Saugus Agenda Highlighted by Return of Press

It will seem like old times at Saugus Speedway tonight when former Saugus and Southwest Tour champion Dan Press of Frazier Park makes his return behind the wheel for the NASCAR Southwest Tour Miller Genuine Draft 100. Racing begins at 7.

Press will be a notable figure amid a host of notables in the tour’s first of two stops this season at Saugus. Red-hot Denver-based driver Rick Carelli has won consecutive races at El Cajon and Las Vegas and returns to the site of his first win on the tour, in March, 1987.

But Saugus fans will most remember Press, who has been racing at the speedway for 18 years, winning three points championships in the Modified Division in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Press’ familiarity with the one-third mile paved oval is such that he won last year’s first Southwest Tour stop at Saugus and, in doing so, established a tour record with his third consecutive win at one track.

“I really like this track,” Press said after his May 5 win. “I always have. It’s natural. It’s like a good ol’ pair of shoes. Fits real nice.”

Press, who sold his car and has not raced this season, says that tonight’s race likely will be a “one-shot deal” in which he will race a car for fun and as an experiment. He was invited by car owners Charlie Saied and Jerry Baxter to test out a Baldwin Engineering ride that has raced just once before.

“I’m kind of the test pilot,” Press said. “I guess they thought it would be a nice gesture to have me come on down.”

Press, formerly of Newhall, will race against other local favorites now thriving on the Southwest Tour, including: M. K. Kanke of Granada Hills, who is second to Carelli (530 points) with 454 points; Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale, last year’s second-place finisher in the points standings and currently fifth with 440; Dennis Dyer of Palmdale, currently sixth with 424 points; and Ray Hooper Jr. of Palmdale, who won last September’s race at Saugus and set a one-lap qualifying mark at the track of 15.529 seconds.