Still Racing After All These Years : Garrison, 69, is a Walking, Talking Speedway Institution

Saugus Speedway has been witness to many changes down through the years, particularly in the names of the track’s drivers.

Numerous riders have passed through the speedway since the track opened to stock cars in 1958. Some, such as 1977 track champion Jim Robinson, have gone on to success in other racing. Others have filtered away and are all but forgotten, except in speedway annals.

But there is one mainstay. His name is Vernon Garrison, but everybody knows him as Gabby.

For good reason.

He’ll talk your ear off about racing.

His success as a racer has been modest. He’s never won a track championship since becoming one of the original racers at Saugus in 1958. Garrison, who will be 70 in July, is yet again building a sportsman division car for the 1986 Saugus season.

“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” Garrison said, laughing. “I know that my wife would love it if I got out, but she won’t say a word.”

Garrison has no such trouble finding a conversation at the race track. Because of his experience and affable nature, he often serves as a sounding board for fellow drivers.

Dave Phipps, the 1984 sportsman champion at Saugus, will race an old Chrysler for the first month of the season while he builds a new car. Phipps called Garrison, a long-time Mopar products user, for some advice.

“He called me last night,” Garrison said. “He wanted to get some tips. I guess he’s glad I’m going to be there, because I can help him get the thing going.”

Like a number of other drivers, Garrison is modernizing this year.

The dean of Saugus racers scrapped his 1974 Dodge Dart body for a new fiberglass one that resembles a 1983 Dodge Mirada.

The cosmetics department, yes. But will it pass other cars? Well, Garrison isn’t sure yet.

He said the weight is better distributed on the new car, which should make handling easier on the one-third mile flat oval track.

Saugus may not be the only place Garrison, of Long Beach, makes an appearance this season. He’s been prodded of late by long-time friend Jerry Johnson--a top stock car driver at Ascot Raceway--to run his new car at the dirt track in Gardena. But Garrison is skeptical.

“I don’t know,” he said, slowly. “They run in the mud there and I don’t like that one bit. I’d like to get Jerry up to our track, then I could blow him into the weeds.

“I’d like to race the car down there, but if I’m in the points at Saugus, I doubt I’d risk the car.”

Garrison is thinking of retiring at the end of this season, but that could change. He was voted the most popular driver at the Saugus track last season and the fans are sure to be looking for him again this season.

Said Garrison: “Hell, I’ve been thinking about quiting for the last 15 years.”

Chances are he’ll just be thinking about it again next year.

Notes

Saugus Speedway’s regular-season opener for modified, sportsman and street stock classes was postponed Saturday night because of rain. The event was rescheduled for next Saturday at 8 p.m.