No. 8 Figures Prominently in Driver’s Success

Imagine 15,000 cars trying to leave the Dodger Stadium parking lot at the same time, which usually happens about the seventh inning of Dodger home games.

Now, imagine those cars all traveling at 65 m.p.h. OK, just to make it a bit competitive, offer money to the first driver to make it to the street.

The money would probably go to Bryan Hayden, who sees such scenes from the driver’s seat nearly every Saturday night at Saugus Speedway.

Hayden is a street stock driver at the Speedway. In addition to the sometimes brutal oval racing, the Street Stock class includes one of racing’s oddities: figure-eight competition. Points from both the oval and figure-eight competitions count toward the street stock championship at the end of the season.

Boiled down to its elements, the 15-lap figure-eight event is one big, unsupervised intersection in the middle of the course with dozens of drivers simultaneously trying to roar through it from two different 90-degree angles.

“My wife thinks I’m crazy, but I don’t know,” Hayden said. “I really enjoy it.”

Masochists enjoy pain, too. But the figure-eight gives drivers the chance to deliver some as well.

It started for Hayden, his brother Wayne, and their neighborhood buddies when they were kids in Canyon Country. They frequented Saugus Speedway as youngsters and, on bicycles, imitated the deeds of figure-eight racers.

Bigger kids demand bigger toys, and by age 16, while at Canyon High, Hayden and his brother were still tearing around doing figure-eights. But they were doing it in cars instead of on bicycles.

Economic necessity drove Hayden to the figure eight event. When he first drove cars at Saugus, he didn’t have much money. He reasoned that a powerful, expensive motor wasn’t as important on the figure-eight track as in other forms of auto racing. And so began a life of busy intersections.

Now, Hayden is reputed by some of the old-timers at Saugus to be the best figure-eight racer since the late Bill Killian drove there a decade ago.

It was from Killian that Hayden first discovered the finer points of driving the figure-eight track and getting through that frightening intersection.

Said Hayden: “I learned a lot off him. I used to like the way he got through traffic. No matter how you do it, you have to get to the front. He’d speed up, go slow, wave people on. I liked his style. It’s what I’ve tried to do.”

Eight years of experience has elevated Hayden from student to master at the unconventional form of racing.

Hayden currently leads the Street Stock class at Saugus by 170 points, winning 7 of 12 feature races this season--in great part because of his ability on the figure-eight. He’s established all but one qualifying record at the track this season. Piloting a 1969 Chevelle, he holds the record for street stocks at the one-third mile oval track with a time of 18.82 seconds and the open-competition figure-eight record of 23.92.

But even going around in figure-eights has its limitations. Hayden, who ran his first race in a modified car at Saugus in the Winston 100 open-competition race on May 31, plans to move to that class perhaps as soon as next year. The faster, more expensive modified cars run only in ovals at the track.

Eight seems to be a lucky and an unlucky number for Hayden. After qualifying in the 10th row (20th of 26 cars), Hayden worked his way up to eighth in the Winston 100 before a transmission problem knocked him out in the 46th lap. He finished 24th behind winner Ken Sapper of La Crescenta.

Despite the hard luck, his effort opened some eyes. Other drivers, track officials, spectators and even Hayden’s boss at the plumbing company he works for were impressed with his first ride in the modifieds.

“My boss isn’t very interested with the street stocks,” Hayden said. “I don’t know whether it’s prestige or what, but he’s going up to Bakersfield for another modified race to see me drive. It was a complete turnaround, he was really jazzed about it.”

It could mean a new direction for Hayden. If . . .

“If I win the street stock championship,” Hayden said. “And I’m going to win it. If not, you’ll see me again in street stocks next year.”

Running in more than just circles, of course.

Notes

Stock cars--After a two-week break, of sorts, Saugus Speedway will hold its regular Saturday night program of Modifieds, Street Stocks and figure-eights. Kenny Sapper of La Crescenta leads the Modifieds, while Michael Ayers leads the Sportsman in the points standings. Street Stock point leader Bryan Hayden tries for his eighth main event win. Qualifying is at 6 p.m., racing starts at 7 p.m. . . . Roman Calczynski of Sepulveda finished fifth behind Mike Chase of Bakersfield in the Pepsi-Cola 100 race for NASCAR’s All American Challenge Cars of the Southwest Tour at Shasta Speedway in Anderson, Calif. Calczynski remains fourth in the standings, trailing leader Ron Esau of Lakeside by 29 points.

Sports cars--Mike Groff of Northridge took the lead in the Sports Car Club of America’s Super Vee circuit after winning his first race of the season at Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway in Milwaukee on May 31.

He then did one better. He drove one of the new Buick Wildcats of the SCCA’s American Racing Series to victory on the same one-mile oval the next day to put himself into third place in that circuit.

Groff got a break in both races. His main competitor this season, Steve Bren of Los Angeles (winner of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Super Vee race) had a large lead with four laps to go in the 62-mile race. But a caution flag allowed Groff to close the margin. When the green flag appeared, Groff sped past Bren and won the Super Vee race by a bumper.

Bren led the next day’s ARS race, too. But five laps into the race, Bren’s car was disqualified for leaking fluid. Groff cruised to the win in the 75-mile race.

While Groff won, Dave Kudrave of La Canada crashed before the green flag ever dropped. Kudrave was practicing for the Super Vee race on the morning of May 31, when he ran into some transmission fluid left on the track by another car and crashed into the wall. His car could not be repaired by race time.

Groff, who finished second at Long Beach and third at Indianapolis Raceway Park, leads Bren by four points in the SCCA Super Vee standings. Kudrave is in 13th. Ten races remain in the 13-race circuit, with the next one at Detroit on June 22.

Groff trails ARS leader Steve Millen by 10 points with 8 of 10 races left in the circuit.