Force, 62, is out to capture another title after seeing one slip away in 2011.

In addition to Force himself, John Force Racing of Yorba Linda includes 2009 funny car champion Robert Hight, Mike Neff and a rookie, Force's 23-year-old daughter, Courtney Force.

Hight and Neff each won five races last season, but they finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the point standings.

"It really stung last year to not get the championship," Neff said, "so everyone's really motivated this year to try to get that back."

But they'll again have their hands full with Beckman and Cruz Pedregon of Torrance, who finished third in the funny car standings last season.

In the pro stock division, Jason Line of the Summit Racing team will open the defense of his 2011 title, which included six wins during the season.

"The Winternationals is one of the races you always look forward to, because it's the start of the new season and you can't wait to get back in the race car," Line said.

The event has three days of qualifying Thursday through Saturday, followed by final eliminations Sunday starting at 11 a.m.

james.peltz@latimes.com

Tony Schumacher is a man who would be top-fuel king, again

Tony Schumacher is a man who would be top-fuel king, again  Tony Schumacher is hoping to start the 2012 season on a fast note this weekend at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona. (Jerry Foss / Associated Press / November 13, 2009)

Tony Schumacher ruled the world of top-fuel drag racing for six years.

He was known as "The Sarge" not only for his U.S. Army sponsorship but because, in his father's words, "he looks like a soldier" with his crew cut and ramrod-straight posture. Schumacher was on top, setting every major record in the sport's fastest and most elite division.

The records included six consecutive top-fuel championships from 2004 through 2009, giving him a record seven overall, and most career top-fuel wins with 67.

Then came 2011 and . . . nothing. Not a single race win — the first time that had happened in a decade — and certainly not another title, as Schumacher finished fifth in points in the National Hot Rod Assn.'s Full Throttle Series.

"It was a devastating year," said his father and team owner, Don Schumacher. Tony's cars were competitive all season but the Canoga Park native simply couldn't prevail. It was a rude setback for someone so accustomed to winning.

"Every race I don't win eats at me," said Schumacher, 42, after Friday's second round of qualifying for this weekend's season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona. "But my [team] guys were amazing. None of us left anything on the table."

Schumacher was second fastest after Friday's qualifying following a run of 3.837 seconds at 321.42 mph at Auto Club Raceway. There's one more day of qualifying with the 16 fastest cars advancing to final eliminations Sunday.

"We've won more races than anybody in the history of the sport, but I've lost a lot more than that," Schumacher said. "The way to win championships is to be calm and cool through the adversity and come back fighting, and that's what we're doing."

Don Schumacher said he didn't make any major personnel changes during the off-season to help Tony rebound, but he did make other changes in the team's approach and preparation that he declined to identify.

"We can all point the finger at anybody and everybody," Don Schumacher said of last season. "But when it really comes down to it, it's my responsibility."

Defending Winternationals top-fuel winner Morgan Lucas remained the provisional top qualifier with his run of 3.832 seconds and 320.28 mph Thursday.

In funny cars, the NHRA's other premier series, Bob Tasca III of Hope, R.I., took over the No. 1 qualifying spot with a pass of 4.109 seconds at 309.34 mph Friday.

John Force, the 15-time funny car champion, was sixth after a pass of 4.185 seconds (300.40 mph) and rookie Alexis DeJoria was seventh with a run of 4.198 seconds (also 300.40 mph) down the 1,000-foot drag strip.

Force's daughter Courtney Force, who's making her funny car debut this weekend, was eighth after a run of 4.199 seconds (307.09 mph).

Egypt mourns soccer riot victims; thousands march in Cairo

Egypt mourns soccer riot victims; thousands march in Cairo  Egyptians gathered outside a morgue in Cairo mourn relatives killed in the soccer riot in Port Said. The violence gave rise to suspicion that loyalists of ousted President Hosni Mubarak instigated the riot. (Khalil Hamra / Associated Press / February 2, 2012)

The coffins came down the hill in an intermittent procession Thursday as families focused their rage on police and military forces for not preventing a soccer riot that left 74 people dead and heightened the lawlessness threatening Egypt's unfinished revolution.

Mothers wept and fathers railed as coffins were carried one by one from the morgue in Cairo. Sisters fainted and brothers, some with their own wounds bandaged, turned their heads as names were called and bodies, many wrapped in sheets, were collected and driven over a rutted road toward cemeteries across the city.

"I only had one child," sobbed a mother, held up by friends. "He was my only one."

Moments later, another name was called. A man's hands reached toward the sky, his knees crumpled: "My precious is gone."

Egypt's military ruler declared three days of mourning for those killed Wednesday when hooligans supporting a soccer club in the coastal city of Port Said attacked opposing fans for the Cairo team Ahly with knives, clubs and chairs. The speaker of the parliament condemned the violence as the "work of the devil."

By Thursday evening thousands of protesters had marched on the Interior Ministry in central Cairo, their flares lighting the sky. Many were hard-core Ahly fans, known as Ultras, who have been the muscle at the forefront of some antigovernment rallies. They sought vengeance, hurling stones and attempting to yank down barricades with ropes. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas across barbed wire.

"Down, down with the military!" the Ultras chanted. Nearly 400 were injured, mostly by tear gas. "Tomorrow we step on the face of the field marshal," a reference to military leader Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

A nation that has known little repose for more than a year was digging graves and dealing with another bewildering affront to the stability it craves. The Port Said governor was forced to resign and his security chief reportedly was arrested. But it was the police and military council who were vilified for incompetence, if not complicity.

"They killed my cousin and now they want to give us money as compensation for him," said Yasmin Mohamed, who waited outside the morgue with dozens of other women and girls draped in black.

Family members and politicians said the riot was instigated by security forces and thugs loyal to toppled President Hosni Mubarak, perhaps in retaliation for Ahly fans' support of the revolution that overthrew the 83-year-old leader.

"The dogs of Mubarak did this," Mohamed said.

Whether such accusations are true may never be known. But they have become part of the conspiracy narrative in a land that has grown increasingly lawless.

"This was an organized crime," Hussein Ibrahim, a lawmaker, said on the floor of the parliament. "The military wants to give us a choice between martial law or chaos. They are the ones accountable for the nation's security."

At the morgue, young men with bandages and slings sat outside waiting to collect the bodies of friends. They said the attack Wednesday appeared to have been planned. Police did not check for weapons at entrances before the game and stood by while Port Said hooligans raced across the field. Stadium doors were locked and there was no escape.

"They came at us with knives, swords and guns," Karim Hakim said. "They threw some people off the stadium walls. This is what Mubarak wanted."

"Yes," said his friend, Mohamed Khaled, "but the field marshal is involved too."

Such suspicions surfaced at a special session of the parliament as well. The newly elected chamber, dominated by Islamists, has been negotiating with the military for a transition of power in June. That relationship was strained as Muslim Brotherhood members criticized the army for its heavy-handed rule and lawmakers said Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim should face criminal charges over the soccer deaths.

"The military council lost its legitimacy today given the blood that has been shed," Mustafa Nagger said in a spirited parliament debate that tested the bounds of challenging the military.

Out on the streets, Mahmoud Moukhtar waved an Ahly flag in the sunlight. He's been a fan for 30 years, as long as Mubarak had been in power:

"The military is working for the old regime," he said. "The military doesn't want change. They want revenge on the revolution and to keep the country corrupt."

Across the Nile, in a poor neighborhood, grocery worker Ahmed Hassan walked up the narrow hill toward the morgue. He passed ambulances, medics wearing plastic gloves and the ashen faces of mothers, frozen in anguish, looking to God.

The dead and injured began arriving in the middle of the night. They returned to Cairo on trains and two army planes. Families started waiting just after dawn, when more bodies wrapped in linen, lying on stretchers or placed in coffins, were slid out of ambulances and station wagons and carried up the hill to the morgue.

"My friend's inside. He was killed. He was 51," Hassan said. "He was a carpenter and had three kids. I saw him yesterday morning. He told me he was going to see the game, but he didn't come back."

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com

Al Zohairy is a special correspondent.

Olympic bid on line as U.S. women's soccer team faces Costa Rica

Olympic bid on line as U.S. women's soccer team faces Costa Rica  U.S. midfielder Carli Lloyd celebrates after scoring her second goal against Mexico in a CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament game on Tuesday. The U.S. plays Costa Rica on Friday. (Rich Lam / Getty Images / January 24, 2012)

The U.S. women's soccer team dominated the first round of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Vancouver, Canada, outscoring its three opponents 31-0 and rolling into the semifinals undefeated.

But that won't mean anything if the U.S. does not beat Costa Rica on Friday, since the winner advances not only to the tournament final Sunday, but to the London Games this summer as well.

"We always throw those statistics out. We need to bring it," U.S. captain Christie Rampone said. "It's the semifinal, it's a major match and it's the game to determine whether we are in the Olympics or not."

Working in the Americans' favor: The U.S. has never lost an Olympic qualifying match. Nor has it lost to Costa Rica, beating the Central Americans in the semifinals of the last two tournaments.

Working against them: Team USA's memory of an upset loss to Mexico in 2009 in the semifinals of the Women's World Cup qualifier, as well as Hope Solo's pulled right quadriceps, which could sideline the world's top goalkeeper for the rest of the tournament.

"I have a bit of time to figure that out," Solo said after the team's training session Thursday on the artificial turf at BC Place. "We're just going to have to wait and see how it goes. This isn't a friendly; this isn't the Algarve Cup where you get more subs. You have three subs and you don't want to waste a sub on a goalkeeper when you need to get players minutes."

Solo was not called on much during group play, facing three shots in three games. But the U.S. may not have faced a team as strong as Costa Rica, which was second to Canada in its group.

"The biggest challenge is that they are for the most part unknown," said U.S. forward Abby Wambach, who has four goals in the tournament. "They have the ability to pull out big plays, elite plays. Because they have that ability, you can't ever fall asleep."

The U.S.-Costa Rica match is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Mexico meets Canada in the second semifinal.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

U.S. routs Canada in women's soccer Olympic qualifying final

U.S. routs Canada in women's soccer Olympic qualifying final  U.S. striker Alex Morgan (13) celebrates her goal against Canada with teammates Megan Rapinoe (15) and Lori Lindsey (16) in the first half Sunday in Vancouver, Canada. (Jonathan Hayward / Associated Press / January 29, 2012)

VANCOUVER, Canada — Now Abby Wambach has only Mia Hamm to surpass.

The veteran striker scored twice Sunday night, moving into second place on the international scoring list, and the U.S. women's soccer team beat Canada, 4-0, in the championship game of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament.

Wambach and Alex Morgan accounted for all of the goals in a game that was for bragging rights only because both teams already had wrapped up berths in the London Olympics with their semifinal victories Friday.

Wambach's head-flick provided the assist on Morgan's goal in the fourth minute, then Morgan assisted in the 24th and 28th as Wambach pushed her total to 131 goals, one ahead of longtime U.S. captain Kristine Lilly. The 31-year-old forward said last week that it's only a matter of time before she or Canada's Christine Sinclair topples Hamm's record of 158.

Wambach did not play in the second half, but Morgan did, scoring in the 56th minute.

Wambach and Sinclair started the game tied with 129 goals, but Sinclair, who had nine goals in her first four games in the tournament, found herself bottled up by defenders. The better scoring chances were left to Christina Julien, who was twice stymied point blank by goalkeeper Hope Solo in the first half.

Solo played every minute of the tournament despite a slight pull of her right quadriceps suffered before the second game. The Americans outscored their opponents by a combined 38-0 over five games.

Haitians take comfort and find hope in soccer

Haitians take comfort and find hope in soccer  Boys play soccer near the St. Rose de Lima church in Leogane earlier this month, two years after Haiti's devastating earthquake left 300,000 dead and some 1.5 million homeless. (Patrick Farrell / McClatchy-Tribune / January 4, 2012)

Two years after a deadly earthquake knocked Haiti to its knees, signs of progress can be hard to come by.

More than half a million homeless still live in squalid camps rife with violence. The cholera epidemic that ravaged the country after the disaster continues to kill. And despite the best efforts of the newly elected government, only half the rubble choking the once-teeming streets of Port-au-Prince has been cleared.

Yet amid the mind-numbing devastation, Patrice Dumont finds hope in the simple act of a young boy kicking a ball.

"Every time I feel very weak and hopeless, I get boosted by the courage of the kids playing soccer on the streets," says Dumont, Haiti's most respected soccer commentator.

And he is not alone among Haitians, many of whom find comfort in the resilience of their national pastime when comfort is otherwise hard to find.

The country lost at least 30 soccer coaches, players and administrators in the earthquake — many in the collapse of the rented three-story concrete-block building that housed the national soccer federation. Among those who perished was Yves Philogene Labaze, the popular and successful coach of Haiti's U-17 team. Two years after the quake, Dumont says, a complete list of who died in the building has not been released.

"It's painful every time we talk of what happened," says federation President Yves Jean-Bart, one of just two people to scurry safely out of the building as it collapsed. "But we're remaking everything."

To truly appreciate how far Haiti has come, however, you must first understand how far it had fallen.

In 2007, the country won its first Caribbean Cup and climbed to 66th in the FIFA world rankings, its best mark ever. Yet by last fall, 20 months after the earthquake, it was enduring an embarrassing loss to Antigua in the second round of World Cup qualifying, and many of its top players — including 22-year-old Sony Norde, who joined Argentina's Boca Juniors; La Liga veteran Frantz Bertin; and San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Jean Alexandre — had fled the country to play elsewhere.

The Haitian U-17 team, which had played well under Labaze in the previous World Cup, was humiliated by being quarantined, then expelled, from a qualifying tournament in Jamaica after a cholera scare last February. And the women's team saw its world ranking drop to 106, its worst ever, within three months of the quake.

The national soccer federation, financially strapped in the best of times, was broke. So FIFA, international soccer's governing body, set up a $3-million fund, and FIFA officials individually donated nearly $1 million more.

Thanks to such largess, the national federation's headquarters has been rebuilt, and there is a modern new national training center and a new technical center. The 54-year-old Sylvio Cator national stadium — heavily damaged by the quake and, like many stadiums around the country, later used as a refugee camp — is now the site of regular practices.

"Competition is back. The players are back training. The clubs are playing championships," says Philippe Vorbe, a midfielder on Haiti's legendary 1974 World Cup team. "But the level is very low. So it's almost starting from scratch again."

But, he continues, "we are coming back."

It's a comeback that gained momentum last week when the threadbare women's national team not only beat Cuba but also won over a city during the Olympic qualifying tournament in Vancouver. Local Canadian clubs raised money and donated uniforms, and restaurants provided free meals to the Haitians, many of whom saw snow for the first time while in Vancouver.

At the team's final game, one young fan held up a sign that read: "You inspire us, Team Haiti."

"It is satisfying that, with so many problems with materials, with financial problems, we still finished well," Jean-Bart says. "We left a good impression. Haiti is back on its feet, and we're continuing to work."

Dumont believes it will take another decade to get Haitian soccer back to where it was before the quake, pointing out that the club teams he favors, Valencia and Cavaly, still play on fields made up primarily of dirt clods. And fans must stand on the sidelines and cheer because the bleachers have yet to be rebuilt.

Yet stand — and cheer — they do because soccer is no longer just a sport in Haiti. It's a reminder that though the earthquake had the power to take lives and flatten buildings, there were other things it could not touch.

"Fortunately the quake was not strong enough to destroy our love of the game and our soul," Dumont says.

"Soccer is nearly a religion," Jean-Bart adds in Spanish during a phone call from Port-au-Prince. "Sometimes I'll read that Brazil and other countries have more passion for soccer; the people are more fanatical. I don't think there's another country in the world where there's more passion, more love for soccer.

"Soccer is everything here."

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

England coach drama worthy of soap opera

England coach drama worthy of soap opera The soap opera that is English soccer took another dramatic, if inevitable, plot twist last week when Fabio Capello resigned as coach of the national team just four months before the start of the European Championships.

The public outcry was immediate — not because the Italian-born coach was leaving early, but because he stayed too long.

"Good riddance," London's Daily Mirror said.

Arrivederci, agreed the Mirror and rival tabloid the Sun.

The Football Assn., which rules English soccer with an uncompromising iron fist, wanted Capello out so badly it couldn't even wait five months for his contract to expire, reportedly paying him $2.4 million to go away now.

So how could a marriage that started off so well end so poorly?

Much of the blame undoubtedly lies with Capello. But the high expectations and arrogance of both the FA and English fans also played a part — as did allegations of racism and overtones of xenophobia, two issues that have long plagued international soccer.

The FA hired Capello in 2007 to save a program that failed to qualify for the 2008 Euros, the last in a series of disasters for a group of players — Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, John Terry — Fleet Street had hailed as English soccer's "Golden Generation."

But the "Golden Generation" never shined under three coaches, failing to advance past the quarterfinals of any major tournament. Overall England's national team hasn't won a significant soccer crown in 46 years.

So desperate was the FA for success that it made Capello, formerly the head man at Real Madrid and Milan, the richest national team coach in the world, paying him about $10 million a year. What it didn't do, however, was require him to improve his often-indecipherable English or acknowledge even a passing interest in — or respect of — English culture.

None of that made much of a difference when Capello was winning — and in his four years with England he won two-thirds of his games, the best winning percentage for a national team coach since World War II. He had the FA's support for doing things his way, with an old-fashioned adherence to discipline, banning cellphones from the team's training camp and once dressing down forward Peter Crouch for wearing slippers in the lobby of the team hotel.

Before the 2010 World Cup, that kind of discipline was seen as a necessary evil — and, in fact, was the main reason he got the job in the first place. But when England bowed out in the tournament's second round, Capello's approach was criticized as unnecessarily evil.

The autocrat had become anachronistic.

Which is why you can find both justice in irony in the FA's decision to show Capello the door only after the noted disciplinarian had failed to show some discipline of his own.

Earlier this month the FA stripped the armband off Terry, the English captain, who will stand trial this summer over allegations of a racial slur directed at Anton Ferdinand in a Premier League game last season. (More irony: Capello had removed Terry as captain two years earlier after Terry, a married father of two, was alleged to have had an affair with the wife of a former teammate. And the man Capello replaced him with? Rio Ferdinand, Anton's brother.)

Capello was not consulted on Terry's second demotion and, rather than displaying a stiff upper lip, he voiced his displeasure through the Italian media. It led to an hourlong meeting with FA Chairman David Bernstein last Wednesday that ended with the coach's resignation, followed by a handshake.

Before Capello could get to the airport, the long knives were unsheathed and the back-stabbing began.

"Got to be English to replace him," tweeted Rooney, who at least had the grace to compliment Capello, the second foreign-born coach in national team history, as a "good guy and top coach."

Rio Ferdinand, Capello's former captain, also called for an English coach.

"We need an English manager now," he tweeted. "We don't need anything else lost in translation."

And just in case anyone missed the point, Barry Fry, a longtime soccer coach and administrator, cleared things up in his rant on Sky Sports News.

"I can't believe any Englishman wants a foreigner as manager of our country," he said. "We've had enough of these foreigners. They ain't got no passion, no commitment. All they want is the money. Englishman in charge of England."

Fry is almost certain to get his wish. Stuart Pearce, coach of the U-21 team and the British Olympic team, will take over for Capello on an interim basis, directing England in its friendly against the Netherlands later this month. On Friday, Bernstein formally began the search for a permanent replacement, with most of the speculation focusing on Tottenham Coach Harry Redknapp.

But while Pearce and Redknapp are both as English as London Bridge, Bernstein refused to make promises.

"He will not definitely be English," the FA chief said of England's next coach. "In the end we want the best person so I'm certainly not prepared to rule anything out at this stage."

And with that, the soap opera takes another turn. Redknapp, for example, didn't become a sure-fire candidate for the national team job until a jury cleared him on two charges of tax evasion after a five-year investigation. Interestingly, that verdict came in just hours before Bernstein coaxed Capello to resign.

"Well, well, well, this debacle claims yet another victim," tweeted longtime Premier League standout Joey Barton. "Where does this stop. #madness No captain and no manager. 4 months from a major championship. What's going on......."

Christmas was Mother's Day for Chivas defender

Christmas was Mother's Day for Chivas defender Chivas USA defender Jorge Villafana gains control of the ball during a game against the San Jose Earthquakes at Home Depot Center last summer. (Victor Decolongon / Getty Images / July 6, 2011)

For 22 years Jorge Flores carried his father's name but not his memory.

"I never had contact with him," the Chivas USA defender says. "I never knew him."

So three months ago he went to court and legally adopted the name of the person who raised him from birth to manhood, his mother Juanita Villafana.

"She was the one that helped me through all these years. I just decided to put her last name," the newly christened Jorge Villafana explains. "That was the main idea: to give my mom props for what she did [for] me."

For his mother, the tribute proved to be the best Christmas gift she had ever received.

"I was the happiest person in the world," says Juanita, an inspector for a textile company in Irvine. "We had never talked about the subject. And then he came to me and said his present was that he had changed his last name to mine. I was very proud and happy."

The challenge now is honoring that name, something Villafana got a quick start on this winter when he selected to the U-23 USA national team ahead of next month's Olympic qualifying tournament. It was an invitation he earned by appearing last summer in 25 Chivas USA games — 24 starts — and playing nearly 1,800 minutes, more than he had played in the previous four seasons combined.

"At a time when we were looking for players to step up and grab ahold of certain positions, he got an opportunity and showed really, really well," Chivas Coach Robin Fraser says. "And he held on to the position for most of the season. So I think you have to give him a ton of credit because a lot of guys last year got that opportunity and didn't really hold on to them."

But then making the most of an opportunity is nothing new for a guy who got his start in professional soccer on a game show. And not surprisingly, family ties had something to do with it.

In February 2007, an uncle signed Villafana up to compete in an "American Idol"-style contest on the Univision network's sports show "Republica Deportiva." The segment, dubbed "Sueno MLS" (Spanish for "MLS Dream") guaranteed the winner a tryout with Chivas USA.

At first it seemed like an impossible dream since Villafana did not receive one of the 2,000 original audition spots. But after getting permission from his stepfather to skip out on his weekend job doing maintenance at a church, Villafana was selected from among 4,000 additional applicants who had been placed on a waiting list. He then went on to win the competition.

"It was like a normal tryout. But in this case it was televised so it was kind of like a TV show," says Villafana, who still answers to the nickname "Sueno."

"Those tryouts gave me the opportunity to be on an MLS team. Every tryout you get, it's an opportunity to become a professional."

Whether he can keep the dream alive through London and this summer's Olympic Games won't be known for several weeks. Villafana must first survive the final round of cuts, which will be made sometime next month. Then the U.S. has to win a berth in the Games by reaching the semifinals in April of the eight-team CONCACAF qualifying tournament.

In the meantime, Villafana will concentrate on trying to make a name for himself with Chivas USA — even if Fraser is still having trouble remembering it.

"I called him Villafana yesterday," Fraser joked Tuesday, the morning after Villafana reported to training camp. "That's going to take some getting used to. I call him Jorge most of the time."

But, the coach added, changing your name to honor a parent is no trivial matter. And in this case it only underscores a personality trait Fraser has come to admire in Villafana.

"I have known he's a person of good character because he battled from a position deep in the roster last year to get a starting position," Fraser says. "The name change, that's a personal choice of his and I certainly respect his decision. But the actual name change in and of itself is not something that's going to make me think more highly of him.

"I already think very highly of him."

So does his mother, who now shares her Anaheim home — as well as her surname — with her only son.

"I'm his No. 1 fan," she says in Spanish.

Seems like Villafana feels the same way about her.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

England soccer coach Fabio Capello resigns

England soccer coach Fabio Capello resigns  Fabio Capello oversees a training session for England's national team last spring at London Colney. (Glyn Kirk / AFP / Getty Images / May 31, 2011)

Embattled coach Fabio Capello walked away from the English national soccer team Wednesday, leaving the program in chaos five months before the start of the European Championships.

Capello met with officials of England's Football Assn. for more than an hour Wednesday, after which the FA issued a statement confirming Capello's resignation.

The coach and the association have been locked in a bitter feud over the status of former team captain John Terry, whom the FA stripped of his leadership role for his alleged role in a racial incident during a Premier League match in October.

Terry, who plays for Chelsea, is facing a criminal trial this summer after being charged with abusing Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand.

David Bernstein, FA's general chairman, said last week that Capello's opinion was not considered in the association's decision about Terry's captaincy, a move that undermined the Italian-born coach. Capello fired back by telling Italian television Bernstein was "absolutely" wrong and, according to the U.K.'s Sky News, telling Italpress that he was "gravely offended" by the move.

"After the weekend it was clear there was going to be some conflict,'' Gareth Southgate, a former England captain and now the FA's head of elite development, told reporters.

Capello's only statement Wednesday said media reports from Italy claiming that he had criticized the FA were false.

"I haven't said anything and I won't say anything,'' he told the Italian news agency ANSA.

Capello, 65,a strict disciplinarian who has coached at Milan and Real Madrid as well as with the Italian national team, replaced Steve McClaren as England's coach after the country failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championships. Capello quickly turned the team around, going 28-8-6, the highest winning percentage of any English coach since World War II.

Yet, there were calls for his dismissal after a dismal performance in the last World Cup where England won just one of four games. His contract, which pays him more than $10 million a year, making him the highest-paid national team coach in the world, was due to expire after the European Championships. Speculation had already begun on who might be next in line.

The FA said nothing Wednesday about a possible replacement, but much was made in the British press that Capello's meeting with the FA — the first face-to-face between the sides since Terry was disciplined — started just hours after longtime Premier League coach Harry Redknapp was cleared by a British jury of tax evasion.

Redknapp, 64, who has Tottenham in contention for its first league title since 1961, has long been considered the front-runner in the race to succeed Capello.

The FA, which has scheduled a news conference for Thursday afternoon, will have to move fast because England is scheduled to meet World Cup runner-up Holland in a friendly Feb. 29 ahead of its June 11 Euro opener with France.

Striker Edson Buddle back with Galaxy

Striker Edson Buddle back with Galaxy  Striker Edson Buddle will be back on the field for the Galaxy this season. (Victor Decolongon / Getty Images / September 18, 2010)

High-scoring striker Edson Buddle is back with the Galaxy after agreeing to a deal Wednesday, only hours after being released by his German club.

Buddle scored 42 goals in 87 regular-season games over four years with the Galaxy before accepting an 18-month contract to play for Ingolstadt in the 2 Bundesliga following the 2010 Major League Soccer season. Buddle, 30, also played with the Columbus Crew, New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC before joining the Galaxy.

His best MLS season was his final one, in which he scored a career-high 17 goals and was named to the U.S. World Cup team. For his MLS career, he has 90 goals in 231 regular-season games, making him the eighth-highest scorer in league history. Terms of his new Galaxy contract were not released.

— Kevin Baxter

PRO FOOTBALL

Raiders hire Knapp as offensive coordinator

Oakland Raiders Coach Dennis Allen made the first hire for his new staff, bringing back Greg Knapp as the team's offensive coordinator.

Knapp spent the last two seasons as quarterbacks coach in Houston but was coordinator in Oakland under Lane Kiffin and Tom Cable in 2007-08.

Knapp has 17 years of experience as an NFL assistant, including stints as a coordinator in San Francisco, Atlanta, Oakland and Seattle. He helped the Texans make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in 2011 despite losing starting quarterback Matt Schaub to a season-ending foot injury after 10 games.

ETC.

Sparks get Coleman from Washington

The Sparks acquired guard/forward Marissa Coleman from the Washington Mystics in exchange for guard Noelle Quinn, the team announced.

Coleman, who was drafted No. 2 overall by the Mystics in 2009, has averaged 7.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists over her three-year WNBA career.

Quinn, a former UCLA player who was selected fourth overall by the Minnesota Lynx in 2007, played for the Sparks from 2009 to 2011, averaging 7.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists.

—Melissa Rohlin

The Daytona 500 will offer a record purse of more than $19 million, and the winner of NASCAR's biggest race is guaranteed a minimum of $1.4 million.

Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway also announced a $200,000 bonus for the driver leading at the halfway point of the race, scheduled for Feb. 26.

The Daytona 500 Mid-Race Leader Award will not be automatically awarded if the race is under caution at Lap 100. The bonus will then be rolled over and paid to the driver leading the race at the completion of the fifth consecutive green flag lap following the caution.

===

Reliever Francisco Cordero and the Toronto Blue Jays finalized a $4.5-million, one-year contract.

The 36-year-old right-hander was 5-3 with a 2.45 earned-run average and 37 saves in 43 chances for Cincinnati last season, reaching 30 saves for the seventh time. He held batters to a .198 average, the lowest of his career.

Cordero, a three-time All-Star, has a 44-45 record with a 3.17 ERA and 327 saves, 12th on the career list. He is expected to fill the setup role for closer Sergio Santos, acquired in December from the Chicago White Sox.

===

Charlie Spoonhour, the popular, homespun coach who took St. Louis to three NCAA tournaments behind a prolific offense, died in Chapel Hill, N.C., after battling a lung disease. He was 72.

Spoonhour, who also coached at Missouri State and Nevada Las Vegas, died Wednesday, said Chuck Harker, the funeral director at Walker's Funeral Home in Chapel Hill. Spoonhour learned in 2010 that he had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which required a transplant at Duke University Medical Center in nearby Durham, N.C.

In 19 seasons as a Division I head coach, Spoonhour was 373-202.

Juergen Klinsmann puts U.S. soccer on fast track

Juergen Klinsmann puts U.S. soccer on fast track  U.S. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann looks on during a friendly match against Venezuela at University of Phoenix Stadium on Saturday. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

Reporting from Glendale, Ariz. -- Hey, America, Juergen Klinsmann has a message for you: You've fallen behind the rest of the world in soccer.

Way behind.

"Oh, yeah," he says, sighing. "There is still a lot of catching up to do."

And the only way to do that, he says, is to move fast. Really, really fast. So earlier this month Klinsmann opened his first winter camp as coach of the U.S. national team with an eight-day stay at a state-of-the-art training facility in Phoenix, where players had their blood analyzed, their aerobic capacity measured, their strength tested and their eating habits digested — but rarely saw a soccer ball.

It's an admittedly European approach in which training days, part laboratory and part labor, last as long as 13 hours and encompass as many as three exhausting workouts. Yet it's one Klinsmann hopes will fundamentally redefine the way Americans play the game.

"We've had some pretty long days," Chivas USA defender Heath Pearce said. "It's all about trying to get game fitness. We're going to have heavy legs along the way, but we keep a perspective of what we're preparing for."

That, of course, would be World Cup qualifying, which begins in June — less than a year after Klinsmann was named to replace Bob Bradley as coach of the U.S. team. And that's another reason why he has everyone moving so fast.

"This is a different level," Klinsmann says of the international game. "Everything is done much faster. Not only do you have to make decisions fast, [you] have to think ahead. This is especially difficult for players here, where they come from a background where a lot of the next moves are being told to them. 'Oh, you pass here, pass there.'

"It's not working. The moment you go to a higher level you've got to think ahead. You've got to move into the space before the ball comes."

A high-scoring striker who won a World Cup and a European championship with Germany before coaching the country into the World Cup semifinals in 2006, the well-traveled Klinsmann wants to model the U.S. team after those he coached and played for in Europe. That means changing a philosophy often criticized as conservative and reactive for a fast, aggressive, freewheeling approach that pushes the action.

"Juergen definitely wants us to put more pressure, more emphasis in establishing our own style, our own speed," says midfielder Benny Feilhaber, the most experienced player in camp with 39 international caps. "There [are] big differences. It takes a lot of fitness. It takes being smart — knowing when to hold back because no team's going to be able to pressure for 90 minutes straight."

And those qualities — assertiveness, creativity, intelligence — also describe the national character, Feilhaber says.

"That's the American way: to be proactive and to go out and get what you want and make something for yourself," he says. "I think that's what [Klinsmann] is trying to get through."

He isn't relying solely on Americans to establish that American approach, though. Four of the 21 players in camp this month — including Feilhaber, a native of Brazil — were born outside the country. So were all three of his assistant coaches.

But then the U.S. is a nation of immigrants. So why can't it have a soccer team of immigrants — both in terms of birthplace and style of play? Call it an American revolution of sorts.

"It represents America in a global picture," says Klinsmann, who emigrated to the U.S. with his Chinese American wife, Debbie, in 1998. "It's really fun to see that because it gives a new dimension to our team. The style of play will reflect all the different elements that the players bring. But you've got to mold this whole thing."

That will take time. Which is why Klinsmann is also preaching a very un-American trait.

Patience.

Although he has won everywhere he has coached, Klinsmann is 3-4-1 after Saturday's 1-0 stoppage-time win over Venezuela — with just two more exhibitions scheduled before World Cup qualifying begins. That's probably not a fair measure, however, since 18 of the 21 players the U.S. brought to camp play in MLS, a league Klinsmann considers far below the English Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga and Italy's Serie A.

By June they'll be replaced by the likes of Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley, who all are playing in Europe this winter.

"We are in a transition period," says Klinsmann, whose philosophy may nonetheless be taking root since the U.S. is riding a two-match win streak. "My only chance to kind of make that transition is every day I have them force that issue. Because one day we want to play with the best in the world.

"Do I want to win every game? Absolutely. But I also know that . . . I need to change their mental approach. I need to change their physical strength. I need to change their way of thinking. It's a lot of stuff."

kevin.baxter@latimes.com