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INDUSTRY, CA., Jul. 15 � Billy Janniro rode his 500cc JAWA cycle to a Division 1 victory for the third time in four Wednesday night appearances this season at Industry Speedway in “The Grand” at Industry Hills Expo Center. The 2008 AMA/USA Speedway Cycle National Champion was undefeated and scored maximum points this week by winning all three of his heat races and his four-lap semi-final race. He selected pole position, shot into the lead entering the first turn and led all four laps of the feature. Fourth lane starter Gary Hicks, a three-time feature winner at Industry this year, ran second all four laps and trailed by two lengths. Second starter Jimmy Fishback ran third all the way and trailed by five lengths. Ricky Wells, who has been racing in England this year, made his second race at Industry this year and placed fourth. Tyson Burmeister, a 24-year old racing in his first Industry Speedway D-1 feature, was fourth on the second lap when he fell in the first turn and pushed his cycle to the infield.
Pole starter Hicks won the four rider D-1 “last chance race” for third and fourth place finishers in the two semi-finals. He earned the final D-1 starting position in the five rider main event field. Dave Alexander and his sidecar rider Matt Davis won both sidecar heats and the sidecar feature with four teams. Austin Novratil, 14, from Huntington Beach, won the USA versus New Zealand Junior Division two-rider match race over Brad Wilson, 14, from Hastings, N.Z.
Phil Harmatiuk, 18, of Garden Grove, started second in a four rider field and led all four laps to secure his first 500cc D-2 trophy this season. Former truck racer Ron Mongenel, of Covina, won his first D-3 500cc main event trophy this year and third of his three year cycle career. He started ten yards from the starting tapes in a five rider field. As suggested by a friend, he went to the outside in the first two turns and passed everyone to lead all four laps on his newer JAWA cycle. A five contestant bikini contest took place in the infield on the balmy evening. Spectators viewed contestants on the large overhead jumbo-tron screen and voted with their applause for the winner.
Rocco Scopellite, a 13 year old Huntington Beach resident, won a three rider Junior Division 250cc main, leading all four laps. Sammy Ramirez, 9, from Orange, led all the way in a six-rider Junior field on 200cc cycles. With a season-high six Pee-Wee division riders on their 50 to 80cc mini-cycles, Nicky Reimer, 10, from Seal Beach, led all four laps from the back row. He defeated fellow back row starter Kale Fredholm, 11, by ten yards. It was his fourth pee wee main trophy at Industry this season and came in front of about 900 spectators.
Other speedway cycle races last weekend: British League star Greg Hancock, from California, returned home and on Friday won round two of the US National Championship Series in Auburn, CA. Janniro finished second. Jimmy Fishback won the regular Friday night D-1 feature at Inland Motorsports Speedway in San Bernardino. On Saturday riders raced the AMA/USA Speedway-sanctioned California State Long-track Speedway Championship presented by Justice Brothers on the Perris Auto Speedway quarter-mile clay track. More than 2,000 enthusiastic spectators watched the first speedway cycle event at the track in 13 years. Red-hot Janniro won that prestigious event over Hicks, Wells, Fishback, 17-year old D-1 rookie Jason Ramirez, and Tommy Hedden, from Auburn. Round nine of the 19-week Industry Speedway Wednesday speedway cycle series will be July 22 at “The Grand” arena with racing starting at 7:00 and concluding before 10:00 pm.
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