MOTOR RACING / VINCE KOWALICK : Donahue Takes an Early Lead

One has to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Rich Donahue in a go-kart race.

Then again, one has to get up early just to meet Donahue at the track.

Today, Donahue and his fellow members of the Los Angeles Kart Club will rise before dawn, as usual, as the LAKC makes its regular monthly visit to Saugus Speedway.

Because of Saugus’ regular Saturday night stock-car agenda--which typically includes early afternoon practice laps--members of the LAKC are forced to race their shrill-sounding vehicles on Saturday mornings.

Gates open at 6 a.m. and racing begins at 8. Spectators are few, cups of hot coffee many. But that’s life on the lower rung of the racing ladder.

“The only people out there watching are the people involved with the racers, and they’re all in the pits,” said Donahue, 32, who lives in Reseda and works as an airplane mechanic in Van Nuys.

Donahue has thrived as an early bird. Entering the sixth of 11 scheduled events this season, he is the points leader in the club’s Econo Heavy division and is in noisy pursuit of his third consecutive division championship.

The LAKC features six other divisions, including classes for competitors 40 years of age and older, and juniors from 12-16.

The go-karts navigate a one-third-mile road course, laid out on Saugus’ track and its paved infield.

Donahue has won one main event this season. Last season, Donahue won five main events. In 1990, the year of his first track title, he won eight.

For Donahue, who has been racing go-karts for 15 years, the thrill of going 70 m.p.h. while riding just a few inches above the pavement is well worth the early wake-up.

“I prefer (racing early), myself,” he said. “At Saugus, they don’t drag it out all day long like they do at some tracks. By noon, we’re done and I can get on with my day.”

Red-eyed racer: Another early riser this weekend is Ron Hornaday Jr. It’s all part of what should prove the most challenging weekend of the season for the handful of drivers who compete regularly on both NASCAR’s Southwest Tour and Winston West series.

Hornaday, 33, of Palmdale, will race tonight in the Southwest Tour’s 100-lap main event at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, then drive in the 200-lap Winston West main event Sunday afternoon at Portland Speedway in Oregon.

“I’m going to try like hell, how’s that?” Hornaday said about traveling to the Winston West race in time.

This weekend marks the third of four this season in which both series will run on consecutive days.

However, it is the only weekend in which the events will take place in separate cities.

Hornaday, second in points on the Southwest Tour and fifth in the Winston West points, said this weekend is too important to miss either race. After tonight’s race, Hornaday is scheduled to drive home, then catch an early morning flight from Los Angeles to Portland.

Because he will miss qualifications today in Portland, Hornaday will be relegated to the rear of the grid for the main event.

“It shouldn’t affect my driving at all,” Hornaday said of the itinerary. “We’ve done it before.”

Add travel: Doug Corning has spent more time on the San Diego Freeway lately than on any race track.

Last weekend, for the third time this season, Corning towed his Grand American Modified race car from his home in San Diego to compete at Saugus Speedway.

The first two trips paid off: Corning came away the winner of the evening’s main event on both nights, climbing to eighth in the division’s points standings.

Last Saturday, however, Corning was headed for home sooner than expected after blowing an engine during a heat race.

Corning, 21, is second in points in El Cajon’s Grand Am division, which runs on alternate weekends to Saugus’ schedule.

Corning said he plans to return to Saugus. “We need to fix this as soon as possible,” he said. “It’s a long way to come up to have this happen. But I’d rather have it happen here than down there.”

Corning’s misfortune opened the door for track rookie Johnny Lathrop of Riverside to win his first main event ahead of Dave Blankenship of Reseda and Dave Phipps of Simi Valley.

Phipps, the division’s defending champion and current points leader, has three wins this season in six starts.