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Industry, CA, Jun. 30 – Buck Blair started from the outside (fifth) lane and shot into the lead on a restarted first lap Wednesday night in the 500cc Division 1 Industry Speedway feature. He led all four laps for his first feature triumph in week five of the seventh annual summer speedway motorcycle racing series at the Grand Arena in the Industry Hills Expo Center. Blair benefited from the first lap third turn falls by Shawn McConnell and Eddie Castro. Their separate mishaps caused a red flag and wiped out the opening lap lead of pole starter Charlie Venegas.
Venegas clearly was unhappy with the restart by Blair and confronted the winner during podium trophy presentations and again in the pits. He said Blair had made an unfair start and cut him off entering the first turn. Venegas trailed Blair and Bobby Schwartz for the first two laps and then passed Schwartz on lap 3. The three-time 2010 Industry winner tried to make it four in a row, but he trailed Blair by two lengths at the finish line. After remounting for the restart, McConnell and Castro passed Schwartz on the final lap. Schwartz slowed from the second turn to the checkered flag and placed fifth.
Aaron Fox, 22, of Menifee, continued his impressive showings in his second week of racing at Industry. He won all his Division 3 (rookies) heats and main event a week ago on his 500cc JAWA..Officials moved him up to Division 2 (intermediate level riders) and he again won both of his heat races and his first D-2 main event. He led laps 3 and 4 in a five rider field. Kevin Wybenga, 22, of Whittier, captured his second four rider D-3 main event at Industry. He led all four laps.
With six 1,000cc motorcycle and sidecar teams present, heat races were extremely competitive and lead changes commonplace. After three teams qualified by points for the feature, a three team “last chance” race took place with only the winner advancing. The Driggers father-son team of Sean, 49, and Casey, 17, won the final berth. The Driggers, from Lake Forest, led all four laps of the feature and beat frequent winners Joe James and his swing-man Jimmy Olsen. The race was so close at the end that the front wheels of the Jones/Olsen cycle left rips and tire marks on the leathers of swing-man Casey Driggers as he leaned over the track from the sidecar.
Youth main events went to a pair of Huntington Beach residents--Max Ruml, 12, in a three-rider race for older youths, and Michael Wells, 9, for newer/younger riders. Ruml rode a 250cc bike and Wells was aboard a 140cc cycle. Sebastian Palmese, 6, of Santa Margarita, won his third consecutive pee-wee division main on a 50cc mini cycle.
Wild and unusual events included D-1 rider Eloy Medellin taking a spectacular spill. He hiked his front wheel exiting turn two on the first lap of his second heat race and came off the back onto the track. His 500cc cycle flipped over the backstretch wall—a first in seven years of racing at The Grand. The former D-2 feature winner was able to rise eventually and walk to the pits. Crews wheeled his damaged cycle from the outside of the track to the pits. Medellin and his cycle were sidelined for the evening.
The track's five-ton Case tractor came onto the track to drag, or recondition, the dirt track prior to D-1 round three heat races. A loud snap from a sheared steering shaft stopped the tractor in the second turn. A second IHEC tractor could not move the first tractor from the track. Then track officials called in “Big Bertha”--a heavy duty Hyster fork lift. The driver positioned twin forks under the immobile tractor and lifted it high in the air before backing off the track to the pits. Racing continued. A delay of 20 minutes caused racing to conclude a minute before the 10:00 pm curfew.
Speedway cycle champion Billy Hamill, whose son Kurtis, 11, now races in the youth division, has announced a Hagon Shocks-backed Speedway Cycle Academy. The training site is Inland Motorsport Speedway in San Bernardino at the Orange Show Fairgrounds. The purpose is to increase the number of young speedway cycle racers. It is free to kids from ages 8 through 14, but youngsters must have some motorcycle experience in motocross or desert riding. Hamill will provide skid shoes, boots and entry-level 140cc cycles free and will provide instruction to newcomers. Adult group and individual classes also are available as well as cycle rentals. For more information e-mail [email protected] or phone (760) 308-8124.
Next Wednesday will have classic and muscle cars on display prior to and after speedway cycle racers entertain fans, who make Industry Speedway “the only reason for Wednesday nights.”
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