MOTOR RACING : Rookies Triple-Team Saugus

Entering the homestretch of the season at Saugus Speedway, one hot racing team has the distinct possibility of driving off with three rookie-of-the-year awards.

The newcomers are Mark Miller, who has almost wrapped up the Hobby Stock points championship; Scott Dinger, securely the highest-scoring rookie in the Street Stock class and second in the points standings; and Doug Renno, who is in sixth place in the Sportsman points standings but just 18 points behind fellow rookie Russ Beckers of Sepulveda.

“Yep,” Renno said in a cautious understatement, “we’ve been running pretty good.”

The first-year team is headed by car owner Bill Miller, father of Mark and owner of eight restaurants in the Valley and its environs.

Miller’s daughter Kim married Renno last September when Renno competed full time in the Street Stock division. Renno, 31, finished eighth in the points standings last season despite missing six races, and his father-in-law gave him the chance to jump to the Sportsman class in the off-season by helping him finance a new Sportsman car.

The team formed shortly thereafter.

Renno offered his No. 72 Street Stock car to Dinger, 31, a friend from his days at Chatsworth High. “After all, he helped me build it,” Renno said.

Miller, 21, had dabbled in racing at Saugus at the end of the 1990 season in Renno’s old No. 54 Hobby Stock car--owned by Renno’s mechanic--that Renno drove in 1989. Miller proved adept behind the wheel; in three races, he placed second and twice finished fifth.

All three cars are kept in the same shed in Canoga Park so “we can keep a good eye on all of them,” said Renno, who also keeps an admiring eye on his less-experienced teammates and their performances.

“Those two cars (those of Miller and Dinger) probably don’t even have to race the rest of the year to win their awards,” Renno said with a chuckle.

In his bid to be named the top rookie in the Sportsman class, Renno has formidable competition from Beckers. For instance, when Renno sped to an exciting win last Saturday in the 40-lap Sportsman main event, Beckers was not far behind in third.

“Russ is a good guy and this division is really competitive,” Renno said. “But there’s a possibility (to pass Beckers).” As far as next year goes, Renno said, there is a possibility that Miller will move to the Street Stock class, in which he will again be a rookie.

As for Renno and Dinger? With rookie status shed, they no doubt will shift focus to winning a points championship outright.

Back on track: The force with which Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill slammed his Sportsman ride into the wall coming out of Turn 2 last Saturday night at Saugus Speedway was frightening, but it seems that you can’t keep a good racer down.

Thanks to some heroic repair work and some much needed cash from his sponsor, Mintey will return to the track tonight in his sleek-looking No. 35x car.

A little neck injury isn’t going to stop the one-lap, track record-holder in the Sportsman class.

“I sprained my neck pretty good,” said Mintey, who has shunned a neck brace. “I dazed out for a while. But it’s not as serious as everybody thinks.”

Mintey was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Medical Center for treatment after his car got caught in a tangled mess between the cars of Ken Sapper and John Higgins. Mintey and Sapper rammed into the wall of the back straightaway, but Sapper escaped injury.

Mintey was released from the hospital by midnight and said that the soreness lasted until Monday night. But after that, his only concern was the car.

“We took it down to the (repair shop) Sunday night after (the Spangler family) offered to help us put it back together,” Mintey said. “It came back Tuesday night.”

Among the repairs: almost an entire new body on the front of the car, new steering components, a new radiator and a new front frame. According to Mintey, basically “a new everything.”

The car was painted Thursday and Mintey’s one-week comeback will be complete tonight.

Close race: Fans of the NASCAR Southwest Tour might want to head to Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino tonight for what should be another evening of neck-and-neck racing.

Palmdale resident Ron Hornaday Jr. is clinging to a one-point lead in the points standings over Rick Carelli of Denver. Hornaday does not have a history of overwhelming success in San Bernardino, finishing fifth there twice in his rookie season of 1988.

But his luck can change at this track--the one-quarter-mile paved oval at Orange Show has had five different winners in the Southwest Tour’s past five stops. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7.

Going Dutch: Congratulations are in order for Canyon Country’s Mike Kiedrowski, one of three motocross stars named to represent the United States in the Sept. 15 Motocross des Nations in Valkenswaard, the Netherlands.

Kiedrowski, 22, raced for the U.S. team in 1989. Kiedrowski, who will ride a 125-cc bike at the championships, will be joined by Jeff Stanton of Sherwood, Mich., and Damon Bradshaw of Mooresville, N.C., as the United States team goes for its 11th consecutive victory in the race that determines the world team motocross championship.