MOTOR RACING / VINCE KOWALICK : Iron Horst’s Streak at Saugus Comes to End

Ed Horst has answered the call for virtually every Pro Stock main event at Saugus Speedway over the past five years.

Last season, Horst completed every lap of 26 scheduled main events--a total of 520 laps--en route to winning his first Pro Stock division championship. This season Horst, 40, a six-year track veteran from Reseda, appeared in the first 14 main events. He claims he hasn’t missed a main event since 1988, spanning more than 100 races. The track keeps no record on consecutive starts.

Before being involved in a crash in April, Horst had a string of 31 consecutive top-10 finishes, including 27 among the top five.

Talk about consistency.

“I’ve just got a great crew that keeps everything running,” Horst said.

All of which made Horst conspicuous by his absence last Saturday night when a series of mechanical failures kept him from lining up for the 25-lap oval main event. Horst borrowed a competitor’s car for the 15-lap figure-eight main event, but by then the damage had been done.

Archrival Scott Dinger of Simi Valley won both main events, as well as the trophy dash, to surpass Horst and move into the division’s points lead.

With the exception of the first week of the season, no one other than Iron Man Ed has led the Pro Stock points race since June, 1992.

“It was just one of those nights,” said Horst, who has three main-event wins this season. “I gotta give my crew credit. They changed clutches three times. They really worked their fingers to the bone. But I guess streaks are made to be broken.”

Dinger, who has been running a close second to Horst in points for the better part of two years, didn’t squander the opportunity.

“Last year, Ed just had a record that couldn’t be beaten,” Dinger said. “We were almost as fast every night out there, but it’s really tough to beat an almost-perfect score.”

Bank on him being back on track when Pro Stocks return to Saugus on July 31.

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Sleepless in Somis: Gary Hubert, running away with the Mini Stock points race at Ventura Raceway, was as happy as anyone that his wife recorded victories last weekend in the track’s Pony Stock oval and figure-eight main events.

But enough was enough.

“She was so excited, she was still talking about it at 4:30 in the morning,” Hubert said. “I finally said, ‘Shut up and go to sleep!’ ”

Previously, Jan Hubert had won a figure-eight main but never two main events in one evening. And never had the Huberts, who reside in Somis, recorded main-event victories the same evening. Hubert won the 15-lap Mini Stock main event.

“I got tired of listening to her,” Hubert said. “So, I went and slept on the couch.”

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Miscellany: After a three-week break, the NASCAR Southwest Tour will resume tonight with a 100-lap race at Redwood Acres Raceway in Eureka, Calif. Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale, the tour’s points leader and defending champion, set a track record there last July by winning a 100-lap main event on the 3/8-mile paved oval in 29 minutes 45 seconds.

The tour will move to Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway on July 31. That race originally was scheduled for June 5 but was postponed because of rain.

The NASCAR Winston West Series will resume tonight with a 200-lap race at South Sound Speedway in Tenino, Wash. Rick Carelli of Denver, who won in Tenino last season and was rookie of the year, is the series’ points leader.

Carelli, who took the checkered flag last weekend in Coos Bay, Ore., has a series-high four main-event wins in nine starts.

USAC Midgets will return tonight to the quarter-mile clay oval at Ventura Raceway. Robby Flock of Temecula is the points leader in full Midget, and Kenny White of Ventura leads the three-quarter Midget points standings.