BRIEFLY : NASCAR Events Spark Saugus Season

Saugus Speedway will hold 43 nights of racing this season, a schedule that will be highlighted by a pair of NASCAR Southwest Tour events and a motocross race requiring workers to cover the asphalt track with several tons of dirt.

The NASCAR circuit will make its first stop of the season with a 100-lap race at Saugus on March 28. The Southwest Tour will return to the track Sept. 12. Ron Esau of Lakeside, who suffered a broken arm in a fall off a ladder last month, is the defending Southwest Tour champion.

On March 20, the track will be the site of the Grand Slam Motocross MX, for which the pavement will be covered with dirt. The next night, a factory stock enduro and destruction derby is scheduled.

“They have assured me they can get the dirt out of there in four hours after the motocross,” Saugus General Manager Ray Wilkings said. “We’ll see.”

The track has also scheduled six destruction derbies and other unusual events, including a race in which three cars will be chained together; only the first car will have a driver. Eight such “trains” will then race around the short track. Wilkings also has scheduled at least one night of “destruction football,” in which two teams of cars try to slam a five-foot steel buoy across goal lines.

One event that was held in 1986 will not return. As part of the track’s July 4 festivities, a stunt man put three sticks of dynamite under his chair and blew himself across the track in a ball of fire.

“The man who blew himself up will not be back,” Wilkings said. “I saw him at a blackjack table in Reno during the winter. I recognized him from the powder burns.”

Kickers Open Season Sunday

The California Kickers of the Western Soccer Alliance will open the 1987 season on Sunday against the L.A. Heat at 5:15 p.m. at Cal State Northridge’s North Campus Stadium.

As the Hollywood Kickers last season the team won the alliance championship with an 8-2-4 record, playing its games at Birmingham High. This season the Kickers have moved to CSUN and field five former Matadors: Frank Cubillos, Thor Lee, Joey Kirk, Mike McAndrew and Scott Murray.

NOTABLE

Franki Jacobs of Simi Valley won the women’s lightweight division and Ron Caluya of Valencia won the men’s lightweight division at the recent Bud Light Los Angeles Bodybuilding Championships at Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium.

The Southern California Cycling Federation Velodrome in Encino has opened its Saturday afternoon racing series. The season continues through April 11. Races run 1-5 p.m.

Wayne Case of Simi Valley shot 74 to win first prize of $1,200 in the Golden State Tour tournament at Wood Ranch.

Bruce Hamilton and Jon Fiedler, representing the Las Posas Country Club in Camarillo, shot 68 and won $570 each by finishing first in the Southern California PGA four-ball stroke-play championship at Carmel Mountain Ranch.

Registration has begun for teams and individuals interested in taking part in a 3-on-3 basketball tournament at Fairfax High. The last day to register is March 15. Further information: (818) 899-5345.

Anyone interested in working as a senior lifeguard at the Conejo Recreation and Park District municipal pool this summer should call (805) 495-4674.

Conejo Valley Days 5K and 10K runs will take place March 28 on the Cal Lutheran campus. Further information: (805) 496-2463.