Saugus Slow in More Ways Than One

Considering there were a half-hour-long bikini contest, an exhibition of vintage race cars and two “B” main events Saturday night at Saugus Speedway, it was a wonder that any main-event races got started before midnight.

A packed house of 6,081 waited patiently through all the preliminaries.

Race officials finally managed to squeeze in some main events, highlighted by the appearance of the United States Auto Club’s three-quarter midgets and full midgets.

But even when the night’s first main event--the 20-lap three-quarter midget main--got under way after 10 p.m., it was marred by more yellow than could be found on the brick road to Oz.

Five caution flags in the first six laps slowed matters considerably, but not enough to slow the momentum of Bakersfield’s Steve Kellick.

Kellick jumped to second place behind Burbank’s Frank Deiny Jr. for the first five laps, then blew past Deiny on Lap 6 for the lead.

He raced unchallenged from there, taking the checkered flag with a solid quarter-lap lead over Deiny.

The second-place finish was still a strong one for Deiny, a 1991 graduate of Burbank High.

Kellick’s win was an abbreviated one--race officials called the race after 14 laps when yet another red flag promised an even longer delay.

The faithful at Saugus, the season’s second-largest crowd, cheered accordingly.

Faced with time problems, race officials scrapped the Hobby Stock oval and figure-eight “B” main events and enlarged the field in each main to 27 cars in the oval and a whopping 28 in the figure-eight.

Both races were run after press time.

In Saturday’s fast-heat races, Rich Hendrix proved that he was experienced with a win in a 10-lap three-quarter midget fast heat.

In an eight-lap Midget fast heat marred by four caution flags, Rick Gray was the eventual winner.

Mark Miller of Chatsworth won an eight-lap Hobby Stock oval fast heat.

Julianne Seeley of Canyon Country continued her solid driving with a trophy dash win in the Hobby Stock oval division.

On the Fourth of July, Seeley became the first female in track history to win a main event.

Other trophy dash winners included Steve Kellick (three-quarter midgets); John Fleming of Simi Valley (Jalopy); Mark Miller of Chatsworth (Hobby Stock oval) and Sleepy Tripp of Costa Mesa (Midgets).

With Sportsman cars taking the night off, the night’s fastest qualifying times were turned in by Miller in the Hobby Stock division (19.43 seconds) and John Fleming of Simi Valley in the Jalopy division (20.56 seconds).