BLAIR WINS INDUSTRY SPEEDWAY MOTORCYCLE THRILLER July 11, 2012
By noderel:
Industry, CA., Jul. 11 – Buck Blair, of Huntington Beach, started from the outside lane and executed a brilliant outside pass of race leader Charlie Venegas on lap 2 as they entered the first turn. He held his slim advantage to the lap 4 checkered flag for his first feature triumph of the season at Industry Speedway in a 500cc Division event Wednesday night. Blair also won the feature last Friday at Inland Motor Speedway in San Bernardino. Round six of the weekly Wednesday night series at the Industry Hills Expo Center attracted another large crowd to the spacious Grand Arena.
Pole starter/lap 1 leader Venegas chased Blair closely for three laps and tried to force an error, but he trailed by two lengths at the checkered flag. Aaron Fox finished one length in back of Venegas. Lane two starter Tyson Burmeister, the week one feature winner, dropped out on the opening lap with a loose seat after a front bracket broke in the first corner. Venegas, the multi-time track champion and current point leader after six of 13 weeks, scored a perfect nine points in winning all three of his heat races. Blair was one of three riders with eight points for a pair of wins and a second place in heat racing on a night with 45 races from 7:00 to 9:50 pm. Venegas and Burmeister won the two D-1 semi-final races.
The first “Aussie Sidecar Invasion” had three 1,000+cc sidecar teams from Sydney,Australia present for the first time at Industry Speedway. Eleven sidecars in the pits comprised the largest sidecar field in nine years of racing at the indoor arena overlooking the eastern San Gabriel Valley. All three Aussie sidecar teams made the four sidecars main event field. Mark Griffiths and his sidecar rider Lionel Cornwell won on a 1,000cc Suzuki. They started from pole position and led all four laps. They held up an Australian flag during trophy presentations in the infield. The Aussie team of driver Phil Hudson and sidecar “swinger” Eli Wright placed second, 20-yards in back of their countrymen. Dylan Beard and his sidecar rider David Crews placed third, ten yards in back of the runner-up team. The Aussie Yamaha sidecar driven by 17-year old Shane Hudson, son of the runner-up, had Californian Nick Hartrick as his passenger. They dropped out of third place on lap 3.
Eloy Medellin, of Garden Grove, led all four laps of the 500cc Division 2 main for intermediate riders. Rookie Stephen Simrak, 21, of Lake Elsinore, also led every lap in the 500cc Division 3 race for newcomers to speedway cycle racing. It was his seventh race. Dillon Ruml, 13, won his first Youth (under 16) 250cc main event and edged his brother Max, 15, for the first time. The Huntington Beach teen said, “I'm stoked about winning.” Bradan Galvin, 13, of Corona, took the lead on the final lap and edged Sebastian Palmese in a 5-lap Youth 200cc main. The only female rider, Courtney Crone, 11, from Corona, led the first two laps and placed third in a six-rider field. The pee-wee main event on 50-cc cycles for riders age 4+ went to “Lightning” Luke Whitcomb, 6, of Anaheim. The son of a Protestant minister led all 4 laps in a six-rider field. A TV production crew present taped the precocious youngster for a possible feature. Keelan Venegas, 8, started with a 70-yard handicap and finished second.
The Australian sidecar teams race on larger tracks in Australia, have quieter mufflers and larger, aerodynamic fairings. They shipped three sidecars by boat to California to compete at four tracks against US teams before flying home July 15. The 71A sidecar driven by Shane Hudson won June 29 at Fast Fridays Speedway in Auburn. He also won Friday in San Bernardino. The Aussies will conclude their stateside racing tour Friday, July 13 in Costa Mesa during the opening night of the Orange County Fair. Week seven at Industry Speedway next Wednesday will be “Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Night” with adults wearing Hawaiian shirts admitted for half-price.