MOTOR RACING : This Week at Saugus, They’re Paving the Way for Turkey Night

The Turkey Night Grand Prix, climactic event of the United States Auto Club midget racing season, will be held at Saugus Speedway on Thanksgiving night, Nov. 28, which gives added interest to this Saturday night’s USAC western regional race at Saugus.

Only one of the previous 50 Turkey Night races has been on pavement. Most have been staged on Ascot Park’s half-mile track.

Saugus is paved and is only one-third of a mile around. It will be the site this year because of the closing last November of Ascot.

“Pavement makes a big difference in your driving style, but we’ve been running a lot of races on pavement lately, so it shouldn’t pose too much of a problem,” said Sleepy Tripp, five-time winner of the USAC regional championship and the current points leader.

“I think Saugus will make a good Turkey Night facility because it is one of the cleanest places we race (and) has easy access to the pits and the concessions. Some of the drivers are complaining about the track being shorter, but we run a lot of places shorter than Saugus.”

Tripp, 37, will head the field for Saturday night’s 40-lap main event on a busy program that also includes a TQ midget feature; NASCAR Winston Racing Series hobby stock, Figure 8 and jalopy races; a Mini Stock Racing Assn. race for outlaw minis, and a train race.

“The main thing in racing a midget on pavement is keeping the car smooth,” Tripp said. “If the back end breaks loose, you spin your wheels and lose time. In the dirt, you can get back and around, be a little untidy and get the job done. You can’t be untidy on pavement.”

The midget race will be the last on the USAC regional schedule for more than a month as the regulars head for Kansas and the Belleville Nationals, the Indy 500 of midget racing, Aug. 1-3.

“Turkey Night has a lot of tradition going for it, and it’s a big one for midgets, but Belleville is considered No. 1 throughout the country,” Tripp said.

The championship race is 40 laps on a five-eighths-mile dirt track, and because it is an independent promotion, it attracts racers from all organizations.

Tripp has won it twice, in 1985 and ’87. The only other double winner is Stan Fox, in 1979 and ’80. Fox also won the last Turkey Night race at Ascot.

So far this season, Tripp has won five times, enough for him to pass the late Rich Vogler in USAC midget victories. He has 137 and is aiming for Vogler’s all-time USAC total of 169, which includes sprint cars and Silver Crown dirt cars as well as midgets. All of Tripp’s victories have been in midgets--58 in nationals and 79 in regionals.

Vogler was killed in a USAC sprint car accident last July 21 at Salem, Ind.

Tripp, who came out of Newport Harbor High in 1972 after showing promise as a football player, has been racing midgets professionally for 17 years. He won the USAC national championship in 1975 and ’76 before deciding to remain home in Costa Mesa in 1981 and campaign on the regional circuit.

“Since ‘81, I’ve raced close to 50 times a year,” Tripp said. “That’s enough, especially when you’re working a full-time job, too. This year, I think it’ll be closer to 35. The difference is mostly in losing Ascot.

“The money you can make is about half what it used to be, and expenses keep going up. My first year in USAC, I actually ran the season by myself, with no mechanic, no crew. I had a couple of motors and did the work myself. The car probably cost me about $7,800. Today, a midget with a motor but no spares costs $30,000.”

Tripp drives for D.L. Motorsports, owned by Danny Lendich of Auckland, New Zealand. They met while Tripp was campaigning for 10 years during the off-season in Australia and New Zealand.

“We have two cars, one with a Pontiac engine and the other with a Cosworth. We jump back and forth; both of them have won this year. It’s still fun racing, but running midgets will never get you rich. The car took in $35,000 last year, counting points fund and purse money. I’m lucky my family owns a own business (Residential Electric, Inc. of Santa Ana) and lets me work for them. My brother is my boss.”

Tripp won one of two Saugus races last year. Robby Flock, his nearest rival in the Western States standings, won the other.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--After two weeks off, the Coors series returns to Ventura Raceway Friday night with a Ventura Racing Assn. program of street and mini stocks. . . . Street and pony stocks will be featured Saturday night at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino. . . . Chuck Miinch and John Borneman continue their battle for NASCAR Winston Racing Series points Saturday night at Cajon Speedway in the sportsman main event. . . . Dirt cars and late models will race Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway. . . . Bill Elliott, fresh from a Winston Cup victory in the Pepsi 400 last week at Daytona Beach, Fla., will drive in the Motorcraft 500, a Winston West series race Sunday at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash. Also coming West for the $160,000 race will be Geoff Bodine, Sterling Marlin and Chad Little to face West Coast regulars Bill Schmitt, Bill Sedgwick and Mike Chase.

MOTORCYCLE RACING--Versatile Larry Roeseler, shaking off a painful injury to his right hand from a fall during practice, won his first Pikes Peak hillclimb as motorcycles returned to the event for the first time since 1980. Roeseler took the 500cc class on a Kawasaki and finished fourth overall. Brian Anderson of Colorado Springs won the open pro division on a Woods Rotax 600.

MISCELLANY--Stu Hayner, 1988 Corvette Challenge champion, will participate in the Chevy Braille Rallye, in which vision-impaired navigators team up with sighted drivers for a 90-mile, three-hour sports car rally in West Los Angeles. All route instructions are written in Braille. Competition will start at 10 a.m. from the Braille Institute Youth Center, 3450 Cahuenga Blvd. West, near the Barham Boulevard off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway.