Saugus Speedway Racing Program.

Saturday, September 12, 1981.

Brown spot color cover, else black, 28 pages.

Cover: Jim Kent.

Driver profile: none.

Feature: Erickson Wins Modified Main Event at Saugus Speedway.

Photos, in order of appearance: Jim Kent, Bill Sedgwick, Jimmy Menzi, Ken Sapper, Larry Warholic; Blast from the Past: Mike Brilhante and Dave Harrison; Roman Calczynski, Catherine Tallichet (trophy queen), Dan Pacheco, Dwight Kuykendall, Sam La Fata, Steve Deaver, John Cran, Ray Hooper Jr., Larry Adams, Kenny Christian, Bryan Hayden, Kevin Shannon.

Previous week's attendance: 3,721 (paid)

Erickson Wins Modified Main Event at Saugus Speedway

Super Track Scene (Previous Week's Results) by Lyn Pherigo

Canoga Park's Jim Erickson won his first-ever Modified main event Saturday night at Saugus Speedway, piloting the Erickson Auto Parts Chevelle to victory in the feature event. Mike Barnett, Newhall, scored his first stocker oval triumph of '81 and Ray Hooper Jr., Valencia, captured his first figure-8 main event.

Erickson, from his outside-front-row starting position in the 22-car field, powered into the lead at the drop of the green starting flag and led every lap of the race. Chuck Pittenger, Northridge, who finished second, pressured Erickson from lap 9 to 25 but Erickson pulled away in the final 15 circuits and won by over a quarter-lap. Hans Wesski, Simi, won a race-long battle for third from fellow townsman Ron Hornaday Jr. who finished fourth. Charlie Saied, North Hollywood, was fifth and current point leader Tru Cheek, Sylmar, was sixth. They were the only cars of the 15 finishers on the lead lap.

Gary Johnson, Valencia, set fast time of 16:06 in the sleek, first-time-out Durbin Inc. Camaro. Ken Davis, West Covina, won the trophy dash; Erickson and L.A. Woodside, Saugus, won heat races in other Modified action.

Barnett also won from the outside-front-row starting position, but pole sitter Bryan Hayden, Canyon Country, led the initial nine laps before Barnett gained the lead and went on to victory. It was, as usual, a very competitive battle with 15 of the 24 starters finishing and all of them running on the lead lap. Jim McAlister, Chatsworth, finished second ahead of John Cran, Reseda, third, Ronald Main, Chatsworth, fourth, and Dave Harrison, Sylmar, fifth. Kevin McCurdy, Ventura, won the dash while Barnett and Main were victorious in the preliminary heat races.

Hooper, out of his fourth starting position, went to the front on the first lap and led the rest of the way in his figure eight triumph. Ten of the fifteen finishers were running on the lead lap at the checkered. Newhall's David Hard won the trophy dash and Jim Gardella, Valencia, was first in the heat race.

Results from September 12, 1981

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.