Saugus Stock Car Event Spread Over Weekend

Saugus Speedway will celebrate the Fourth of July weekend with a rare two nights of racing for stock car enthusiasts.

All six NASCAR Winston Racing Series divisions will be in action on Saturday or Monday night on the one-third mile flat asphalt oval in Santa Clarita.

The sportsman division, headed by points leader Pat Mintey Jr. of Lancaster, will headline Saturday’s GM Performance Parts Night with a 40-lap main event. Mintey has 207 points to 192 for Sean Woodside of Saugus, 181 for Craig Rayburn of Santa Clarita and 173 for Gary Sigman of Carson.

Also on the Saturday night program will be the pro stock division, which includes a 25-lap oval track main event and a 15-lap Figure 8 race. Scott Dinger of Simi Valley is the pro stock leader with 137 points to 118 for Brian Kelly of Arleta.

An Ego Challenge will precede qualifying at 6 p.m., with trophy dashes starting the show at 7.

Monday night will feature the Grand American modifieds, which have been dominated by Dave Phipps of Simi Valley. Phipps is a six-time track champion, having won sportsman titles in 1984, 1987 and 1988 and Grand American modified the last three years. He leads with 143 points, far ahead of runner-up Dave Blankenship of Reseda, with 99.

Other Monday night races will include street stock oval and Figure 8s, mini-stocks and pro four modifieds, followed by a train race and a fireworks show.

The street stock division is the tightest with only three points separating the first three drivers. Kirk Miller of Alta Loma leads with 123, followed by John Schultz of Valencia with 121 and Greg Benner of Whittier with 120. Other points leaders include Kenny Smith of El Monte, pro four modified division, and Jeff McCall of Gardena, mini stocks.

Trophy dashes will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday.

Saugus General Manager Ray Wilkings, who was named national promoter of the year in 1990, has also scheduled a band concert at 5 p.m. on both days.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--The first of four NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour races at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield will be held Saturday night on the half-mile paved oval. The late model stock cars will run 100 laps. . . . Cajon Speedway in El Cajon will hold a Winston Racing Series sportsman race and a destruction derby Saturday night, followed by street stocks, a train race and fireworks on Monday night. . . . Blythe Speedway will hold a sportsman and pro stock program Saturday night.

OFF ROAD--Desert racing enthusiasts will get a doubleheader of action in the 23rd Fireworks 250 Saturday when the SCORE Tecate Trophy Trucks compete in one race and the 14 other Ultra-Wheels classes run over the rutted 73-mile course in a separate event. Veteran Roger Mears will start first in the truck race, then head for Pikes Peak and the July 4 hill climb. Both races will be three loops of a 73-mile course starting at the Sidewinder exit off I-15 between Barstow and Victorville.

INDY CARS--The 1995 Indy car schedule has been expanded to 17 events, one more than this year. A surprise is that five races will be held before the Indianapolis 500. The season will open March 5 with a new race on the streets of Miami, followed by Surfers Paradise in Australia, Phoenix, Long Beach and Nazareth, Pa., before Indy on May 28. The season will end Sept. 10 at Laguna Seca, a month earlier than this season to avoid TV conflicts with football and the World Series.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Racing reaches the halfway point Friday night at the Costa Mesa Speedway with national champion Mike Faria holding a substantial lead with 843 points over former national titleholders Brad Oxley (782) and Bobby Schwartz (729) and ice racing champion Charlie Venegas (737).

PIKES PEAK--Rod Millen, after winning Mickey Thompson stadium off-road championships in his Toyota truck, will take aim Monday on the Pikes Peak Hillclimb unlimited class and overall record in a new factory-backed Celica GT. The rally-type car, built in Millen’s shop in Huntington Beach, is a four-wheel-drive, powered by a turbocharged, four-cylinder, 2.1-liter motor. Millen’s son, Rhys, will also drive a Celica in the showroom stock class. This will be Toyota’s first factory effort in the 72-year-old Race to the Clouds--a 12.42-mile run to the top of the mountain that includes 156 turns.

POWERBOATS--Ten national champions will be among 75 boats entered Monday in the annual Fourth of July Regatta at Long Beach Marine Stadium. Don Johnson of Azusa, 1990 world champion, and Craig Wendt of Huntington Beach, the 1991 International Outboard Grand Prix champion, are entered in the Formula Champ boats class, in which speeds are in excess of 140 m.p.h. Also part of the program, which starts at 10 a.m., will be circle ski racers.

MISCELLANY--A garage sale of some of Carroll Shelby’s car collection will be held next Friday at the Hyatt Newporter Hotel in Newport Beach. Among the items will be a turbine-powered Indy car, a 500-horsepower Pantera that was Shelby’s personal car, and a number of Chrysler products designed by Shelby. It will be part of the Newport Beach Classic & Collector Car Auction, July 8-10, handled by Don Williams, Rick Cole and Richie Clyne.