Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Stocks Open 28th Season at Saugus

Saugus Speedway, the oldest auto racing facility in the West, will begin its 28th consecutive season of stock car racing Saturday night with a 150-lap factory stock enduro--sometimes called the Freeway 150--and a destruction derby.

A starting field of 90 cars is anticipated for the 150, with a three-abreast lineup clogging Saugus’ flat, one-third mile paved oval. It may not be the best stock car racing since Tony Coldeway formed the old Pacific Racing Assn. in 1959, but it’s certainly the closest thing to the afternoon rush hour.

Coldeway held his first race, for United Racing Assn. midget cars, on May 9, 1959. It was not a smashing success. Only 984 spectators showed up. A week later, Coldeway tried NASCAR convertibles. The crowd dropped to 429.

The following week, he tried claimer stocks. Only 534 spectators showed up. Even worse, only 23 cars were there.

Coldeway persisted, though, and by the 10th event of the season, the crowds were averaging 1,000 and there were nearly 100 cars available for the weekly show.

Ben Thomas of Canoga Park won four main events and the season championship in an Oldsmobile, then repeated the next season. Since then, the roster of Saugus champions includes such crowd pleasers as Roarin’ Oren Prosser, who won five times between 1964 and 1972; Eddie Gray, Jimmy Insolo, Jim Thirkettle, Jim Robinson, Dan Press, Tru Cheek, Roman Calczynski and the current two-time champion, Ken Sapper.

There were races at Saugus long before 1959, however. The stadium, originally built in 1924 by Roy Baker, brother of shoe magnate C. H. Baker, for rodeos and Wild West shows, was converted to a race track in 1939 by William Bonelli, who renamed it Bonelli Stadium.

Until the track was closed for World War II, it was a regular stop for Indianapolis 500 drivers such as Bill Vukovich, Jack McGrath, Mel Hansen and Johnnie Parsons driving roadsters and midget cars. Bonelli Stadium was the site of the West Coast’s first postwar race, Sept. 9, 1945, won by Vukovich.

The stadium’s dirt track was paved in 1946, but the paving was soon torn out. Midget racers were the big attraction during the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, and they were more fun on dirt. In 1950, when Gilmore Stadium was closed, some of its seating was taken to Saugus for the backstretch. The track was paved for a second time in 1956 and it remains asphalt.

When Coldeway took over from Bonelli, the name was changed to Saugus Speedway. The late Marshall Wilkings took control of the facility in 1973 and formed the Olimpic Racing Assn., which still conducts racing at Saugus under the presidency of Wilkings’ son, Ray.

Several changes have been made for this season.

The sportsman division will be sanctioned by NASCAR with a schedule of 19 races, starting April 5. Among the sportsman drivers is 69-year-old Gabby Garrison, who last year was voted most popular driver. Garrison is a charter member of the PRA and finished sixth in points in 1959.

Other Saugus Speedway divisions, the modifieds, street stocks, Figure 8s, hobby stocks, factory stocks and destruction derby, will continue to compete under the Olimpic Racing Assn. banner. Opening night for the regular Saturday night program will be April 5.

A new 13-race series for NASCAR Southwest tour cars will debut at Saugus March 29 with a 100-lap race.

SPRINT CARS--Rained out last week, the California Racing Assn. will try again Saturday to open its night racing season at Ascot Park with a 30-lap main event. Defending CRA champion Eddie Wirth will campaign Kathy Lewis’ No. 91 car through May, then go back to his Wirth-Davis Racing, Inc., No. 77. Lewis’ car won the CRA opener at El Centro with Ricky Hood driving. Wirth is not driving his own sprint car early in the year because it is being converted to a winged car so that it can be driven in selected World of Outlaw races later in the year. . . . The Spring Nationals, rained out March 7-8 at Baylands Raceway Park, near San Jose, have been rescheduled for March 28-29.

STOCK CARS--The Curb Motorsports NASCAR Winston series will open Sunday night at Ascot Park with races for pro stock, street stock and Figure 8 machines. Don Wright Jr., defending pro stock track champion, will be challenged by runner-up Jerry Johnson, 1984 champion Ray Burns, Rich Wolfe and Monte (Splinter) Norwood. Three-time street stock champion Steve Smith will be back looking for four in a row and David Doll will defend his Figure 8 crown.

MOTOCROSS--CMC racing will commence Friday night at Ascot Park. It will be a tuneup for the 10-race U.S. Suzuki Spring series starting April 4 at Ascot. The series will end May 4 at Otay, Mexico, on the campus of the University of Baja. Motos will also be held at Sunrise Park in Adelanto, Perris Raceway and Carlsbad Raceway.

ROAD RACING--Former Indianapolis 500 winner Tom Sneva and sprint car veteran Ron Shuman will make their debuts in Formula Atlantic cars Sunday at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Ariz. Two 20-lap races on the 1.5-mile course will open the West Coast Atlantic Racing season. Also scheduled Sunday at Firebird is a Sports 2000 Cup race featuring defending champion Randy McDaniel of Orange and Falcon Crest star Lorenzo Lamas. . . . A.J. Foyt and Bob Wollek, who won last year’s 12 Hours of Sebring, will be in different cars for Saturday’s 34th running of America’s oldest road race. Foyt will be with Drake Olsen in Preston Henn’s Porsche, and Wollek will team with Paolo Barill and car owner Bruce Leven in another Porsche. Two all-NASCAR teams of Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd and Kyle Petty in a Ford Mustang and Terry Labonte, Benny Parsons and Phil Parsons in an Oldsmobile will compete in the GTO class.

MOTORCYCLES--When the Long Beach race of the Speedway Spring series was canceled because of rain last Saturday night, it was not rescheduled. So Kelly Moran is the overall champion after races at Costa Mesa and San Bernardino. The speedway weekly season will start next week at all local tracks. . . . Former British road racer Cliff Carr and Loyal Truesdale are accepting entries for the La Carrera Classic, a 150-mile road race May 3 from Ensenada to San Felipe in Baja California.

DRAG RACING--The NHRA Gatornationals, postponed by a typhoon last week in Gainesville, Fla., will try again Sunday with Don (Big Daddy) Garlits making an assault on the 270-m.p.h. barrier in his new streamlined top fuel dragster. Garlits ran 268.01 in the car’s second run last week before the storm and said, “It felt like it was running on only six cylinders.”

OFF-ROAD--Don Brown Enterprises has obtained a two-year lease to conduct racing at the Glen Helen Off-Highway Vehicle Park, north of San Bernardino. The 600-acre facility can accommodate off-road vehicles and has tracks for motocross, sand drags, trials, flat oval and closed course racing.

NECROLOGY--Dewey Groshong, 58, of Long Beach, associated with motor racing for many years as a manufacturer of electric wiring systems and race car sponsor, died Tuesday of a heart attack.