FISHBACK EARNS FIRST SPEEDWAY CYCLE FEATURE AT INDUSTRY JUNE 2011
By noderel:
Industry, CA., June 15, 2011 – It was a night for career-best finishes at Industry Speedway Wednesday night. Jimmy “Lil Animal” Fishback had a perfect three for three in heat races, won the first of two semi-mains and earned his first-career 500cc Division 1 main event victory at Industry Speedway. He started his No. 25 JAWA from the inside lane at the five-wide starting gate. The 30-year old Rancho Cucamonga resident is the son of Jimmy”the Animal” Fishback, who was present to watch his son's first victory at The Grand Arena of the Industry Hills Expo Center. “This is my first win here in three years of trying,” the winner told onlookers after accepting his trophy on the infield podium. The 1995 Junior Division National Champion has won numerous times at other tracks, including the scratch main last Friday night at IMS in San Bernardino. He holds the current three track (Industry, IMS and Costa Mesa) combined 2011 point lead.
Runner-up John Marquez, a 24-year old Menifee resident, also enjoyed his best night in D-1 cycle racing. He had a first and a pair of seconds in heat races and a second in his semi-main to qualify for the main. He started his No. 41 new GM frame cycle from lane three of five and ran second all four laps for his career-best finish. He trailed Fishback by four lengths and edged June 8 Industry winner Charlie Venegas by two lengths. Shawn McConnell ran fourth all the way. Mike Faria dropped out of fifth position on the final lap.
Six sidecar teams raced at Industry for the second time this season after racing last Friday in Auburn and Saturday at the Folsom Rodeo Grounds. Joe Jones and Matt Davis, his new sidecar swinger, led all four laps Wednesday. They defeated paraplegic driver Brian Motis and his sidecar rider Brandi McElroy by one length in a tight four-team, four-lap contest. The husband-wife team of Sean and Missy Driggers placed third. The new first-ever 1,000cc Harley-Davidson sidecar team of Argentinian T-Rod Requejo and swinger Gene Stone won their first race in a two-team consolation event.
Sidecar teams suffered two injuries last weekend. Driver Kevin Brown broke two ribs in a crash at Auburn's Fast Fridays Motorcycle Speedway. His swinger, Davis, rode with Jones at Industry for the first time after Jones' usual rider, Jimmy Olsen, was unable to compete because of a family emergency. Sidecar rider Crystal Laurie fractured bones in her left forearm after she fell off the sidecar and was struck by the rig at Folsom Saturday night. She was present in the Industry pits Wednesday cheering on her sidecar driver/boyfriend Dylan Beard and her first-time sidecar swinger Steven Emas. They finished fourth in the feature aboard the red 1,000-cc Kawasaki-powered No. 5150 machine.
Brandon Leedy, a 19-year old from Lake Elsinore, won the four-rider Support A main after leading all four laps from pole position. Covina's Kip McClain, 49, won his second consecutive Support Division B main after leading every lap. Youth mains went to Nick Varner, 11, in the 200cc and under cycles event. Max Ruml, 14, beat Varner in a two-rider 250cc race with a power ride in which he was seldom off the throttle. Alyssa Smith, 9-year old daughter of 2008 Irwindale Speedway Figure 8 champion Tom Smith, of Lakewood, won her second victory in a six rider pee-wee field on 50cc mini-cycles. Promoters Jeff and Madison Immediato will present round four of the 14 consecutive Wednesday nights Industry Speedway series backed by Bruvado Premium Mexican Lager on June 22. It will be Harley Night. Owners may ride their street-legal Harleys on the race track and a “race” for stock cycle riders is on tap as usual on Harley night.