Motor Racing : Southwest Tour Begins at Saugus

NASCAR’s Southwest Tour for All-American Challenge series cars, which is becoming the hottest stock car racing circuit on the West Coast, will open its third season Saturday night at Saugus Speedway.

The $21,175 Miller 100, a 33-mile sprint on Saugus’ flat, third-mile paved oval, is the first of a 20-race series on 13 tracks from Cajon Speedway in the south to Eureka’s Redwood Acres Raceway in the north. Total awards are expected to reach $506,495, a 25% increase over the $400,000 record set last season.

Both previous Southwest Tour champions, Mike Chase of Bakersfield in 1987 and Ron Esau of Lakeside in 1986, will be back, both in newly built Chevrolets.

Also back will be the winners of all four Saugus races in the last two years. Roger Avants of Littleton, Colo., won both races in 1986. Last year, the two 100s were won by Rick Carelli of Denver and Roman Calczynski of Sepulveda. Carelli and Calczynski will also be in new Chevrolets.

Troy Beebe of Modesto, who set the Southwest Tour one-lap record at Saugus of 15.963 seconds, an average of 75.174 m.p.h., last September, will be in a new Buick V-6, and Orange Show Speedway favorite Greg Scheidecker of Redlands will be in a new Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.

Calczynski, the 1987 Winston West rookie of the year, heads a group of former Saugus Speedway champions who are expected to be right at home on the distinctively different track.

Other Saugus favorites include Dan Press of Frazier Park, runner-up in both Miller 100 races last year; Ray Hopper Jr. of Palmdale, the 1982 track sportsman champion; Mark Perry of Saugus, Carl Lux of Canyon Country, Don O’Donnell and Rich DeLong Sr. of Canoga Park, M. K. Kanke of Granada Hills, Bob Lyon of Newhall, Chuck Pittenger of Northridge and Charlie Saied of North Hollywood.

Hopper will be competing for Glendora Auto Tech rookie-of-the-year honors, as will Mark Meech of La Mesa, a former Cajon Speedway super stock champion, and Ken Pederson of Sausalito, the 1987 Formula Russell pro series champion.

The second Southwest Tour event will be run April 9 at Cajon Speedway, with future events scheduled for Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, and Riverside International Raceway during the Winston Cup weekend of June 11-12.

A field of 40 cars is expected Saturday, when time trials start at 5:30 p.m. Also on the program will be street stocks on the oval and Figure 8s on the criss cross course.

The Winston West series, considered NASCAR’s premier West Coast stock car circuit, will open April 24 at Sears Point Raceway, near Sonoma, but will have only nine races. The Sears Point race will also serve as the concluding event of the Winston International Challenge, pitting top drivers from NASCAR against their counterparts from Australia and New Zealand.

Three Winston Cup veterans, Neil Bonnett, Bobby Allison and Dave Marcis, finished in that order in the opening round last month at the Calder Park Thunderdome near Melbourne, but none of the three is expected to be at Sears Point because a Winston Cup race is scheduled that day at Martinsville, Va.

ROAD RACING--The second race of the Toyota GT Super Production series will be held Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway. Les Lindley of Anaheim, winner of the first race and runner-up in last year’s Trans-Am championship series, will compete along with Rick Ware of Long Beach, winner of a similar race last October at Willow Springs. Production-based cars of any type are eligible with no engine, weight or tire restrictions. The main event will be 20 laps on the 9-turn 2.5-mile road course.

DRAG RACING--More than 400 sportsman racers will converge on Famoso Drag Strip, north of Bakersfield, this weekend for the National Hot Rod Assn.’s Pacific Division series. It is one of six events counting toward the division championship. Favorites include two-time Winston champion Brad Anderson of Covina in alcohol funny car and reigning champion Jay Payne of Arcadia and Bruce McDowell of Bonita in alcohol dragster. McDowell recently set the NHRA record of 6.16 seconds. The professional dragsters will be at Famoso April 16-17 for the annual Smokers’ U.S. Fuel and Gas meet. . . . Prize money in the NHRA point fund has been increased 50% by the sponsoring R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The top-fuel and funny car champions will receive $150,000 each and the pro stock winner will get $100,000.

INDY CARS--A. J. Foyt will make his first appearance in a Long Beach street race this year when he drives his Lola Cosworth in the Toyota Grand Prix April 17. Last weekend, Foyt finished fourth in the 12 Hours of Sebring on Saturday, driving a Porsche with Hurley Haywood and Rob Dyson, then flew to Atlanta where he drove his Olds in Sunday’s Motorcraft 500 Winston Cup race. Foyt completed 85 laps before his engine quit. . . . Former Indy 500 winner Tom Sneva will drive a Lola, powered by a Judd Honda engine, for Hemelgarn Racing at Indy and two other 500-mile races. . . . Kevin Cogan, one of racing’s most eligible bachelors for the last eight seasons, will marry Tracy Sanford Saturday at his Palos Verdes Estates home. Cogan will drive a new March in this year’s Indy car season, starting with the Checkers 200 April 10 at Phoenix.

FORMULA ONE--The Jacarepagua circuit in Rio de Janeiro, where the world championship Grand Prix season will start April 3 has been renamed the Nelson Piquet Circuit in honor of the Brazilian’s third world championship. Piquet recently made headlines in Rio when a female judge presented him with a court order to face defamation charges against fellow Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna. Piquet had allegedly accused Senna of preferring the company of men to that of women. Piquet’s response to the order was to promptly kiss the judge on both cheeks.

MIDGETS--Ron (Sleepy) Tripp, defending United States Auto Club Western States midget champion, is off and running for his fourth title in six years as he prepares for two races this weekend, at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale Saturday night and at Ascot Park Sunday night. Sharing the Sunday night program will be USAC three-quarter midgets. Tripp leads Rusty Rasmussen, his main challenger last season, by 11 points after four races. Also challenging Tripp will be P. J. Jones, 18, the son of former Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones. P. J. branched out last week when he ran two races at Sebring. He and G. S. Johnson finished second in a Nissan in the Firestone Firehawk race, then came back the next day to finish fifth in his class in the 12-hour race with John Morton in a Mazda.

SPRINT CARS--The Parnelli Jones Firestone California Racing Assn. season resumes Saturday night at Ascot Park with a new leader in Mike Sweeney. Sweeney took over the lead from Ron Shuman when the Arizona driver was involved in a 7-car melee last week at Ascot and failed to finish. Sweeney has 315 points to 300 for Stan Atherton, last week’s winner, and 296 for Shuman.

MOTOCROSS--The United States Amateur Nationals will be held this weekend at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino. Riders will compete in a 5-mile Grand Prix Saturday and a motocross Sunday.