Mintey Slips Past Sapper for 2nd Win

Defending track champion Pat Mintey Jr. showed no signs of relinquishing that position any time soon, winning his second NASCAR Sportsman main event in as many starts Saturday night at Saugus Speedway.

“This car is awesome,” said Mintey, who is driving a new car this season. “We made a few adjustments before the race, and they were the right ones.”

The 27-year-old Lancaster resident moved past three-time Modified champion Kenny Sapper of La Crescenta on the outside coming out of Turn 1 on the 25th lap and held on for the win.

“Any time you can pass on the outside like that. . . . It doesn’t get any better than that,” Mintey said. “Especially against a veteran like Kenny. He drove a clean race. He left some room on the outside. I just went around and hooked it up.”

Sapper finished right on Mintey’s bumper in second, while Gary Sigman of Carson and Sean Woodside of Saugus were a distant third and fourth, respectively.

Results from the 100-lap NASCAR Southwest Tour race were unavailable by press time.

During qualifying, Sean Monroe of Venice became the first first-time driver to ever post the fastest qualifying time (15.468 seconds, 77.58 m.p.h.) in the Southwest Tour’s nine-year existence.

In preliminary Southwest Tour race action, Ray Hooper Jr. of Las Vegas won the four-lap Tour trophy dash. The 10-lap heat races were won by Agua Dulce resident Harry Brady, Doug Renno of Canoga Park, Bryan Brown of Bakersfield and Will Harper of Tarzana.

In earlier Sportsman races, Sal Rose of Van Nuys won the six-lap trophy dash. Simi Valley’s Steve Nickolai and Woodside each posted victories in an eight-lap heat race.