Despite Flu, Cran Flies to Sportsman Win at Saugus

When 24 Sportsman division drivers try to race around a one-third-mile paved oval, weird things are likely to happen, as a crowd of 3,418 at Saugus Speedway discovered Saturday night.

For example, a massive pileup in Turn 1 of Lap 1 forced Gary Sigman of Carson from the race and sent Quartz Hill’s Pat Mintey Jr., Tarzana’s Will Harper and Torrance’s Keith Spangler to the back of the pack. It also forced a restart.

Lance Hooper of Palmdale, though driving with a severely damaged front end, eventually grabbed a what looked to be a convincing lead on Lap 12 and appeared headed to victory.

But John Cran of Reseda, suffering from the flu to the extent that he had to “chug a bottle of Pepto” to stay racing, sneaked past Hooper on Turn 4 of Lap 39 to steal a 40-lap main-event win.

“I let Lance go because his car was working good and mine wasn’t,” Cran said after his fourth main-event win of the year. “But I just stayed behind him, got a little adrenaline, and said, ‘Please, let something happen, let something happen.’ When, all of a sudden, there you have it.”

What happened was that Hooper, in pursuit of his first main-event win of the year, slowed down to avoid a lapped car that was spinning. Cran, seeing daylight, zipped past him and raced the remaining lap to victory. Hooper took second and appeared none too social in the pits afterward.

“I guess Lance is feeling pretty small right now,” Cran said. “But, hey, sorry, dude. I could use the bucks right now.”

Mintey took third and Larry Krieger of Reseda placed fourth.

Because the Street Stock oval points standings were especially congested before Saturday night’s races, the 25-lap oval main event took on a higher degree of importance.

After all, just 12 points separated leader Craig Rayburn of Simi Valley (152) from fourth-place driver and defending champion Steve Nikolai of Simi Valley.

But Rayburn submitted a bid for year-end supremacy with his fifth main-event win. Starting third in a 24-car field, Rayburn sneaked past Ed Horst of Reseda on Lap 6 and never relinquished the lead.

Four times the Street Stock drivers were held up by yellow flags, giving runner-up Brian Kelley of Arleta extra chances to catch Rayburn. But each time the race retarted, Rayburn’s No. 18 car distanced itself from the challenger’s car.

Doug Renno of Canoga Park took third in the oval main.