Talk of Life and Death in the Wake of Fatal Saugus Crash

The death of a vintage midget-car driver during a racing exhibition Saturday night at Saugus Speedway has left fans, officials and racing veterans at the 55-year-old race track contemplating some troubling questions.

Paul Grosso, 67, of Van Nuys, a founding member of the Western Racing Assn., was participating in an eight-lap demonstration race during intermission when his 1952 Edmunds Midget collided with a stalled vehicle on the main straightaway. Grosso, whose car flipped during the accident, was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. Sunday, according to a hospital spokesman.

An examination is expected to be conducted within the next few days to determine the exact cause of death, according to an L.A. County coroner spokesman.

Witnesses said Grosso, who apparently did not see the vehicle in front of him until it was too late, suffered cuts and lacerations, including a serious injury to his right arm, which appeared to be nearly severed. Paramedics raised a white sheet on the track retaining wall to shield Grosso from spectators.

“There was a lot of blood,” Saugus promoter Ray Wilkings said. “When I was on the track, I don’t think he was conscious.”

Fatalities, although rare, are an inherent and widely accepted reality in auto racing. But visitors to Saugus, a one-third-mile paved oval in which typical speeds are far lower than those achieved on larger, more prominent NASCAR tracks, are virtual strangers to death.

“There is an eerie feeling about it,” said Pro Stock points leader Scott Dinger of Simi Valley, who did not witness the crash but heard “a tremendous impact” in the pit area.

“We were all aware of how serious he was injured,” Dinger said. “But no one thought he was going to die. We were going to sign a picture and take it over to him.”

Wilkings, who began working in the track’s concession stands in 1966, said Grosso’s death is the sixth fatality he is aware of at Saugus--not all drivers.

“It’s not something we like to keep track of,” Wilkings said. “It’s always a shock. You don’t like to see anything like this happen. We all mourn the situation. But it’s something that does happen.”

The most recent death at Saugus, by Wilkings’ recollection, occurred sometime during the late 1970s, when a car jumped a wall, tumbled down an embankment and struck a track official. A similar accident claimed the life of a racing mechanic a few years earlier. Another fatality occurred when a piece of flying debris struck a spectator, who died about a month later.

Dave Phipps, 46, of Simi Valley, three-time defending Grand American Modified champion and one of the most successful drivers in track history, said he can count on one hand the number of deaths that have occurred at Saugus since he began watching races from the stands in 1960.

Phipps, an enthusiastic historian of Saugus racing, recalled as most shocking an accident in 1969 in which a driver was killed during a practice session.

“His throttle stuck, and he crashed into the wall off the back straightaway,” Phipps said. “That’s the worst I ever heard of.”

Phipps, who also has won three Sportsman titles at Saugus since he began racing in 1980, witnessed the accident involving Grosso. Like many observers, Phipps labeled the crash “a freak accident.”

“It’s really tough to see in front of you when you’re driving on the outside lane, which is something I do a lot,” Phipps said. “He came around, and it looked like his vision had been blocked. The worst possible circumstances happened. The poor guy had nowhere to go.”

Members of the 13-year-old WRA participate in about 14 demonstration races at tracks throughout California, according to Dan Fleisher, president of the association. The vintage vehicles, precursors to the modern-day midget race cars that typically run on dirt oval tracks throughout the West Coast, are kept as true to the era of the 1940s and ‘50s in which they competed, Fleisher said.

The vintage cars’ performance Saturday night accented a program that included Saugus’ annual visit by the United States Auto Club’s Midget series.

The vintage midgets “almost never” are involved in accidents, Fleisher said.

“Anything along these lines happens very infrequently,” Fleisher said. “I don’t mean (just) a flip and a death. I mean any kind of a spin.”

In lieu of services, a gathering of Grosso’s friends will take place Friday night in Burbank in accordance with the driver’s wishes, Fleisher said. Dinger and Phipps, neither of whom has suffered a serious racing injury, said they don’t fear dying in a race car. That’s what most drivers say.