MOTOR RACING / BRIAN MURPHY : Granada Hills’ Kanke Tuned for Run at Title

It’s a long, long while from May to September, the song says, and for M. K. Kanke of Granada Hills it’s been a long, long climb to the top of the NASCAR Southwest Tour standings.

The season began last spring, and Kanke will be in first place at least until the Sept. 1 race at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, the start of the tour’s traditional stretch run.

A fourth-place finish in last Saturday’s 100-lap race at Silver State Raceway in Carson City, Nev., finally carried Kanke past Doug George of Atwater in the points standings. George, who held first place for two months, trails by two points.

“We were running second in points last year and Dan Press beat us out,” Kanke said. “This year, we were just hoping to do what we’re doing now.”

Kanke--who stands 6-foot-6--likes the idea of racing again at Orange Show, where he holds the track record. It could prove to be the place to turn a tight lead into a comfortable one.

“I would say we should be right there,” he said.

Kanke, 28, is a Kennedy High graduate who bought the house next to his childhood home. His father, Darrell, is a former driver who offers help from next door.

A former dirt-track champion at Ascot Park, Kanke raced early in his career at Saugus Speedway in the Street Stock division, experience that should help him when the tour comes to Saugus on Sept. 8.

After that, four more races will round out the tour, which ends Nov. 3 at Phoenix International Raceway.

“I think the winner of the Tour will be the guy in Phoenix who takes the checkered flag,” he said.

SigAlert: That wild and crazy bang-up in Turn 1 of Lap 1 of last Saturday’s 40-lap Sportsman division race at Saugus not only caused the event to be restarted, but damaged more hoods than “West Side Story.”

The cars of veteran drivers Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill, Keith Spangler of Northridge and Lance Hooper of Palmdale sustained heavy and visible front-end damage. Hooper, despite a nose that scraped on the pavement, nearly won before settling for second.

No such luck for Gary Sigman of Carson. He was unable to return from the pits after sustaining a broken axle in the same crash.

“It’s not a very common thing,” Sigman said. “It was a deal in which the guy behind me caught it just right.”

When Sigman wheeled his car into the pits for a quick repair job on what he thought was just a problem with a left rear tire, his crew jacked the car up and found the broken axle.

“When everybody’s going like crazy and wants to be as tight as possible, you’re definitely gonna have some problems,” Sigman said. “We all needed to get through the corner and whoever hooked up with my tire didn’t use too much common sense.”

Sigman’s car has been repaired and will be racing tonight in another 40-lapper.

Add crash: Left to inherit the front of the realigned pack after the restart last Saturday were Rod Johnson of Canyon Country and Dave Phipps of Simi Valley. For Phipps, the opportunity was especially enticing since because he had entered the evening second in the points standings.

The opportunity became even more splendid on Lap 12 when Johnson sustained a blown engine and retired to the pits. But just seconds after Johnson’s misfortune, the drain plug fell out of Phipps’ transmission, forcing him out of the race too.

“Man, that’s just . . . that’s just an eyelash away,” Phipps said later with bemused resignation. “I coulda hung on for the win, I think. But . . . what can I do? Just keep trying, right?”

Fan favorites: The first annual West Coast Clash at the Ventura County Fairgrounds last weekend drew some of the biggest crowds in Ventura Raceway history.

On Saturday night, a crowd estimated at 3,180 turned out to see the USAC midgets and three-quarter Midgets, a Ventura record. A $15,000 purse lured 40 midgets and 40 three-quarter midgets--or about 20 more cars than usually show for the three-quarter races.

An estimated crowd of 3,500 turned up Sunday night for the running of the stock cars and a demolition derby.