1987 Miller 100

1987 Miller 100
Saugus
March 28, 1987
Fin	Driver
1	Rick Carelli (RES)
2	Dan Press (RES)
3	Mike Chase (RES)
4	Troy Beebe (RES)
5	Randy Olson (RES)
9	Roman Calczynski (RES)

The 1987 Miller 100 was a Southwest Tour event held at Saugus Speedway on March 28, 1987. It was the season opener. Rick Carelli claimed his first victory in the tour holding off Dan Press and Mike Chase. Troy Beebe took the fourth position at the finish, while Randy Olson rounded out the top five runners.

[edit] Race Review

Colorado drivers seem to have a lock on NASCAR Southern Tour races at Saugus Speedway.

Roger Avants of Littleton won the two races there last year, and Saturday night it was Rick Carelli of Denver who put on a dazzling performance to win first-place money of $1,750 in the Miller 100 before a crowd of 4,279.

Carelli, a rookie on the circuit, lead from start to finish, staving off the continual charges of two former track modified champions, Roman Calczynski of Sepulveda and Dan Press of Frazier Park.

Calczynski, the 1983 track champion, had the misfortune to spin out one lap before the finish, giving two-time Saugus champion Press second place.

Calczynski restarted and salvaged ninth place.

It was a race filled with yellow flags (five) and one red flag, which stopped the event for 17 minutes.

The red was waved on the 62nd lap when the cars of Randy Becker of Highland and Dennis Dyer of Palmdale came together in the second turn.

Becker had the wind knocked out of him and complained of a sore back but was not seriously injured.

Carelli gave a masterful performance in dominating the race. He started on the outside of the front row by virtue of qualifying fifth fastest in the field of 24 cars.

"This is a track I came to five years ago," he said, mentioning his own modified days. "I swore I would never come back.

"The car performed beautifully. I had no idea we could pull this off."

Press and Calczynski started sixth and fifth, respectively, but virtue of their fast qualifying times. The top six qualifiers are inverted.

Press set a track record of 16.078 seconds (74.638 mph). Calczynski was only a tick behind at 16.108 seconds.

Finishing third in the race was last year's tour rookie of the year, Troy Beebe of Modesto. Beebe had caused one of the early yellow flags by hitting the third-turn wall. He made a tremendous recovery to storm from the rear in the closing laps.

Eureka's Randy Olson had captured the four-lap trophy dash for the Tour cars in a flag-to-flag performance.

Heat wins went to Mike Hood of Bakersfield, Duke Hoenshell of Orange, Jon Paques of Albuquerque and Esau, while Kevin Riniker of Riverside bested Hoenshell in the 25-lap B main.

In a supporting feature, Reseda's John Cran led all 35 laps to win the street stock main by almost a straightaway over Burbank's Jim Gardella. Jim Marlewski of Simi Valley was third.