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Saugus Speedway Racing Program.


Saugus Speedway Racing Program.

Saturday, July 19, 1980.

Blue spot color cover, else black, 28 pages.

Cover: Ken Davis, West Covina, No. 50 Plymouth.

Driver profile: Jim McAlister.

Feature: Covan in Repeat Performance at Saugus.

Photos, in order of appearance: Davis, McAlister, Mike Helmer (KLAC), Mike Willard, Chris Falconer's pit crew, Tru Cheek, Don Lindner, Ken Sapper, Jim Ward, Cindy Lee Moore (trophy queen), Harry Newman (KLAC), Max Prusa, Lyn Pherigo, Don Langford (FLAC), Marshall Wilkings, Shav Glick (L.A. Times) Don Wilson, Darell Stingerie, Bob Wells, Jimmy Insolo, Sam Price, Bryan Brown.

Previous week's attendance: 4,228 (paid)


Driver Profile: Jim McAlister

Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Jim McAlister arrived in California two months after his August 14th birthday in '54. A Chatsworth High School grad, Jim has taken several classes at Cal State Northridge as an accounting major. At the moment, his job as an intertype operator for Deluxe Check Printers and his racing here at the Super Track keep him very busy. Jim plans to go back and finish his degree sometime in the not too distant future.

Jim's wife of one year, Sherrill, is listed as owner of the #48 street stocker. It's the best car he's had since he first started racing at Saugus during the '78 season. That year he and Dave Ellis shared the driving, then the next year Jim did most of the driving, but the car kept breaking allowing him to finish only 6 of 22 main events.

Nineteen eighty is a different story for Jim, his crew and his sponsors. With the help of Erickson Auto Parts, Kwik Stop Dairy Store and Nordic Landscape Supply, Jim has put the '68 Chevelle in the fifth spot in point standings at the time of this writing. Everyone on the crew shares in the job of keeping the car ready. Ralph Kober, Jodi & Jack Grimes, Connie & Ronnie Snyder and Dave Ellis have done their part in keeping Jim in most races this season. He's really excited about being able to put it all together, the car, the sponsors and the crew.

A few weeks ago, Jim had a main event win taken away from him by the technical committee and O.R.A. officials. In Jim's words, "I got caught bending the rules trying to make the car go faster." He has a different view about suspensions and getting "set down" as they call it. Mr. McAlister is totally in favor of it and has absolutely no bad feelings toward anybody because it happened to him. Jim told me, "I'm in favor of it." "A guy comes out here to race by the rules and sees someone else get away with bending them, so to be competitive, everyone will try it." "I think the tech committee is to be congratulated, their effort to 'sit on people' who have it coming is going to improve the sport and get more cars on the track."

Jim, it takes a big man to say those things and you're to be congratulated for your attitude. Thanks for the interview and best of luck to you and everyone that's a part of #48.

"Irish"


Covan in Repeat Performance at Saugus

Super Track Scene by Lyn Pherigo

Simi's John Covan, for the second Saturday night in a row, set a new one-lap qualifying record then piloted the Mickey Bell Buick Regal to victory in the 40-lap Sportsman main event on the flat, one-third mile paved oval. In between the current Sportsman champion found time to win the 4-lap trophy dash and take second in the fast heat race.

Covan, from his 21st starting position "chased" current point leader Ron Hornaday Jr., Simi, who started in 17th, through early race traffic and by lap ten they were running one-two. Covan, went to the "outside" and on the next lap he pulled ahead of Hornaday in the backstretch.

The lap twelve rundown showed Covan leading, Hornaday in second, Bruce Erickson, Canoga Park, third and Steve Colbert, Mission Hills in fourth. Erickson and Colbert had started eighteenth and fifteenth in the lineup.

Twenty-eight laps later, Covan took the checkered flag for his fourth main event win and edged closer to Hornaday who finished second. Erickson and Colbert came in third and fourth. Mike Barnett, Newhall, bested Allen Thacker, Saugus, for fifth in a race-long duel while Jim Ayers, Canoga Park, the only other competitor on the lead lap, finished seventh. Ron Miller, Saugus and Hornaday won the preliminary heat races.

Roman Calczynski, Van Nuys, street stock champion and current point leader, collected his thirteenth main event win of the season in the stocker oval race coming from the 18th starting position. Nineteen of the 24 starters were still battling on the lead lap at the end of the 25-lap event.

Jim McAlister, Chatsworth, was second, third went to Luke Koback, Valencia, and Ken Christian, Canyon Country, was fourth. Simi's Wrong Way Willard and Barnett won heat races. Bill Sedgwick, Van Nuys, captured the trophy dash.

Rodney Peacher of Sepulveda criss-crossed to victory over 23 others in the 15-lap figure-eight main. Peacher, who started on the pole, beat Calczynski to the line by a few inches. Barnett came in third, Sedgwick was fourth and John Cran, Reseda, finished fifth. Eleven of the twenty starters were still running on the lead lap as the checkered fell. Peacher also won the heat race and Calczynski took home the trophy from the dash.

Tara DiMarzo won the powder puff derby with Debbie Mayfield second and Debbie Richter third. Barbara McLaughlin finished in the fourth spot and Sherrill McAlister was fifth. The lady deadfoots, numbering 26 strong, did a splendid job, negotiated 15 laps around the "Super Track" and no yellow flags!


About Saugus Speedway

About Saugus Speedway.

The future Saugus Speedway was built originally as a rodeo arena in 1927 by Roy Baker, brother of shoe magnate C.H. Baker.

Roy Baker purchased the 40-acre property east of Bouquet Junction in 1923 for the purpose of breeding and selling show and pleasure horses. To that end he imported saddle brood mares from Kentucky and studded them with a pedigreed, chestnut-colored saddlebred stallion named Peavine McDonald (b. 1910), which sired five pedigreed mares and four pedigreed colts between 1920 and 1936. Baker advertised that he had 2,500 acres of grazing land and also offered training and boarding services for outside horses.

Probably to attract horse buyers to his ranch in faraway Saugus, Baker staged rodeos. Some references suggest he built a 12,000-seat arena in 1924, but this is dubious. (Promoter Bob Anderson organized a local rodeo in 1924, but its exact location is unclear, and it wouldn't have had grandtands.) Anderson did hold the annual rodeo on Baker's property in April 1926. That December, Baker and Anderson started construction on a new stadium, complete with partially covered grandstand seating and a quarter-mile oval track. When it opened May 1, 1927, it seated 18,000 fans, and thousands more had to be turned away for lack of room.

Over the next decade, ownership of the arena would change hands three more times.

As with a majority of the American populace, Baker was hit hard financially by the Great Depression of 1929 and was forced to sell the stadium to cowboy actor Hoot Gibson in 1930. Gibson continued to hold rodeos at the stadium and drew a Hollywood crowd including famous actors such as William S. Hart, Harry Carey, Tom Mix, and John Wayne. He also used the stadium as a movie set or leased it to other companies for film making.

But Gibson felt the effects of the Depression, as well. In September 1933 he appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom and pleaded poverty, saying he had no assets with which to repay a $2,500 loan. He testified that he owned a one-third interest in Hoot Gibson Inc., which owned the Saugus rodeo, and that it was in arrears.

In 1934, Gibson sold the stadium to Paul Hill, owner of the Western Livestock Stockyards, who continued to call it the Hoot Gibson Rodeo. As with his predecessors, however, the stadium brought Hill financial hardship when it was hit by the Great Flood of March 2, 1938. Heavy rains that year caused a river of water to flow down Soledad Canyon and filled the ranch home and arena with mud and debris. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, the "old buildings ... collapsed during the March floods" and the arena was built anew.

Nonetheless, Hill lost the ranch sometime after the April 1938 rodeo. According to Reynolds, the property was repossessed by the bank. In 1939, ownership passed to William Bonelli, and it was renamed Bonelli Stadium.

Bonelli, a professor of economics at Occidental College, continued the annual rodeo tradition for a number of years but introduced auto racing in 1939 on a more frequent schedule; ultimately auto racing became the primary draw and Bonelli renamed the arena Saugus Speedway. Occasional rodeos and circuses continued until at least the late 1960s, auto racing until 1995. The facility was sometimes used for concerts before the grandstands were removed in 2012 (the originals had been replaced in 1955). The venue continues to host an outdoor swap meet.


Download individual pages here.
SAUGUS SPEEDWAY

SEE ALSO:
• Bonelli Stadium
• Saugus Speedway Drivers
• Fireball 500


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Saugus Speedway Scrapbook 1979/1995

* RACING PROGRAMS *


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Kurtis Midget 1950, Art 2006

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~1950s

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Ron Hornaday Sr.

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Trophy Girl Amedee Chabot, Miss USA 1962

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Aerial View 1971

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Video: Rolling Man (ABC 1972)

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Photo Album
1971-1975

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Charlie's Angels 1976

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Aerials 1979

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Jason Priestly, Charlie Sheen, Charity Benefit 1991

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Assessor's Map 2008

• Old Barn Burns
11-21-1996


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Video: Driver Reunion 8-21-2017

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Legacy: Sad Sam Stanley

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