Winston West Rookie Carelli Trying to Steal Some Thunder : Motor racing: Denver driver comes to Saugus as talk of tour. He is chasing Bill Sedgwick’s first-year record of three victories.

To Bill Sedgwick, Rick Carelli must look mighty familiar.

Sedgwick, 37, a resident of Granada Hills and the defending champion of the NASCAR Winston West Series, made one of the most impressive debuts in the series’ history in 1989, finishing the season in second place and setting a rookie record with three victories.

Sedgwick easily earned the rookie-of-the-year award and, a bit more grudgingly, the praise of older, more experienced competitors.

“I went out there and we showed well on the first race,” Sedgwick said. “Sometimes rookies get involved in crashes and they get blamed, but we didn’t get involved. It took a little time but everybody accepted me eventually.”

For Carelli, a 36-year-old series rookie from Denver, the story has been much the same--only slightly more accelerated.

One for one in Winston West main events, Carelli is the talk of the tour--much like Sedgwick in ’89.

Tonight at 7, Sedgwick and Carelli likely will rub door handles as the Winston West series makes its only stop of the season at Saugus Speedway for a 200-lap main event. The 66.6-mile race on the one-third-mile paved oval is the second of 10 this season for the Winston West, NASCAR’s most lucrative racing series on the West Coast.

In the season opener May 17 at Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway, Carelli edged Sedgwick for the checkered flag in a finish that rivaled Al Unser Jr.’s narrow victory last weekend in the Indianapolis 500.

Carelli and Sedgwick swapped the lead nine times in the 300-lap race on a half-mile oval before Carelli won by a half-car-length. For the victory, Carelli earned 185 points; Sedgwick got 175 for second.

“Rick’s got a really good team, good equipment and he’s a good driver,” Sedgwick said. “That’s a combination that’s tough to beat.”

Said Carelli: “I figured, I led for 215 laps. I wasn’t going to lose it.”

Carelli is the defending champion and current points leader of the NASCAR Southwest Tour after seven of 17 races. He is one of five competitors running both series and the only driver to have led both simultaneously.

“Our goal is to try and win both,” Carelli said. “Next year, we might venture into the South.”

Sedgwick, who also set a record for rookies with more than $70,000 in earnings, would seem to hold an advantage at Saugus, where he began racing in 1979. He won Winston West races there in 1989 and 1990 and finished second last season.

Sedgwick also holds the track’s one-lap qualifying record (16.446 seconds) for Winston West cars.

“I don’t really know if there is much of an advantage, other than that I’ve raced there a lot of times,” Sedgwick said. “Rick’s a tough competitor and he adapts well at different race tracks.”

Carelli is no stranger to Saugus, having competed in five Southwest Tour races there in the past five years, winning once in 1987. But a Winston West vehicle typically weighs 3,500 pounds, about 600 more than a Southwest Tour car. The added weight requires greater attention to mechanical preparation, especially on Saugus’ challenging, flat asphalt.

Sedgwick and Carelli will drive 1992 Chevrolet Luminas.

“It’s one of the toughest tracks around,” Carelli said. “It’s narrow and hard to pass on. And it’s small. You always gotta be on your toes. (It can be tough on brakes.) Any experience at Saugus is going to be beneficial.”

Tonight’s program also includes Saugus’ Pro Stock division in oval and figure-eight races. A destruction derby will follow.