Winston West to Stop at Saugus : Tight Points Battle, Big Purse Featured in Series Event

Fans at Saugus Speedway will witness a few uncommon sights tonight as the $1.3 million Winston West Series highlights the track’s biggest night of the season with the Winston 200.

For openers, the race will include something foreign to Saugus: pit stops.

“They’ll be able to change tires, refuel, everything they need to do,” Saugus promoter Ray Wilkings said.

That’s because tonight’s race--the first Winston West event at Saugus in 12 years--will be a 200-lap, 66.6-mile marathon, the longest race in the 50-year history of the one-third-mile paved oval. The last Winston West race at Saugus, in June, 1977, was 150 laps.

Consequently, fans will see some unfamiliar faces and some unfamiliar cars. Big cars. Like Monte Carlos and Firebirds.

“Basically, a Winston Cup car,” Wilkings said. “The closest thing you can get to Winston Cup on the West Coast.”

Indeed, the Winston West Series has evolved into NASCAR’s most lucrative racing endeavor on the West Coast. And tonight’s purse is expected to exceed $31,000, with approximately $5,000 going to the winner.

But there is more than money at stake. Never in its 36-year history has the series featured so competitive a battle for the championship, so tonight’s action figures to include some old-fashioned, barn-burning door handle-to-door handle racing.

Consider:

With eight of 11 events completed, points leader Bill Schmitt of Redding is clinging to a one-point lead over defending series champion Roy Smith of Victoria, Canada. Rookie surprise Bill Sedgwick of Van Nuys, the only series competitor who is a former Saugus regular, is third, 54 points behind Smith.

Only 149 points separate the top five drivers, only 215 separate the top six.

In the past three races, the lead has changed hands 37 times.

In last week’s race at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, Smith and Schmitt swapped the lead seven times during the final 81 laps before Smith took the checkered flag by 0.6 seconds.

Sedgwick, who survived a troublesome pit stop on Lap 160, rallied to nip Schmitt at the finish to claim second. With another win, Sedgwick will become the first series rookie to win three races.

“The chance of both Schmitt and Smith having a problem in the next three races is probably pretty slim,” Sedgwick said. “But I’m here to keep the heat on as best I can, that’s for sure.”

A look at the top competitors, between whom one could hardly wedge a gasket:

Schmitt: A lumberjack by profession and a Winston West competitor since 1974, Schmitt has logged the most career earnings of any active series competitor with $407,629. He won championships in 1977 and 1979, and, although his points lead over Smith is the smallest of margins, Schmitt insists that he feels no pressure.

“It’s been the Schmitt and Smith Show and it seems like it’s getting down to that,” Schmitt, 53, said. “But I’ve been at this a long time. I feel if I go in with the attitude of winning, that’ll keep me in front. I’m going down there to win.”

Despite his points lead, winning is something Schmitt has accomplished just once this year. His victory July 4 in Portland, Ore., was the 15th of his career. He has seven top-five and eight top-10 finishes this season. Schmitt last raced at Saugus in 1977.

“I remember the track was more difficult than any other track I’ve been on,” he said.

Smith: The Winston West titlist in 1980, ’82 and ‘88, Smith, 45, is the series’ only active three-time champion. With his second victory of the season at Mesa Marin, Smith has trimmed Schmitt’s lead to a point and reduced the title race to a two-car battle. Smith is the series’ leading money winner this season with $32,910. He has earned $278,579 in his Winston West career, which began in 1973.

Sedgwick: With two wins, eight top-five finishes, nine top-10 finishes and $21,975 in earnings, Sedgwick, 34, has all but clinched rookie-of-the-year honors. Sedgwick, who competed in Saugus’ Street Stock and Sportsman divisions from 1979 to ‘83, leads the rookie standings with 24 points. His nearest challenger, Jerry Bowers of Meridian, Ida., has 14.

“Our goal this year was to be rookie of the year,” Sedgwick said. “Being in the points race, that makes it all the better.”

Hershell McGriff: With 1,221 points, McGriff, in fourth place, trails Sedgwick by just 48 points. “Mathematically, I guess I could win the championship, but it isn’t probable,” said McGriff, a resident of Portland and Green Valley, Ariz. “But I could catch Sedgwick.”

McGriff, 61, the series’ oldest competitor, began racing in 1945 and has 14 victories at now-defunct Riverside International Raceway. McGriff considers his victory in the 2,178-mile Pan-American Mexican Road Race in 1950 the highlight of his career.

A series competitor since 1971, McGriff is the only active driver with a Winston West win at Saugus, although he has not raced there since 1974. He has competed in 166 Winston West events, won 32 and has 109 top-10 finishes. His career Winston West earnings total $343,837.

Rick McCray: A resident of Highland, Calif., McCray, 33, is fifth in the points standings with 1,176 but has yet to win a race. “My problem is I’m running out of my own pocket and nobody else’s, so I gotta be extremely conservative,” McCray said. “I don’t like making excuses, but what can I say?”

McCray last raced at Saugus in 1986 when he finished fifth in a NASCAR Southwest Tour race. He has three top-five and six top-10 finishes.