Double Duty : Tireless Sigman, 53, Vies for Saugus Points Lead in Sportsman, Grand Am Modified Divisions

Gary Sigman must dream at night of roadside motels. Or maybe a long trip on a Greyhound bus: Leave the driving to us.

For Sigman, at 53 among the oldest drivers at Saugus Speedway, it has been a long, arduous season from which he certainly could use a break. But right now, Sigman’s hands are as full as his two-car garage.

Entering the season’s stretch run, Sigman is the current points leader of the track’s Sportsman division and the show horse in the Grand American Modified division points race.

No other Saugus driver is competing regularly in more than one division. But this is not a first for Sigman, who also pulled double duty last year.

No driver has won two division championships in the same season in the track’s 53-year history. And no driver is as exhausted as Sigman after the races when he trailers both cars and heads for his home in Carson.

“I work out regularly and I consider myself in pretty good shape for my age,” Sigman said. “But some nights it’s tough. We park the cars right next to each other. I hop out of one and hop into the other.”

Sigman will hop to it again tonight when the Sportsman and Grand Am divisions are scheduled to headline the program.

Only four main events remain in the Sportsman division, and just three in Grand Am. While his chances of catching Dave Phipps of Simi Valley in the Grand Am points race are slim, Sigman is in the driver’s seat en route to his first Sportsman title--if he can hold off hard-charging Lance Hooper of Palmdale.

And if he doesn’t run out of emotional gas.

“We’re just barely going to get through the year,” Sigman said. “When I take both cars, my guys are hopping all day. When we take one car out, everyone says, ‘Geez, this is like a vacation.’ ”

The two divisions are not always scheduled to run the same evening. But only once this season has Sigman, who has owned his own business building race cars since 1969, failed to have a car ready for racing.

This, though, has been a difficult week of preparation.

Sigman’s Sportsman car emerged relatively unscathed from last weekend’s twin 50-lap main events, but his volunteer crew of five has worked feverishly to repair his Grand Am entry, which Sigman slammed into a wall in its last outing.

“I’ve just got the best pit crew at Saugus,” Sigman said. “The key is getting the cars ready before we get out there. When we get to the races, we’re ready to race.”

For years, Sigman participated in stock-car racing only as an owner, watching his cars win, by his estimation, more than 400 main events. He entered his own Sportsman car at Saugus in 1987 and almost immediately became one of the track’s most consistent competitors, finishing among the top five in points every year since 1988.

Last season, Sigman posted his best performance to date, finishing second to Hooper in the Sportsman division.

And when the track last year introduced the Grand Am division, an open-wheel class more affordable than Sportsman, Sigman constructed his own entry. He finished fourth in points.

“Being in the car business, we built the modified just as a development piece to try and help the track develop the show,” Sigman said. “That’s pretty much why we continued this year.”

How long will he continue to drive both? Sigman isn’t the first driver at Saugus to drive two cars. And he won’t be the first to give up on one.

From 1988-90, Craig Rayburn of Santa Clarita competed in both the Sportsman and Street Stock divisions. His best finish in the Sportsman division was fifth, and he finished seventh in Street Stock the same year.

In 1990, Rayburn won the Street Stock championship but finished 10th among Sportsman drivers. The following year, he dropped out of the Street Stock division.

“That’s why I’m doing only one this year,” said Rayburn, currently third among Sportsman drivers. “It was fun racing both. They called me the Iron Man and all that. But it was hard. You do twice as much work.”

Phipps, a three-time Saugus Sportsman champion, was among the inaugural entries of the Grand Am division last year. He won the title but finished eighth in the Sportsman class.

Competing in only the Grand Am division this year, Phipps is the current points leader, 23 points ahead of Dave Blankenship of Reseda. Sigman is third, 47 points out of first.

“I believe that when you drive two cars, you don’t do as good as you can in either one,” Phipps said. “That’s why I dropped out of it. Plus, it’s very difficult for the pit crew to keep two cars going. If both of the cars are having trouble, tire problems or engine trouble . . . any kind of a problem puts you behind the eight ball.”

This season’s Sportsman race is hotter than a Maserati at a swap meet. Last weekend, Hooper won both 50-lap main events to pull to within 36 points of Sigman, who finished second and third. Saugus main events typically award 26 points to the winner of a 24-car main event, 24 points for second place, 22 for third and so on down to 13th. All other starters receive two points.

Four main events remain and Hooper, having won the last four, is charging hard. Sigman, who has won just one main event in each division, admits to feeling the pressure.

Meanwhile, Phipps, never one to fade, has his second Grand Am title virtually in hand.

Why not park the Grand Am and step on the gas in the Sportsman? Sigman looks at things conversely.

“We’ve had three guys working on the Modified for three days straight this week,” he said. “If we could have concentrated on the Modified a bit more, then we would have had the opportunity to lead both divisions.

“We go into every race with the optimism that we’re going to do well. Even when I was a car owner I never went into a race expecting to finish second.”

Ultimately, however, Sigman concedes, “It’s just too much work to do to run two cars in one night.” And he said he likely will give up one next season.

The recession has hit auto racing hard. And Sigman has not built as many race cars this year as he had hoped.

Should he hold off Hooper and win the Sportsman title, Sigman’s reward will be a long-awaited track championship.

And a long-awaited rest.