Custer Veers Past Crow to Move Into Winner’s Circle at Saugus

Rick Crow could not hold the lead in Saturday night’s 25-lap Pro Stock oval main event at Saugus Speedway.

So, Crow yielded the right of way to Terry Custer, who could.

Custer, a resident of Northridge, slipped inside Crow on the first turn of Lap 19 and went on to win his first main event of the season before a season-high crowd of 6,443.

The 100-lap main event, race No. 5 in the 17-race NASCAR Southwest Tour, had not been completed at press time.

“I went (into the turn) high and came out low,” Custer, 26, said. “Rick Crow is a good racer. He gave me a lot of room.”

He had to.

“The car just wouldn’t hold in the turn,” said Crow, a longtime track veteran from Canyon Country. “I saw Terry coming and I didn’t want to screw him up. No sense in ruining someone else’s night. I was happy with a second.”

Gerrit Cromsigt of Palmdale finished third and Scott Dinger of Simi Valley took fourth.

Bob Lyon of Newhall set the Southwest Tour’s top one-lap qualifying mark with a one-lap time of 15.601 seconds. Lyon’s crew also won a special pit crew competition in which four foursomes attempted to change four tires in the least amount of time.

The majority of racing was done by Saugus’ Pro Stock division, in which a season-high 50 cars registered to race, necessitating semi-main events in both oval and figure-eight competition.

In the 15-lap, accident-strewn B oval main event, John Kirby of Ojai went wire to wire for the win with Kevin Persey of Van Nuys challenging hard at the checkered flag. Gus Hernandez Jr. of Palmdale moved into third place on the final lap and finished third.

Dinger won the C oval main event.

In the B figure-eight main event, Tim Huddleston of Sepulveda went wire to wire for the victory ahead of a field of 10 cars. Don Rogers of Palmdale finished second, Hernandez third and Neil Conrad of Arcadia fourth.

Southwest Tour heat races were won by Greg Scheidecker of Redlands and Doug George of Atwater.