Tinkering With a Title : Hands-On Approach Provides Racer’s Edge as Phipps Drives for Record Third Sportsman Title at Saugus

Dave Phipps is right where he can always be found on Tuesday night--surrounded by tools in his oversized Simi Valley garage, preparing to take a wrench to his orange and white Buick Regal.

You’ve seen the car if you’ve visited Saugus Speedway on a Saturday night. It is the only model of its kind in the Sportsman division and Phipps is usually fireballing it ahead of the pack.

Phipps loves to talk about his car.

“I don’t go bowling during the week,” Phipps says. “I work on this car. Every week I put something new into it. Some small thing, maybe, but it’s always something new.”

The engine, an immaculate Chevy 350, also is in its customary Tuesday night locale--hanging from a hoist. Phipps, an auto mechanic employed by the City of Los Angeles, loves to talk about his engine, too.

“I’m a tinkerer; I experiment,” he says. “You gotta figure out a way to make the car faster. You make the engine run as freely as possible. You make the distributor work right, the cams, the pistons, the valves. You have to squeak out a couple more horsepower.”

Wrenches at arm’s length, Phipps is about to replace the engine after his weekly inspection-experimentation-renovation. But not yet. The engine may be out from under the hood, but Phipps is still going 90 m.p.h. He’s talking. Talking about everything. Not much is being accomplished this Tuesday night.

Phipps is lost in his favorite subject: racing. Specifically, racing at Saugus. It is difficult to get a word in edgewise.

“Oren Prosser is the best racer I’ve ever seen--ever,” he says. “And I’ve raced against Bobby Allison.”

Phipps accelerates.

“Ron Hornaday’s dad--he was so good, he won almost every race in 1965. It got boring watching him win all the time.”

Phipps is really speeding now.

“Roman Calczynski? He used to beat everyone out there.”

Phipps, the 40-year-old defending Sportsman champion, is somewhat of a nostalgia buff when it comes to Saugus Speedway. He can recall most of the good drivers he’s watched since he began going to the -mile oval in 1960.

“I can’t name them all,” he says. “But I could tell you if they were a track champion if you named them.”

It’s getting dark, the engine is still hanging and Phipps is still talking. But when it comes to discussing his own success, his own rightful place in Saugus racing lore and, especially, his seemingly insurmountable points lead, Phipps hits the brakes.

“I am proud to be the champion, but I don’t feel like it’s easy for me,” he says. “It’s still a challenge every week. I just want to race. My feeling is, ‘Let’s line up and we’re going to have a race and I’m going to try and whip y’all.’ ”

He has. While the points races in the Modified and Street Stock divisions are still being tightly contested, the Sportsman drivers have all but conceded to Phipps. With five races remaining, including next Saturday’s double-points Winston 100, Phipps has amassed 220 points--93 more than the nearest competitor.

That’s roughly three victories and a second-place finish based on the Saugus scoring system, which awards 24 points to the winner of a full 24-car main event, 22 points for second, 20 for third and so on. And the huge lead is no fluke. Last season, Phipps sped away with the championship, winning by 113 points. In 1984, Phipps won his first championship by a 100-point margin.

“It’s a giant lead for this time of year, but it’s not insurmountable by any means,” Phipps says with a shrug. “I just look at reality. You can’t just say, ‘Yeah, I’ve got it won.’ ”

Sure, you can. The reality is this: Barring accidents, idleness, or disqualifications--and he has thus far avoided all three--Phipps will become the first three-time Sportsman champion in Saugus history.

Who is going to catch him? Not. . . .

Roger Theobald of Saugus. A 49-year-old, 30-year Saugus veteran, Theobald has never won a main event but is in second place with 127 points. Theobald probably wishes Phipps would stay home one Saturday night so he could gain some ground. But it wouldn’t matter.

“I would say one more week and he could probably stay home the rest of the year and still win the championship,” Theobald said. “The second- or third-place car would have to win every race and I don’t think that’s possible. He could stay home.”

Richard DeLong Jr. of Van Nuys. DeLong and Arlyn Olson of Chatsworth are tied for third with 116 points. DeLong sold his car to Phipps three years ago, and it has returned to run him down.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have,” DeLong said. “I don’t know, maybe we should have burned the thing to the ground. We would have been track champion last year.

“Nobody’s going to catch him. Realistically, he’d have to have some kind of awful bad luck. He hasn’t finished worse than seventh all year long. Why would we think he would start having problems now?”

Said Saugus program director Lyn Pherigo: “He’s too consistent. I think everybody is now battling for second.”

Phipps, who began racing at Saugus in 1980, says he is content to remain there his entire career. Only two drivers--Prosser, who won five track championships in various divisions, and La Crescenta’s Ken Sapper, who has won three Modified titles--have won more Saugus championships than Phipps. Phipps will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the track’s all-time greats, but he insists there is nothing great about his accomplishments.

“I don’t know what I do, I just drive,” Phipps said. “I have a lot of experience, probably more than almost anybody out there. But I’m a mechanic, too. If there’s a little thing wrong with this engine, I want to fix it. I get satisfaction out of it.”

Mark Wenig, Phipps’ mechanical assistant, says the team is successful because of a blend of extensive preparation and maintenance. “We work every single part of this car, nothing falls off,” Wenig said. “There is not one race we have not completed.”

Phipps has a division-high three wins and four second-place finishes in nine main events. He finished third another night after he started last because of a pace-lap violation.

“I think there are probably only two or three cars out there that could have done that,” DeLong said.

Few Saugus regulars could hug the curves consistently with Allison, either. But when Allison visited Saugus for a 40-lap main event in June, a duel ensued between the NASCAR veteran and Phipps.

“When he started pulling away, I was thinking, ‘Aw man, he’s really showing us up,’ ” Phipps said. “Then I looked in the mirror and I was leaving the other guys behind, so I said ‘I gotta stay with him.’ ”

Phipps stuck to Allison’s bumper for 37 laps, but was unable to pass. It is a race that will probably long be remembered by Saugus fans.

Phipps will long be remembered, too.

“For the past two years, they haven’t been able to keep any of Dave’s paraphernalia in stock at the race track,” says Phipps’ wife, Margaret. “The hats. And the mugs they sell with the drivers’ cars on them.”

Those unable to buy Phipps mugs usually mug Phipps for his autograph. “It’s flattering,” Phipps says. “And it’s embarrassing. And its weird because I don’t feel famous. I was racing for six years and nobody wanted my autograph. My wife didn’t think I was famous. My kid didn’t think I was famous. His favorite driver was somebody else. He said, ‘Dad, you’re OK, but my favorite driver is Roman Calczynski.’ ”

With that, Phipps had to be left speechless.