VENEGAS WINS SPEEDWAY CYCLE MAIN @ INDUSTRY JUNE 11, 2011
By noderel:
Industry, CA., June 8, 2011 – Charlie “the Edge” Venegas regained his edge Wednesday night after missing the Industry Speedway main event on opening night a week earlier. He led all four laps at the Industry Hills Expo Center in front of about 500 spectators in The Grand Arena. The San Bernardino resident also won the 500cc Division I feature last Saturday at Costa Mesa. At Industry round two of 15, Venegas, 44, won two of his three preliminary heats and tied three other riders for high point honors with 11 points out of a possible 12. Then he won his five rider, four-lap semi-final race that sent the top two finishers in each semi to the main event.
Venegas, the most prolific feature winner in eight seasons of racing at Industry Speedway, started from the second lane in the five rider race. He shot into the first turn ahead of lane one starter Jimmy Fishback and beat him by four lengths at the 9:32 pm checkered flag. Teen Austin Novratil took third position on lap 2 when Bobby Schwartz, 54, slowed on the backstretch. Eddie Castro finished fourth with Schwartz fifth.
Rocco Scopellite, 15, of Huntington Beach, won A Support main for the second consecutive week. Kip McClain, 48, of Covina, earned his first B Support feature trophy in his second year of 500cc speedway cycle competition. Youth main event winners were: Max Ruml, 14, of Huntington Beach, in a 250cc event. Shea Bendykowski, 11, of Temecula, and Broc Nichol, 13, of Lomita, took the pair of 200cc and under speedway cycle mains.
Alyssa Smith, 9, from Lakewood, made her first racing start of the season and won her second career 50cc pee-wee division main in a six rider field of 5 to 10-year old riders. She beat her first cousin, Dillon Smith, 10, of Orange in the main. He beat his cousin in the first pee-wee heat race on the final lap by racing under her entering the third turn, bumping her and moving her cycle up the track.
During round one of Division I (expert) heat racing Michael Raines fell hard face first in the second turn of his heat. He remained motionless for several minutes. Track medical staff attended to him and sent the conscious rider to a hospital by ambulance for medical tests and observation. Raines was able to move his extremities and talk to medical staff when he was placed on a gurney and into an ambulance. C. J. Sanborn and Kurtis Hamill, the two riders injured in crashes last Wednesday, were examined at a hospital and released within five hours.