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Saugus Speedway Racing Program.


Saugus Speedway Racing Program.

Saturday, August 9, 1980.

Orange spot color cover, else black, 28 pages.

Cover: Hans Wesski.

Driver profile: Don Lindner.

Feature: Covan Wins Third Straight at Saugus.

Photos, in order of appearance: Wesski, Lindner, Duke Southard, Wild Bill Foster, Chris Robinson, Cliff Garner, Mike Fortier, Roman Calczynski, Debbie Aitken (trophy queen), Pamm Woodside, Mike Barnett, Bob Bailey, Rodney Peacher, Wrong Way Willard, Jim Gardella, Darrell Mayfield, Kevin McCurdy.

Previous week's attendance: 3,815 (paid)


Driver Profile: Don Lindner

The truck driver from Milwaukee, Don Lindner, came to California in 1962 and has been driving for Universal Studios for the past ten years. Trucks are not the only thing he drives, you can bet on that. Because of his driving experience here at Saugus, which began in 1971, Don is the man Universal puts behind the wheel of the camera car on many racing sequences for T.V. and movies. Last year he was in "The Hulk" and "B.J. & The Bears." He also drove the camera car for a new series on now, "When the Whistle Blows."

Mr. Lindner has been to Riverside four different times in Grand National events. In his words, "Two hundred miles an hour at Riverside is a lot different than the speeds we do here."

Although Don's not married at present, he has an 18-year-old son, Todd, in Milwaukee. Between driving for Universal, stock car racing at the "Super Track" and anywhere else he can, and girlfriend Kathy Knudsen, Don doesn't have much time for anything else.

Currently in his fifth year in the Modified division, or whatever the top division was before the Modifieds, Don manages to go faster and harder each year. "My only problem is that someone else manages to go faster yet," says Don. Last year he finished fifth in the points race and is currently in seventh. He cites his worst experience as an incident that happened just this season. His car got "airborne" and came down on Dan Press's windshield and hood; however, nobody got hurt or upside-down.

The Owner of the #46 Camaro that Don drives is his brother Bill, who also builds the engines. It sports a Stock Car Products chassis with a small block Chevy motor. The crew consists of Bill Spears, Chuck Miner, Harry Brady and Patti Burgett.

Mr. Lindner, I enjoyed talking to you and getting to know you a little better, and thanks for the opportunity to let the fans know more about Don Lindner.

Hopefully, the fans will stop by your pit area after the races and say hello to the man born the day after Christmas in 1942. Thanks again, Don!

"Irish"


Covan Wins Third Straight at Saugus

Super Track Scene by Lyn Pherigo

Current Sportsman champion John Covan of Simi set a new one-lap qualifying record of 17:19 then sped to victory in the 40-lap feature race Saturday night at Saugus Speedway. It was Covan's third consecutive main event win, all of them coming after record-breaking qualifying runs. Points gained from his efforts put him back atop the Sportsman point standings replacing Ron Hornaday Jr. whose car blew an engine in pre-race practice.

Bill Sedgwick, Van Nuys, led the initial nineteen laps before Covan, coming from his 12th starting position, took over the lead. At the 20-lap, half-way mark, it was Covan leading, Sedgwick, second, Joe Astone, Encino, third, Steve Colbert, Mission Hills, fourth and Gabby Garrison of Long Beach in fifth.

Covan took the checkered for his fifth main-event win of '80, Sedgwick finished second, Garrison, third, Colbert, fourth and Tom Reilly, Azusa, sixth.

Chris Campanella, Sepulveda, won the 4-lap trophy dash, his first ever while Harold Jenkins, Arleta and Sedgwick were first in the heat races.

Bill McKnight, Northridge, former street stock champion, won the 25-lap Street Stock main as sixteen of the twenty-four starters were still running on the lead lap at the end.

Kyle Fuchs, Ventura led the first eleven circuits with McKnight pulling in front on the twelfth lap. Scott Klassen, Ventura moved into second on the 15th lap with Mitch Thompson, Sylmar, running third, Sedgwick, fourth and Jim McAlister, Chatsworth, holding down fifth.

McKnight held on for the win, Thompson moved up to take second, Klassen was third, McAlister, fourth and current stocker champion and point leader Roman Calczynski, Van Nuys, finished fifth.

Calczynski won the trophy dash with Klassen and Pamm Woodside, Saugus, taking victories in the heat races.

Thompson, in addition to being the runner-up in the oval main, won the 15-lap figure-eight finale and also captured the trophy dash.

John Peoples, Canyon Country, led the initial lap of the criss-cross main with Jim Gardella, Saugus, leading the pack the next three circuits. Thompson moved into the lead on lap five and drove to victory. Calczynski was second followed by Gardella, Tony Balzano, Simi, and Klassen. Klassen also won the preliminary heat race.

Sedgwick broke the old street stock qualifying record with a run of 19:75 around the flat, one-third mile paved oval.


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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