MOTOR RACING / BRIAN MURPHY : Jalopy Drivers Finish First in Having Fun

They are the forgotten few at Saugus Speedway, the entry-level drivers who haul old wrecks out of the dump yard, spend hours to get them running and race with little or no fanfare.

They are the drivers of the Jalopy division.

Not as flashy as the Sportsman, and not as attractive as, say, the Grand American Modifieds, the Jalopy division cars remain identifiable to the average fan. Most of the cars are large American vehicles recognizable to fans as the kind of cars Mom and Dad drove in the early 1970s. No souped-up Camaros or Luminas here.

Jalopy drivers such as John Fleming of Simi Valley and Harrison (Bart) Bartholomew of North Hollywood, Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the Jalopy points standings, represent this class nicely: friendly, outgoing guys who are racing for fun, not money. Jalopy drivers receive none of the green currency that drivers in the Street Stock and Sportsman divisions do.

“Everybody I talk to in the divisions above me, they all say it’s a business up there,” Bartholomew, 28, said. “It’s not a hobby. Me? I have a hell of a lot of fun out here.”

Bartholomew estimates that he and his crew spend three hours a night, five nights a week working on the car. Bartholomew has teamed with Hobby Stocker Kelly Colgan, 33, of Shadow Hills, to form “K & B Racing.” The two pool resources to make the ride a little easier. Still, Bartholomew estimates that he will spend about $1,500 on the car this season.

“We met last year running jalopies,” Bartholomew said. “And we decided to be a team. We share our tools, our knowledge . . . we share everything.”

Bartholomew said that, while he would like to race Hobby Stocks next year and, in maybe five years, race Street Stocks, it’s likely that he’ll never leave Saugus Speedway. That idea alone is enough to separate him from the pack of Sportsman drivers who openly talk of leaving Saugus Speedway for bigger money racing on the Winston Southwest and West tours.

“I’m just a very realistic person with many goals,” said Bartholomew. “I just want to take sure, slow steps.”

Add Jalopy: Fleming, the current points leader in the division, is six years younger than Bartholomew at 22 and is equally enthusiastic about his division.

As Fleming points out, Jalopy cars are enjoyable for fans because of their wild and unpredictable nature. Not constructed as tightly and as professionally as the Sportsman cars, Jalopies tend to be a little looser in turns and elsewhere.

“It’s a blast,” said Fleming, a graduate of Royal High. “You really get to refine your driving skills. It’s the most fun trying to dodge these cars as we’re all going left and right.”

Fleming, who succinctly says that he got into racing “for the hell of it,” said that he takes his greatest satisfaction from racing the figure-eights.

“It was scary at first,” admitted Fleming, who is in his second year at Saugus. “But then we won the combined Hobby Stock/Jalopy figure-eight last month.

Fleming said that he is interested in getting into the Grand American Modifieds next year. Those cars, too, are relatively inexpensive and appealing to a driver like Fleming, who bought his first Jalopy for $400 out of a friend’s yard.

“We don’t have much maintenance on these cars,” Fleming said. “Mainly we’re replacing fenders.”

Appreciative driver: Any driver willing to go to the trouble Greg Benner did deserves to get himself a little recognition. Benner, 37, is a Street Stock racer at Saugus Speedway and last week he presented to the media at Saugus a six-page folder replete with photos and everything you ever wanted to know about Greg Benner.

His reason for the packet? Self-promotion? A bid for a sponsor?

Hardly. As Benner writes, “My reasons for giving you information . . . (are) not to advance my racing career because I love racing Street Stocks at Saugus . . . but to publicly show my appreciation to my family, friends and sponsors.”

Benner isn’t likely to win a points championship this year, having failed to win a main event this season, but that isn’t the point.

“I just get so much help from everybody,” Benner said. “It’s just my way of showing appreciation.”

A nice sentiment, to be sure. Benner, meanwhile, will continue to teach wood arts and photography in the Downey Unified School District in between racing at Saugus. He’ll also wait for his wife, Kim, to give birth to their first child in August.

As Benner told Saugus Speedway announcer Virgil Kilpatrick: “She can give birth on any day but Saturday.”

Move over, Julianne: Just nine days after Julianne Seeley of Canyon Country became the first female driver in Saugus Speedway history to win a main event, Mindy Drake of Palmdale went ahead and became the second female driver to win a main event.

Drake won the Jalopy main event last Saturday. No doubt she celebrated heartily with fellow driver Russ Wolff of Palmdale. Wolff, after all, is her fiancee.