Sedgwick’s Luck Finally Runs Out in Winston West 200

Nothing could have gone better for Bill Sedgwick before Saturday night’s Winston West 200 at Saugus Speedway.

Sedgwick, the winner of the past two Winston West 200 races, recorded the fastest qualifying mark for the 18-driver field at 16.449 seconds (72.953 m.p.h.).

The time was only .003 seconds off his track record, set last year. His pit crew also won the fastest pit-crew competition.

However, Sedgwick was only second best in the main event. Bill Schmitt of Redding held off a hard-charging Sedgwick before a crowd of 4,858. Schmitt was timed in 1 hour 6 minutes 8 seconds (60.484 m.p.h.), 6.5 seconds ahead of Sedgwick.

“You never know about Bill,” said Schmitt, 65, winner of the Winston West series in 1977, ‘79, ’89 and ’90.

“You never know about Bill. I don’t know what happened to him, but I heard from my crew that he was closing. I didn’t look back. I just kept looking ahead.

“I have never been so lucky in my life.”

Sedgwick felt the same way after encountering brake problems with a little less than a quarter of the race remaining.

“We were lucky to finish second,” Sedgwick, 36, of Van Nuys said. “We lost power with about 60 laps to go and the pedal went all the way down when it was floored.”

Sedgwick floored the gas pedal for the first half of the race. He led for the first 88 laps before falling behind Schmitt.

Butch Gilliland of Anaheim took over the pace-setting chores 15 laps later and held the lead until the 114th lap when Schmitt permanently reclaimed first.

Sedgwick dropped from third on the 121st lap to fall as far back as eighth. He trailed Schmitt by as much as three-quarters of a lap at one point before climbing back to third on Lap 144, and second with 12 laps left.

Gilliland finished third and Hershel McGriff of Portland was fourth.

Rodney Teacher of Sepulveda won the 40-lap Sportsman main event. Gary Sigman of Carson was second, followed by Lance Hooper of Palmdale and Ken Sapper of Glendale in fouth.

Rod Johnson of Canyon Country won the six-lap Sportsman trophy dash. Sigman was second, followed by John Watkinson of Canyon Country and Russ Becker of Sepulveda.