ADDING A CO-DRIVER

By Ron Kantowski

Monday, Feb. 25, 2008 | 2 a.m.

If you were responsible for making NASCAR more interesting for say, a guy from Brooklyn or Queens, or Jack Hanna, Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and star of late night television, one idea you might consider is adding monkeys to the cars as co-drivers.

But it won’t work. At least it didn’t in 1953.

Well, actually, it worked for a while for Tim Flock, who a month before his death in 1998 was named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers.

On May 15, 1953, Flock and his co-pilot, a rhesus monkey, teamed up to win a Grand National Race at Hickory, N.C.

Jocko Flocko, which is what Flock called his racing sidekick, thus became the first and only monkey to win a race in NASCAR’s top division. That is, if you don’t count Tony Stewart.

But Jocko’s career would last only one more race.

Two weeks later, at the Raleigh 300, the monkey got loose from the special seat on the dashboard Flock had made for him and started running around the floorboard. He pulled on a cable, opening a trap door that the drivers of that era used to check tire wear. When he did, a rock from the track hit him right between the eyes.

Jocko went berserk. He jumped on Flock’s neck and started clawing at him, sort of like what like Stewart does every time Kurt Busch cuts him off heading into turn one, only without the scratching his armpits part.

“Listen, it was hard enough to drive those heavy old cars back then under normal circumstances, but with a crazed monkey clawing you at the same time, it becomes nearly impossible,” Flock said on his Web site before he died. “I had to come into the pits to put him out and ended up third. The pit stop cost me second place and $600.”

That was Jocko’s last race.

But you know where this story ends, where it absolutely has to end, because failure to do so would result in a visit to the NASCAR hauler and a heavy fine.

“I had to get that monkey off my back,” Flock said.

THIS WEEK’S BEST BET

UAW-Dodge 400, 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

See Dale Earnhardt Jr. pass on the high side. See Jeff Gordon pass on the low side. See Tony Stewart punch Kurt Busch. See Cole Trickle hit the pace car. Well, Cole Trickle won’t be hitting the pace car, because he’s making babies with Katie Holmes. But you get the idea.

TICKETS: Weekend tickets, $117-up.

ON THE WEB: www.lvms.com

ALSO WORTH A LOOK

San Diego State at UNLV, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Thomas & Mack Center.

Call it the My Way or The Highway rematch. Between them, Aztecs coach Steve Fisher and Rebels counterpart Lon Kruger have kicked five players off their teams this year.

TICKETS: $28, $12.

ON THE WEB: www.unlvtickets.com.