MOTOR RACING / BRIAN MURPHY : Pherigo’s Dedication Allowed Fans at Saugus to Get With the Program

For 12 years, he has driven the one-third-mile paved oval at Saugus Speedway and not once has he relinquished the lead.

For 12 years, he led the way while drivers such as three-time Sportsman Division champion Dave Phipps and three-time Winston West champion Bill Schmitt trailed.

Now, unbeaten and unchallenged for more than a decade, he is calling it a career.

Lyn Pherigo drove a mean pace car.

Pherigo, the Saugus Speedway pace-car driver-publicity director-souvenir booth director since 1978, announced that he will be taking the checkered flag after this season. Why would the 61-year-old, who began working at Saugus in 1972, surrender a job that he has loved, a job in a sport that he has treasured since his rural Illinois childhood?

“I just ran out of gas,” Pherigo said.

Spoken like a true driver.

Pherigo is the man responsible for the programs--filled with racing action photos, recaps of the previous week’s racing, the historic Page From the Past and photos of trophy queens with trophy-dash winners--that fans devour on Saturday nights.

Tonight will mark Pherigo’s 400th program at the Super Track, and two weeks after that he will print his last. Interested parties will find that the 400th program contains a bit of Pherigo history. After all, it’s his program.

“Well, it’s going to have a little article about me,” Pherigo said. “And some pictures.”

And who wrote the article?

“Me,” Pherigo said. “It was difficult to say what I wanted to say. There is no animosity in my leaving Saugus Speedway. As far as I’m concerned, Saugus Speedway is the greatest. Like I said, I’ve just run out of gas.”

Add Pherigo: Much history has gone down in Pherigo’s tenure. He has seen some dominating seasons by the likes of Phipps and current champion Will Harper of Tarzana, by Roman Calczynski and Dan Press, and even a championship year from a Street Stock driver in 1983 named Bill Sedgwick--current points leader on the Winston West tour.

If Pherigo has one regret it is that he didn’t keep a guest list of those who rode shotgun in the pace car over the years. The list would include big-time Winston Cup drivers such as Geoff Bodine, Michael Waltrip and Bobby Allison. It also would include longtime West Coast drivers Hershel McGriff and Bill Schmitt. And it also would include celebrities such as actor James Garner.

Since taking the wheel of the pace car in 1978, and becoming the official publicity director that same year, Pherigo has been involved in many an event.

But he remains proudest of two things: the night he organized the first Salute to Past Champions in 1982 and the surprise 70th birthday party for fan favorite and racing codger Gabby Garrison in 1986. In that ceremony, Pherigo even coaxed a personal note of congratulations for Garrison from President Ronald Reagan.

“See, he was a senior citizen too,” Pherigo said.

But that all comes to an end this year. Pherigo said that when he started taking tickets in 1972, it was a six-hour-a-night job. Now his extensive duties require work seven days a week. Which doesn’t leave much time for rest.

So, Lyn Pherigo, here’s to a well-earned rest.

Dirty driving: In last Sunday’s final event of the U.S. Grand Prix of Motocross at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino, two Valley-area riders finished strong seasons.

Gaining top honors was Mike Kiedrowski of Canyon Country, who recorded a victory and a third-place finish en route to overall honors in the 125cc support-class division. Kiedrowski, who rides a Honda, narrowly edged Mike LaRocco of LaPorte, Ind., a Suzuki rider who took a second and a third to finish second overall.

In the prestigious 500cc class, in which Belgian star Eric Geboers sewed up the points championship with a victory and a second-place finish in two races, Simi Valley’s Johnny O’Mara took fifth overall. O’Mara, of Team Kawasaki, finished in second place behind Geboers in the first 500cc event.