MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : Press Tries to Make It Record Four in a Row at His Saugus ‘Home’

Dan Press proved last year that he can run for a championship when he won eight main events in his Chevrolet Camaro to take the NASCAR Southwest Tour series for late-model stock cars.

This season, Press decided it was too expensive to defend his championship in the 18-race schedule, so he is entering only selected races. The first ones on his list were at Saugus Speedway, where he won last May and where he will be favored Saturday night when the Southwest Tour returns to the one-third-mile paved oval for the Miller Genuine Draft 100.

Press has won the past three tour events at Saugus, and if he can win Saturday night, it will set a series record for consecutive victories on the same track. Press won two last year and the opener this year. Mike Chase won three in a row at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield before Loran Kelley snapped his string on June 30.

That race was also the last outing for Press, who finished second.

“We’re kind of rusty heading for Saugus, but like I’ve always said, we figure that’s our home track,” Press said. “Saugus is a tough track to tame, and all those years we’ve run there have really helped. Running there is like putting on a good pair of shoes that fit you nicely. If everything hangs together, we’ll be in good shape.”

In addition to his three Southwest Tour victories at Saugus, Press won track championships there in 1978 and ’82. He also set the track’s one-lap qualifying record of 77.017 m.p.h. last year.

Press won two of the season’s first three races in defense of his Southwest Tour title, but it wasn’t enough to convince him to run the full series. Saturday night will be his sixth race of 14.

“It (the championship) got too expensive to run, what with all the money we spent and the money we lost by taking time away from the business to run 20 events,” he said. “They cut a couple of races off the schedule this year, but we still couldn’t see how we could afford to do the whole thing again. Business is more important than fun.”

Press runs a machine shop, DPI (for Dan Press Industry), in Lebec, near his Frazier Park home on the Ridge Route between Los Angeles and Bakersfield. DPI fabricates aerospace and race car parts.

Two crashes at Mesa Marin, one in a race on April 7 and the other while practicing for a May 19 race, also contributed to expenses and lost time.

“Both times it was a tire that came off the rim,” Press said. “The second time it happened, it really tore up the car and just about totaled it. It still wasn’t right when we came back for the June 30 race. We set a fast time, but (the car) didn’t run as good in the race.”

The Chevy is the same one he drove last year, although the sheetmetal has been changed to make it a Lumina instead of a Camaro.

Press will find a hot standings battle in progress Saturday night, with Doug George of Atwater, Calif.; M. K. Kanke of Granada Hills, and Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale only 70 points apart after 13 races. George has won three races, more than any other driver.

An added entry will be Stanley Smith of Chelsea, Ala., defending champion in NASCAR’s All-American Challenge Series.

The final race for the track street stock championship will also be held Saturday night; Craig Rayburn has a 14-point lead over Dave Blankenship, with Ed Horst two points further back.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--The third and final qualifying round for the U.S. Nationals will be held Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. With 14 of 16 positions at stake, it is the closest final qualifier in the history of American speedway racing. After earlier rounds in Sacramento and Victorville, defending champion Bobby Schwartz leads with 39 points, followed by Phil Collins with 38 and Steve Lucero and Mike Faria with 30 each. Shawn Moran and Billy Hamill are seeded into the finals by virtue of their Nissan American Final finishes. Moran, however, has indicated that he will not return from England to ride, so his spot will be taken by Rick Miller. The U.S. Finals are Oct. 6 in Costa Mesa.

Moran became the third American in six years to tie for first place in the World Finals and then lose in a runoff when he was defeated Saturday in England by Per Jonsson of Sweden. Lance King lost in 1984 to Erik Gundersen and Hans Nielsen of Denmark, and Sam Ermolenko lost to the same pair in 1985. Jonsson is the first rider other than a Dane to win the world championship since 1983.

SPRINT CARS--Ron Shuman took a major step toward winning his third consecutive California Racing Assn. championship with a 50-lap victory Saturday night at Ascot Park and a fourth place Sunday in Phoenix. With 12 races remaining--eight at Ascot--he moved within 34 points of leader Brad Noffsinger and 24 of early-season leader John Redican. Shuman, who will be going for his sixth season CRA victory Saturday night at Ascot, was 237 points behind when the CRA came home from its midwestern tour in May.

DRAG RACING--The National Hot Rod Assn.’s Pacific Division of the Winston Racing Series, featuring more than 400 sportsman drivers, will return this weekend to the L.A. County Raceway in Littlerock, near Palmdale. The fourth of six division races, in which competitors earn points toward regional championships, it carries a purse of $95,200. Qualifying Friday and Saturday will set the fields for final eliminations starting at noon Sunday. Favorites include Brad Anderson of Covina, three-time NHRA champion in alcohol funny car, and Blaine Johnson of Santa Maria, defending champion in top alcohol dragster.

MOTOCROSS--The final race of the Southern California section of the Continental Motosport Club’s Trans Cal Nationals will be held Sunday at Carlsbad Raceway. Winners will meet Northern California riders in the finals Sept. 15-16 at Marysville. . . . CMC riders will also compete Friday night at Ascot Park.

MIDGETS--Imperial Raceway, near El Centro, will begin its fall season Saturday night with the Arizona Midget Racing Assn. furnishing competition. Five-time Arizona champion Jack Yeley of Phoenix heads the entries. Also on the program at the California Mid-Winter Fairgrounds will be street stocks.

STOCK CARS--Versatile Mike Kirby won his 12th Figure 8 main event in his past 16 starts at Ascot Park last week, one night after finishing eighth in a CRA sprint car race. Kirby will be racing his Figure 8 machine Sunday night at Ascot in the NASCAR Winston Racing Series competition. . . . Only two races remain in the Cajon Speedway sportsman stock championship, and Jerry Gay, who won his 101st career main event last week, leads Larry Lyon by only six points going into Saturday night’s race. . . . Dirt track cars will run Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway. . . . Street stocks will race Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

HYDROPLANES--Defending champion Tom D’Eath and four-time champion Chip Hanauer will take their rivalry for the Unlimited Hydroplane championship down to the final race, the Budweiser Cup on Sept. 16 on San Diego’s Mission Bay. D’Eath, driving Miss Budweiser, and Hanauer, in Miss Circus Circus, have each won four races this season, but D’Eath leads in points, 9925 to 9352.

VINTAGE CARS--The Firefighters Grand Prix, a charity event for the Alisa Ann Ruch California Burn Foundation, will be run this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway in conjunction with the Vintage Auto Racing Assn.’s Coors/Essex House Vintage Gold Cup series. Kyle Shields of the Orange County Fire Dept. is defending champion in the Firefighters race, in which competitors drive Toyota Celicas that were used in the Long Beach Grand Prix celebrity race.

OFF-ROAD RACING--The Nevada 500, successor to the old Frontier 500 Las Vegas-to-Reno race, will be held Saturday outside of Pahrump, Nev. The High Desert Racing Assn. race will start in the ghost town of Johnnie, travel north to Beatty and then continue through historic Central Nevada towns of Bonnie Clair, Silverpeak, Dyer, Tonopah and Goldfield before heading south to Johnnie and on to the finish at the Pahrump Station Inn.

SPORTS CARS--Juan Fangio won the International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GTP race in a Dan Gurney-prepared Toyota last Sunday in San Antonio, but the 2-3 finish by Chip Robinson and Geoff Brabham gave Nissan its second consecutive IMSA manufacturers championship. The season ends on Nov. 11 at Del Mar.

NECROLOGY--Memorial services for Dave Sanborn, the California Racing Assn. course worker who died from injuries received when he was hit by a car Saturday night at Ascot Park, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at the Yorba Linda United Methodist Church, 19002 Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda. In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations be made to the Mitch Culp Rehabilitation Fund, California Racing Assn., 19785 Deep Harbor, Huntington Beach, CA. 92648. Culp is a sprint car driver who suffered a back injury on Aug. 11.