RACING DOWN MEMORY LANE : Three Years Into Retirement, Oren Prosser Remains Consensus Choice as Greatest Driver at Saugus Speedway

It has been three years since Oren Prosser last steered his car, the familiar No. 15, through the pack at Saugus Speedway, flirting with danger and the retaining wall on almost every pass as he made his way to the checkered flag.

Three years. A long time. But not long enough to extinguish the memories.

Prosser, or “Roarin’ Oren” as he was known, remembers the good times, and so do those who still compete at Saugus. Some watched him from the stands. Others saw him--or the rear of his car, rather--on the track.

What they all remember is a skillful, intelligent and, most of all, fearless driver who won an unprecedented five track championships and set a standard of excellence for those who would follow him.

Prosser, 48, has retired from racing, but there are those who say he would win his share of races if he decided to make a comeback.

For now, however, Prosser seems content to remain a part of Saugus lore, although he says he might consider a return to the track if “the right opportunity” presented itself.

There are many who would like to see that happen, among them some of the top drivers currently racing at Saugus.

Dave Phipps, the track’s Sportsman division champion three of the past five years, says Prosser was the best he has ever seen--even better than Bobby Allison.

Dan Press, points leader on the NASCAR Southwest Tour, says Prosser inspired him to become a driver.

“He was one of my heroes when I was just starting out,” Press said. “When he was in the lead you couldn’t get by him. You couldn’t intimidate him. He’d never lose his concentration.”

Prosser won his first championship 25 years ago, driving a Chevrolet he built himself. Five years later, he started an unprecedented streak of four consecutive track championships.

Donnie Johnson, sponsor and owner of Prosser’s car during the four-year streak, says he tried to lure the former champion back on the track at the beginning of this season.

“I’ve never seen anybody drive a car like Oren,” Johnson said. “He never panicked. He had the uncanny ability to know what’s ahead. He’d run every lap as if it were the main event.”

Prosser was good enough to survive under the most trying of circumstances. Sometimes, even the quality of car didn’t matter.

Once, after his own car experienced engine problems during a preliminary race, Prosser borrowed another racer’s backup car. The car had never produced a main event win--until that night.

“After the race all four tires went flat, fenders were ready to fall off,” said Wayne Shaw, a longtime friend of Prosser. “It was like the car had never been driven that hard before.”

Prosser says his only real advantage over other drivers was his ability to use the outside portion of the track.

Often, competitors would approach him after a race wanting to look under his car for a clue to his success. Prosser says he was always accommodating.

“I used to say, ‘Hey, buddy, wait. Let me take the hood off. I’ll jack it up. There’s nothing under there, no secrets.’ I’d hear guys saying, ‘See, I told you. Look at that shock. See where it is? I told you we should have had it out farther.’

“So they’d go home, cut their shock off, move it out right where mine was. Next week, same thing, I’d drive around the outside of them and win,” Prosser said. “I didn’t do anything that anybody else did. What I did was on my own and usually they’d copy me.”

Prosser and Johnson both had a reputation for being innovative. “We weren’t afraid to gamble,’ Prosser said. “Anything new, we’d try.”

One such gamble paid off in 1975. Prosser won Saugus’ first 330-lap race using a relatively new high-performance, English-made tire that some racers had balked at trying. The tire appeared too thin to hold up under racing conditions, other racers believed.

They were wrong. “That car was flying,” said Prosser, who won the race.

Among Prosser’s top accomplishments was winning the Permatex 100 at Riverside International Raceway in 1967. That followed perhaps his best season at Saugus. In 1966, Prosser claims to have won nine consecutive main events, a feat Lyn Pherigo, a track spokesman, could not confirm through records.

In 1971, Prosser drove to victory in a local version of the Firecracker 400 (The nationally known event is held at Daytona.). The races took place at four different tracks on four consecutive nights over the July 4th weekend. Each race was 100 laps. Prosser won them all.

Traipsing about California was about the extent of Prosser’s touring experience, however.

During the late sixties, Prosser was approached to drive on the now defunct Trans Am circuit, but his first wife threatened to leave if he took his act on the road.

“I got divorced less than a year later anyway,” he said.

Prosser also was offered the chance to race in New Zealand after a scout saw him racing at Ascot Park in Gardena. He had to decline because Johnson, the car owner, couldn’t take three months away from his full-time business.

Prosser began his auto racing career at age 14 when he built his own 1932 Ford K-class--no mufflers, no fenders--roadster. Every week he’d take it out to the old San Fernando Valley drag strip, at the corner of Glenoaks Boulevard and Arroyo Avenue in San Fernando--an area now covered by industrial buildings.

Drag racing failed to fulfill Prosser’s desires, however.

“I’d work on (the car) all week and only get to drive it for 10 seconds,” Prosser said.

In the fall of 1958, Oren spotted a sign advertising Saugus Speedway, but he knew that, at age 18, he would not be allowed to race without parental permission.

No problem. “I knew my parents wouldn’t let me race so I forged their signature,” he says.

Prosser was successful almost immediately. Too successful.

His father, Don, spotted his son’s name in a newspaper headline.

Fortunately for Prosser, his father, who--”didn’t know the right end of a screwdriver”--was understanding. “Dad said we’d better make things legal,” Prosser said. A consent form was signed and Prosser’s career officially got under way.

In his early years, Prosser had one reputation away from the track and the opposite while on it. In the pits he was happy to help anyone. But on the track, watch out.

Shaw, who works in Prosser’s Van Nuys automotive shop, recalls being a 17-year-old trying to compete in the more experienced modified division against the likes of Prosser.

“Oren came over out of the blue and offered advice,” Shaw said.

But Ron Hornaday Sr., a former foe and track champion in 1965, says Prosser was aggressive enough on the track to warrant revenge. “I myself got bumped a few times by him, so I had to bump him back,” Hornaday said.

Still, Prosser suffered only one serious racing injury. In 1973, while competing at Riverside, he was pressing for the lead with eight laps to go when he broadsided a fellow driver who was backing onto the track after a spin-out.

Prosser had his 1968 Chevelle in third gear, going nearly 120 m.p.h., when he spotted the other car. There was nowhere to go.

“I knew I was going to die when I hit him,” Prosser said.

As his car, which almost completely disintegrated, finally came to rest, the severity of the crash became apparent. Prosser thought he had lost a leg.

“I lifted my leg up and my foot moved and (I) said, ‘Oh, bitchin’, it’s still on there,’ ” Prosser said. His knee was shattered, requiring surgery, but after three months of rehabilitation he was back on the track.

Prosser last raced in 1986 after already having tapered his number of races from a peak of 90 a year in the late 1960s and early ‘70s to about 20.

He is seldom seen at the track anymore, but he still offers advice--when asked--to other drivers. Prosser and his wife of a year and a half, Beverly, spend most of their energy raising show horses at their home in Simi Valley.

Even if he decided to return, Prosser could not go back to modifieds--at least not at Saugus, which has phased out that class of race over the past few years in favor of the Sportsman division.

If he made a comeback, it would likely be with the Southwest Tour. That, however, is unlikely. Prosser says he has been approached by four or five car owners in the past couple of years to drive again.

How willing would he be to jump in, strap on his helmet and buckle up?

“I would have to take any offer and analyze it,” he said. “It’s hard to take a second-rate ride when you’ve been to the top.”