SUPER MODIFIEDS : World’s Fastest Short-Track Cars Provoke a Healthy Respect From Drivers at Saugus

There are two things race drivers rarely complain about: too much power and too much prize money.

Art Cervantes and Dave Key don’t worry about going too fast, and they don’t pay mechanics to keep their cars on a leash. But too much power can cause some problems. Like injury and possibly death.

Two drivers were standing near Turn 1 at Saugus Speedway talking about excessive power one Saturday night when a stock car slid sideways and nosed into the wall a few feet away. Both men flinched at the impact--then were amazed when the driver backed the car away and continued racing.

“Boy, if I ever did that, I wish I could drive away from it,” Cervantes said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, it would have been hook city for one of us,” Key replied.

In racing vernacular, Key referred to the need for a tow truck. The delivery was humorless because Key has seen his share of twisted metal hauled away. Sometimes it’s been his own.

Key and Cervantes drive super modifieds, some of the fastest and most dangerous cars in the world. The cars are open-wheeled racers with engines that develop about 750 horsepower. That’s comparable to an Indy car. The alcohol-burning asphalt sprint cars are the fastest short-track cars in the world. On a 2 1/2-mile super speedway, the cars are capable of speeds up to 200 m.p.h.

They’re just the kind of car that the owners of Saugus Speedway would love to see run at their one-third mile oval. So, after a demonstration by Key, Cervantes, Robert Tartaglia and Rex Beach in front of a capacity crowd at the Speedway in May, track promoter Ray Wilkings was impressed enough to schedule them back for a race on Oct. 11. The cars could run as many as four open-competition races next season at Saugus.

The races will be sanctioned by the Super Modified Racing Assn., which is based in Fresno. Tartaglia, a two-year veteran of super-modified driving, is the president. The organization, which boasts about three dozen cars, has no permanent circuit yet.

The group is most interested in Saugus. But because the track isn’t a super speedway, the super-modified drivers will have to throttle down the cars. Full power could easily send the cars fish-tailing out of control as they come out of Saugus’s tight turns.

“It’s a real flat track,” Beach said. “We’re not used to that, but it’s something we can learn to adjust to.”

Beach has been racing the super modifieds for about 10 years. The part-time orange grower, part-time chassis builder from Orange Cove, Calif., has ample experience with the open-wheeled cars and a profound respect for them.

“On a short track (one-third to a half-mile), they’re the fastest cars in the world,” Beach said. “The speed is real high and things happen real fast.

“I had some friends who raced stock cars, then got into one of these. They got out and couldn’t believe it. They said it felt like being strapped onto the motor.”

That’s practically the case. The cars weigh only 1,400 pounds. Beach had the most powerful car of the four who drove in the demonstration. On its homemade chassis rests a 775-horsepower, 484-cubic-inch engine custom-built by Keith Black. Beach said it has taken him around the mile-long Phoenix Raceway at 175 m.p.h. The car will do 150 m.p.h. at the half-mile oval at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield.

But the danger lies not only in the speed of the cars. Because they are open-wheeled, contact on the track can be very risky. Cars can tumble end over end if tires touch.

“If you come up to a person in a corner and touch wheels, you’ll go up and over,” Beach said. “I know. I’ve done it.”

Other racers have had similar experiences.

“He went up about as high as that truck,” Cervantes said of a wreck involving Key at Mesa Marin. “Then over and over about four times--real quick.”

“It happened so fast I never realized I was up in the air until I saw the films,” Key said.

Fortunately, injuries are not common, but mishaps often turn one of the exotic machines into junk.

Cervantes, a manufacturer of auto parts in Fresno, has about $70,000 tied up in his car. But like many drivers, he doesn’t own the machine. He just drives. His father also drove modifieds, but things have changed radically since then.

“They were modifieds, but nothing like this,” Cervantes said. “That was when you used to go to the junkyards to get parts. Not no more. I’m glad I’m not paying for it.”

Not with money, anyway.

Saugus Notes

Gary Johnson of Valencia won a wild NASCAR sportsman class race at Saugus Speedway on Saturday night--a race that had to be stopped twice and ended a lap early because of major accidents.

The first incident occurred on the 22nd lap when Fred Woodward of Simi Valley and Mike Ayers of San Fernando crashed in the third turn. One lap later, Joe Stewart of Chatsworth and Bob Campanella of Canoga Park tangled in the fourth turn while fighting for the lead. None of the drivers was hurt in either accident.

Then the 30-lap race had to be ended one lap early after Ward Fisher of Granada Hills had trouble in the third turn and smashed, bringing an end to the race. He also was unhurt in the crash.

Ayers finished second behind Johnson while Larry Adams of Reseda finished third.