SuperTrucks Driving Record Attendance

NASCAR’s SuperTrucks, which attracted a record crowd to Saugus Speedway last Saturday night, are going to do the same thing Saturday afternoon at Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway.

The SuperTrucks are part of the track’s three-day horsepower festival that includes the California 200 for Winston West cars Sunday, plus late model sportsman of the Winston Racing Series. ABC will televise the 125-lap truck race live at 1:40 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ve sold more tickets already than for any race we’ve ever had here,” said Marion Collins, Mesa Marin promoter. The stadium holds 7,000, and 2,000 temporary seats have been added.

NASCAR first experimented with racing full-bodied pickups on an asphalt oval at Mesa Marin’s half-mile oval last July. That preview race was won by P.J. Jones, who will be back Saturday in Scoop Vessel’s Die-Hard Chevrolet C-1500 and looking for his first series victory.

Ken Schrader, whose Chevrolet edged Geoff Bodine’s Ford to win the Saugus feature, will not be at Bakersfield. He and Bodine will be at Martinsville, Va., for a Winston Cup race.

Chevrolet has won all three SuperTruck races--Mike Skinner at Phoenix, Ron Hornaday Jr. at Tucson and Schrader. Ford favorites hoping to break the streak include Butch Miller, second in SuperTruck points; Joe Ruttman, sprint car veteran Sammy Swindell and Butch Gilliland of Anaheim.

Three prominent drivers who skipped Saugus--Gary Collins, Mike Chase and Mike Bliss--are entered at Mesa Marin.

Collins, a Bakersfield driver who built the prototype truck used in the series, won the California 200 last year. Chase, a former Bakersfield resident who lives in Concord, N.C., won the Winston West championship last year. Bliss, from Milwaukie, Ore., is the 1993 U.S. Auto Club Silver Crown champion.

Several drivers will compete in both the truck and Winston West race, including Chase and Bill Sedgwick of Acton, a five-time winner at Mesa Marin. Chase will drive Steve Sellers’ Ford in the 200. Sellers finished sixth at Mesa Marin last October but is turning his car over to Chase, who has won 12 races at the track.

Although Collins is defending champion in the 200, he will skip it to concentrate on the trucks.

There will be 50-lap main events Saturday and Sunday for the late model sportsman cars.

Motor Racing Notes

POWERBOATS--The unlimited hydroplane season will begin this weekend with the Gila River Casino Unlimited Cup at Firebird Lake, near Phoenix. The format will be different from usual unlimited races with 11 two-boat heats scheduled Sunday over the 1.67-mile course to determine the winner. Mark Tate, in owner Steve Woosmer’s Smokin’ Joe boat, is defending national champion.

STOCK CARS--Late models, pure stocks and street stocks of NASCAR’s Winston Racing Series will return to Saugus Speedway Saturday night. . . . Blythe Speedway will hold its only day race of the year Sunday as part of the Colorado River County Fair. . . . Sunrise Valley Raceway in Adelanto will switch its dirt track schedule to night racing, starting Saturday. Racing is scheduled every other week.

MIDGETS--Arizona’s Billy Boat will go for his fourth U.S. Auto Club main event victory Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. Western States TQ midgets will share billing with the full midgets.

LAND SPEED--The annual El Mirage Sports Faire on Sunday at El Mirage Dry Lake, near Palmdale, will be co-hosted by the Southern California Timing Assn. and the Bureau of Land Management. Participants also include the California Off-Road Vehicle Assn., American Motorcyclist Assn. District 37, California 4-Wheel Drive Club, American Land Sailing Federation and the Gyroplane Assn. Activities, free to the public, will start at 10 a.m.

MISCELLANY--Santa Maria Speedway will hold the Budweiser Golden State Challenge series for winged sprint cars Saturday night. . . . Nonwinged cars of the Sprint Car Racing Assn. will be at Watsonville Speedway on Friday night and San Jose Speedway on Saturday night. . . . Western Legends will race Saturday night at San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway.