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INDUSTRY SPEEDWAY HANDICAPPED + SCRATCH MAINS – By Tim Kennedy
Industry, CA., Jun. 10 – Industry Speedway again featured handicapped and scratch races for 500cc expert riders in week three at The Grand Arena in the Industry Hills Expo Center. More than 1,000 spectators watched Rocco Scopellite, a 19-year old from Huntington Beach, repulse repeated passing attempts by invading Nor Cal speedway racing champion Billy Janniro in a six-lap handicapped start, six-rider Division 1 feature. Scopellite started 20-yards from the starting gate and won his first D-1 feature in a photo finish over 50-yard line starter Janniro in event 41 of a busy night.
Janniro, 34, returned in the 47th and final race of the night and won a 4-lap scratch main in a four-rider field. He started his No. 1 GM-powered ride from lane two. Janniro trailed lane one starter Aaron Fox into the first turn. Fox, 27, led the first lap narrowly over Janniro. On lap 2 Billy “the Kid” executed an outside pass in the fourth turn and led the final three laps. Fox trailed by two lengths at the finish. Charlie “the Edge” Venegas and “Battlin” Buck Blair trailed by seven and eight lengths respectively. The race concluded at 10:14 pm and many spectators flocked to the pits to meet riders.
Russell Green started speedway racing nine years ago as a Junior rider on the outdated No. 18 “Rhonda the Honda” donated by fans in the grandstand. He has shown speed this season as a 500cc D-1 veteran. Green, 23, won the scratch consolation race (event 46) over Braydan Galvin, 16, Neil Facchini, 30, and /Junior champion/500cc rookie Dillon Ruml, 16, a sophomore at Huntington Beach High.
Gage Geist, 15, started at the 20-yard line and won the six-rider, 6-lap handicap consi, leading laps 2-6. Facchini (from the 20), Tyson Talkington (from 30), Venegas (from 50), Rick Richards (from the starting gate), followed. Blair (from 40) did not start. Richards led lap 1.
SIDECARS: The 1,000cc sidecar field had nine teams racing this week. Sidecar leader and 2013 S/C National Champion Joe Jones, from Costa Mesa, led all four laps in event 45. His new swing-man Tom Summers earned his first victory in a point event. The No. 1965 (Jeff Rowe/Ashley Gibbons), No. 911 (Stuart Glass/Jack Straw) and No. 2 rigs followed. The reigning S/C championship team of Bryan Motis/Josh Bennett ran a pressing second on lap 2 in turn four when a flat back tire caused them to stop abruptly in the outside groove. The No. 74 of driver James Kinne, 67, and his swinger Johnny Glover won the four-lap sidecar consolation race.
Nathan Siegel, 30, of Fullerton, won his first Industry Speedway four-lap scratch main in the 500cc Division 2 for riders at an intermediate-skill level. He led all four laps on his No. 122 Jawa. Mike Wiley, David Lynch and Bentley Barrett, who fell on lap 1 in the third turn and caused a restart, followed.
The “Rev” Wade Whitcomb, a 59-year old Baptist minister in Anaheim, led all four laps on his No. 227 Weslake in the 500cc D-3 feature. It was his third feature victory at Industry Speedway, one each in 2013, 14 and 15. He also won a main at Perris Raceway earlier this season. His speedway rider son, “Lightning” Luke, 9, took smart phone photos of his dad receiving his trophy from Industry racing Director Kelly Inman during post-racing victory ceremonies for all divisions.
JUNIORS: Junior classes experienced an invasion by five Nor Cal riders this week because their school semester had concluded for the summer. Three raced 250ccs and two were aboard 150cc Jawa bikes. Sebastian “Big Daddy” Palmese, 11, led every lap of the 250cc main. Jake Isaac, 12, Auburn's Kyle Cunningham, 11, and Michael Wells, 14, finished in P. 2-4. Nor Cal's Blake Borello, 14, from Garden Valley, led every lap of the Junior 250cc consi over Napa's Dylan Wagner, 11-year old nephew of Janniro.
The mini 150cc feature was another flag-to-flag victory for Slater Lightcap, 9, from Huntington Beach, on his 2009 Shupa. Auburn's Landon Collins, 9, and Folsom's “Speedway Charlie” Trana, 8, trailed closely with Dakota Shockley, 9, fourth. The 4-lap pee-wee main was another wire-to-wire winning ride on his 50cc Honda XR by impressive Travis Horn, 7, from La Verne. Richard Stephens, 8, from Antelope Valley, Levi Lentz, Cole Ayers, 9, and Industry resident Connor Salazar, 7, completed the five-rider field.
PIT NOTES: The 50/50 ticket drawing this week had a total collection of $946. So $473 in cash went to the spectator holding the winning ticket and and equal amount went to riders in the D-1 feature. ... The invasion of junior division riders and their supporters helped increase the total pit passes sold at the hillside speedway overlooking the eastern San Gabriel Valley. All of the free printed programs with heat race lineups were gone before the main events.
Joe Jones, 35-year old leader of the expanding sidecar series, built eight of the nine sidecar rigs in action Wednesday. He switched from his usual No. 1 to No. 7x this year because the No. 2 team of paraplegic driver Bryan Motis/swinger Josh Bennett won the 2014 National Sidecar Championship race at Costa Mesa Speedway last September. They did not want to use No. 1. No one else could use it, so Jones put 7x on his rig.
The No. 31 Suzuki-powered sidecar team of Robert Curry and his ex-wife Laurie came south from their shared home in Elk Grove, near Sacramento. After racing at Industry Wednesday, they planned to race in Auburn Friday and in Costa Mesa Saturday. Laurie said they have nine children between them, but none together.
Sidecar rookies include No. 33 driver Rick Garcia and his swing-man Adam Duckett, plus No. 101 of Kevin Holman/Dave Colton. The No. 1965 rookie swinger is Twisted Kilt Restaurant food server Ashley Gibbons, 23, from Fullerton. ... Sidecars raced for points to set consi and main event fields after five heats—run as events 11, 12, 26, 17 and 35.
FIM SPEEDWAY WORLD TEAM CUP: Results from Monday, June 8 at King Lynn, Great Britain showed Australia won over Great Britain, USA and Latvia. Czech Republic was eliminated. The Aussies advanced to join already qualified Denmark and Sweden in the finals at Vojens Saturday, June 13. On Thursday, June 11 at Vojens, Denmark the fourth and last berth in the June 13 championship finale was up for grabs, Poland won over Great Britain, USA and Russia.
USA TEAM: Southern Californians comprised 100% of the United States team. Captain is Billy Hamill, the 1996 Speedway World Champion. European-based US citizens Greg Hancock (a three-time World Champion), Ryan Fisher and Gino Manzares, 21, are primary riders. Teens Max Ruml, 18, and Broc Nicol, 17, flew to England June 2 to race for USA. Each country had four primary riders. Hamill indicated that if eliminated from the Saturday final event that he, Ruml and Nicol will fly back to California Sunday, June 14. So all three will be in action at Industry Speedway Wednesday, June 17.
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