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Saugus Speedway Racing Program.


Saugus Speedway Racing Program.

Saturday, April 25, 1981.

Yellow spot color cover, else black, 28 pages.

Cover: Tru Cheek.

Driver profile: none.

Feature: Tru Cheek Wins Third Straight at Saugus Speedway.

Photos, in order of appearance: Cheek, Chuck Pittenger, Jerry Lupashanski, Charlie Saied, Roman Calczynski, Steve Colbert, Ray Gangl (Page from the Past), Pamela Baldwin (trophy girl), John Covan, Joe Astone, M.K. Kanke, Ken Bosse, Cindy Davar, Allen Thacker, John Artlip, Dave Statland.

Previous week's attendance: 6,387 (paid)


Tru Cheek Wins Third Straight at Saugus Speedway

Super Track Scene by Lyn Pherigo

Former champion Tru Cheek of Sylmar is on a "hot roll" at Saugus Speedway. Cheek registered his third straight feature win in Saturday night's 40-lap Modified main event as he piloted the Diversified Turbo to victory. Roman Calczynski, Van Nuys, current Street Stock champion, picked up his first Sportsman win of '81 in the PFC Welding Pontiac. Jim McAlister, Chatsworth, won the 25-lap stocker oval event and Mitch Thompson, Sylmar, was first to the checkered in the 15-lap Figure Eight finale.

Cheek, who also set fast time in qualifying, started tenth in the field of twenty cars and moved into the lead on lap fourteen replacing Chuck Pittenger, Northridge. Loren Spangler, Northridge, had led the first nine laps. Pittenger, a former national go-kart champion, driving in only his fourth stock car race, finished second ahead of Don Lindner, Reseda, Charlie Saied, North Hollywood, and Ken Davis, West Covina. Jerry Lupashanski, Las Vegas, was sixth and Walt Price, Sylmar, former Saugus champion was seventh. Spangler and Joe Ruggles, Valencia, won preliminary heat races.

Calczynski, last year's Street Stock champion, now campaigning exclusively in the Sportsman division, won his first main event of '81 driving the PFC Pontiac to victory in the 30-lap event. Newhall's Brad Miller led the first fourteen laps before relinquishing the front spot to Calczynski. Steve Colbert, Mission Hills, finished second ahead of Bill Sedgwick, Van Nuys. Sedgwick set fast time in Sportsman qualifying. Miller held on for fourth and Bill McKnight, Northridge, former stocker champion was fifth. McKnight and Tom Reilly, Azusa, won preliminary heat races.

McAlister scored his second stocker oval victory of '81, but it wasn't easy. Seventeen of the twenty-four starters finished on the lead lap. Scott Klassen, Ventura, was second followed by Chris Peedan, Sylmar, Dale Herron, Reseda, and Ray Hooper, Valencia. McAlister and Allen Thacker, Saugus, won heat races.

Thompson also picked up his second "criss-cross" win in the slam-bang figure eight event. Seven of the twenty-four starters finished on the lead lap. McKnight was second, Greg Scates, Newhall, third, McAlister, fourth and Klassen, fifth. Mike Barnett, Newhall, was victorious in the figure eight heat race.


Results from April 25, 1981


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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