Hornaday Chases First Southwest Tour Title

Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale will continue pursuit of his first NASCAR Southwest Tour championship in tonight’s running of the Coors 100 at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino.

Hornaday, 34, the tour’s points leader after 14 of 17 events, has three main-event victories this season and holds a 70-point lead over Doug George of Atwater, Calif., who is in second place. George has won two main events.

Rick Carelli of Denver, the tour’s defending champion, has won a season-high six main events but is in third place, 117 points behind Hornaday.

Hornaday, whose last victory came Sept. 12 at Saugus Speedway, has not won a main-event at Orange Show Speedway. Hornaday was the leader of last year’s 100-lap main event on the track’s quarter-mile paved oval after 41 laps but failed to finish because of mechanical failure. Carelli went on to win.

The tour’s final two races are scheduled for Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway on Oct. 17 and Phoenix International Raceway on Oct. 31.

Chuck Cagley of Westlake Village won the state championships in the 650cc and 750cc limited jet ski class last weekend at the California State Watercraft Championships in Santa Nella.

With the titles, Cagley qualified for the world championships, to be held Oct. 20-25 at Lake Havasu, Ariz.

Cagley, 18, a sophomore at Moorpark College and a 1991 Agoura High graduate, has been jet skiing recreationally for about two years but started racing in May.

Hart High will put its No. 1 national boys’ cross-country ranking on the line today in the Stanford invitational.

Hart, the two-time defending state Division I champion, is expected to meet fifth-ranked Concord (Calif.) De La Salle, 13th-ranked Madera (Calif.), and 19th-ranked Bend (Ore.).

The Indians are the defending Stanford invitational champions.

The Golden League will hold the first of three league cross-country meets this season today in Palmdale.

The meet, which will be held on the Joshua Hills cross-country course in Palmdale, will count for 25% of the final league standings.

The second meet, to be held at Rattlesnake cross-country course in Quartz Hill on Oct. 10, also will count for 25%.

The league finals at Highland High on Nov. 5 will count for 50%.