MOTOR RACING / LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX : Ordinary People Are Driving This Week, Too

The Unsers, the Andrettis and the other Indy car drivers get most of the headlines at an event such as this weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, but in the supporting cast are a number of intriguing individuals looking for an opportunity to move up the racing ladder, or at least satisfy their urge to go fast.

Don Knowles, a deputy undersecretary of the Department of the Interior from Springfield, Va., will drive a Dodge Daytona in the International Motor Sports Assn. GTU race Saturday.

Cheryl Glass, a Seattle woman who aspires to become the first black woman to drive in the Indianapolis 500, will be in the Firestone Indy Lights race, a steppingstone to Indy cars, on Sunday.

Bill Pratt, a trial attorney from Los Angeles, will drive his Formula Atlantic car in the crowd-chaser Toyota Atlantic race Sunday afternoon.

Marsha Mason, a Broadway and movie star who became so captivated with racing that she and a friend formed their own team, will drive a Celica Liftback in the pro-celebrity race Saturday.

“Auto racing sounds like a strange hobby to my friends,” Knowles, 42, said. “I like both elements of my life, although there are no similarities. In Washington I am a team member who is never in charge. In a race car, although I am still a member of a team, I am in control in the car.”

Knowles has been racing since 1972 and has won numerous sports car championships, including the Longest Day at Nelson Ledges, a 24-hour race, and the 1989 Escort Endurance championship. Before becoming a deputy undersecretary, Knowles was a staff member of the U.S. Senate committee on appropriations.

“You need persistence in racing and persistence in solving management conflicts, but I like to leave the hectic world of politics behind on race day and go to the track and get all the algae off the bottom of the boat,” he said.

Glass, 29, was once considered one of the hottest sprint car prospects in the country after she won the track championship at Skagit Raceway in Washington at 18 and headed into the World of Outlaws. Her career almost ended in 1980, however, when she crashed during the Western World sprint car championships in Phoenix and went end-over-end four times. Four operations later on her face and knees and she was back racing.

“Once I realized I was still alive, after all the bouncing around, I never doubted I would drive again,” she said.

In 1985 she went to the Coliseum to drive a truck in one of Mickey Thompson’s off-road races, and said she expected to be ready for Indianapolis by 1987. But while practicing with the truck, she crashed again and severely bruised her chest.

The accident detoured her Indy plans, but her father, Marvin, bought a Penske PC-6 Indy car for Cheryl to practice with at Seattle International Raceway. Last year, she resumed her dream and entered the final two races in the American Racing Series, which this year has been renamed Indy Lights.

“Our goals are to qualify for all 12 events, finish in the top five in points and win rookie-of-the-year honors,” Glass said.

Pratt, like Knowles, looks at racing as an outlet for his busy daily lifestyle.

“People ask me why I race when it’s so dangerous, and I tell them it’s sometimes more dangerous driving on the Hollywood Freeway,” Pratt said. “For me, racing is the exhilaration of taking a car to its mechanical limits and pushing my own physical limits. It’s a tremendous challenge, and I thrive on challenges.”

Like Cheryl Glass, he has the ultimate racer’s dream.

“I want to compete in the Indy 500,” he said. “It’s the Super Bowl of auto racing.”

Marsha Mason has no such aspirations. She is satisfied to drive her Mazda in the Sports Car Club of America’s GT-3 class in amateur races. Her racing career began only three years ago when she attended Bob Bondurant’s racing school at Sears Point Raceway and a year later she and race driver Marc Staenberg formed their own team.

“Racing is one of the two great challenges in life,” she said. “The other one is marriage.”

Practice and qualifying for all classes will start today at 8:15 a.m. and will continue until 5:30 p.m.