Racing Association

ON ANY GIVEN weekend and on many warm summer weeknights on the Chesapeake Bay, white sails appear to float atop the water, pulling dozens, sometimes hundreds, of hulls around courses marked by bright orange buoys. These sailboat races are most often sponsored and produced by local yacht clubs. Some are more formal than others. The West River Catamaran Racing Association (WRCRA) based in Galesville in South Anne Arundel County is decidedly on the less formal - but no less competitive - side of racing.

As Baltimore County planners prepare for a crucial hearing on the proposed Eastside NASCAR speedway, members of a community association in White Marsh voted against the planned $100 million raceway last night.After Adam Paul, president of the White Marsh Civic Association, one of the area's largest community groups, called for a secret ballot at a packed church hall meeting, members voted 37-1 against the track.The meeting was punctuated by heated exchanges between residents and the lawyer for the raceway, John B. Gontrum.

When the management team at Timonium Race Course held a news conference Friday to announce that the State Fair is staying at its York Road location and that it will pour money into making improvements, Gerry Brewster, a member of the House of Delegates from Baltimore County's 9th District, was a noticeable presence.Brewster is not only a member of the Fair's board of directors, h is on the planning, racing and executive committees and is no doubt being groomed to succeed F. Grove Miller as a future Timonium president.

Image is everythingTHE developers planning to build a 54,800-seat auto race track west of Fort Meade are trying to construct an image as much as a sports arena.After being driven out of Baltimore County by residents who found the proposal obnoxious, the Middle River Racing Association has been trying to convince Anne Arundel County that stock-car races are a sophisticated, even high-brow form of entertainment.Forget the roar of engines, the squeal of tires, the beery hoots and grandstands fuzzy with mustaches.

The Naval Academy's Robert Crown Sailing Center and the waters of the bay near the mouth of the Severn River were filled with a slightly younger-than-usual crowd of sailors last weekend.More than 110 top high-school-age competitors from across the country convened for the annual Mallory and Cressy Trophy competition, the national championships for high school sailors under the auspices of the Interscholastic Yacht Racing Association.To earn one of the 20 slots competing for the Mallory, the teams had to do well their regional sail-offs.

Families, spectators and power-boat race enthusiasts can join the Kent Narrows Racing Association this weekend to watch powerboats race more than 100 mph at the 17th annual Thunder on the Narrows races at the Kent Island Yacht Club. "It's flat-out fun; I tell people it's the most fun you can have with your clothes on," said Wheeler Baker, the race director. Attendees can watch more than 50 boats whizzing past at high speeds. The fastest boats go about 140 mph, Baker said. According to Baker, the event usually draws a crowd of more than 1,000 spectators.

BaseballAtlanta Braves -- Agreed to terms with OF Mike Kelly, P Darrell May, P Chris Seelbach and C Joe Ayrault on one-year contracts.Boston Red Sox -- Agreed to terms with P Derek Lilliquist on a minor-league contract. Claimed OF Troy O'Leary off waivers from the Milwaukee Brewers. Designated IF Bill Selby for assignment. Agreed to terms with IF Steve Rodriguez and OF Glenn Murray on one-year contracts.California Angels -- Agreed to terms with P Jeff Schmidt, P Bill Simas, P Shad Williams, P Mark Ratekin, IF Damion Easley, IF Rod Correia, OF Jim Edmonds and OF Garret Anderson on one-year contracts.

D. Wayne Lukas vs. a bunch of long shots.Sound familiar? That's been the theme of Triple Crown '95, and the Belmont Stakes on Saturday figures to be more of the same.However, the New York Racing Association has corraled a new prospect, the Irish colt Off'N'Away, to take on Lukas' dynamic duo of Timber Country and Thunder Gulch in the Triple Crown's final leg.European-trained runners seem to have a special affinity for the Belmont Stakes. In the last six years, three of a half-dozen European invaders have hit the board, including Off'N'Away's brother, Go And Go, who crushed Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled and others when he won by 8 1/2 lengths over Thirty Six Red in 1990.

Calling all beach cat sailors: there's great news for a long overlooked group of recreational sailors here on the Chesapeake, thanks to the Catamaran Racing Association of the Chesapeake.This group, which initiated the 150-mile Bridge-to-Bridge Race, from Annapolis to Virginia Beach (Bay Bridge to Bridge Tunnel), has been hard at work and recently announced a 1994 schedule with plenty of things to do, from tune-ups and clinics to distance races and round-the-buoys regattas.Also new this year, the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association has sanctioned a new catamaran class for cat sailors who want to compete for an annual high point award.

They come not to cut grass, but to race on it.With names like "The Turfinator," "The Lawn Ranger" and "Shake, Rattle and Mow," they will be rumbling around a Harford County airport tomorrow, competing for bragging rights, not money. The winner gets a trophy and the chance to compete next year in the national lawn mower race in Chicago.Tomorrow's race is the last of 12 regional lawn mower races this year sanctioned by the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association and sponsored by STA-BIL, a gas treatment for small engines.