Ofria Will Keep On Truckin’ : Saugus Driver Recovers Stolen Transport Vehicle in Time for Race

It isn’t often that the police wind up assisting a speeding driver, but Friday that’s what happened to Frank Ofria, a stock car racer from Simi Valley.

Ofria, 28, who suffers from Hodgkin’s disease, had received special permission from his doctor to race in tonight’s Street Stock program at Saugus Speedway. But those plans hit the skids when Ofria’s pickup truck was stolen Thursday.

Ofria said that he had left the truck overnight at his father’s auto repair shop in Northridge because he was too woozy to drive himself home after a chemotherapy treatment.

Without the beige, 1971 three-quarter-ton truck, Ofria had no way to transport his souped-up Dodge Challenger to the race track. And he could not replace the truck because he had not insured it against theft because of its age.

“It was a real blow,” said Carolyn Ofria, the driver’s wife. “The racing boosts his spirits, and the doctor said the higher his spirits are, the faster he’ll get better.”

Ofria said that he had just about given up hope of competing in tonight’s program when he drove past an impound yard in Northridge about noon Friday after a doctor’s appointment.

“I saw my truck inside that yard and said, ‘yahoo,’ ” Ofria said. “The only things missing were the speakers and my tools, but who cares about them.”

Detective Wayne Newton of the L. A. Police Department’s West Valley Division, said that an officer had seen the truck Friday near Parthenia Street and Tampa Avenue and had it towed to the yard. Newton said that stolen cars, particularly old ones, often are recovered shortly after they are stolen because the thieves use them to joy-ride, then abandon them.

Mal Borders, owner of the car Ofria will drive tonight, said that Ofria has competed in only a dozen races and is still looking for his first win. But he “does a little better every time,” Borders said.

Borders said he hopes that Ofria wins tonight because “considering everything he’s been through lately, it’s time for his luck to change.”