Venegas Perfect - Red Flags - Injuries
By noderel:
Industry, CA., Aug. 14 – It was another perfect night of speedway motorcycle racing Wednesday for Charlie “the Edge” Venegas at Industry Speedway. The 500cc speedway multi-champion from San Bernardino won all three of his heat races, his semi-final and led all four laps of the feature in front of about 1,800 spectators at the Grand Arena in the Industry Hills Expo Center. However, the evening had multiple red flag crashes that injured three riders and caused racing to conclude at just past 10:00 pm for the first time this season.
In the second D-1 heat race Rocco Scopellite,17, fell hard on the third lap and suffered a shoulder injury that sidelined him for the night. A D-3 heat round two crash in the 17th of 44 events injured two riders. Tony De Almeida fell on the first lap entering turn one. Rick Howard made contact and fell hard. Howard remained motionless on the track and lost consciousness for about four minutes. Ambulance medical staff tended to him. He gradually regained consciousness and answered their questions. Howard was placed on a gurney and moved to the ambulance. A fire department ambulance crew arrived and transported him to LA County-USC Medical Center for medical treatment. De Almeida had sat up and walked to the infield shortly after the crash and remained in the pits. His possible broken forearm was placed in a sling.
High-point rider Venegas, 46, selected the inside lane and used it to dash into the first turn ahead of Aaron Fox, from lane two, Max Ruml, from the outside lane, and Russell Green, from the third lane. They ran all four laps in that order. Fox finished two lengths in back of Venegas. Ruml was two lengths behind Fox at the checkers. Green slowed on the third lap and finished half a lap back. The D-1 feature was the season-high 44th race of the night. Event 43, the “money only ride” consolation race for third and fourth place riders in the pair of semi-finals, provided an amazing finish. Jason Ramirez made an inside pass leaving turn four on the final lap and edged first three laps leader Buck Blair at the finish line.
HARLEY NIGHT: Week 12 of 14 Wednesday nights at Industry Speedway was Laidlaw's Harley-Davidson of Baldwin Park night. Ten street legal Harleys made parade laps earlier and then raced a four lap heat race. Top three rider Chris Wiggins fell exiting turn four and another rider clipped the downed Harley. Contact sent the second bike to the ground for a red flag. No injuries resulted.
Eight of the ten street Harley riders returned on their “hogs” for the four lap Harley main event. Jason Klemence, with an American flag flying from a pole mounted a the back of his 1985 Harley, led all four laps convincingly. Past Harley Night race winner Joe Pate's No. 75 finished second. Known as “the horny guy”, Pate wears a viking helmet with horns protruding from both sides. It still bore scars from a fall last year. Only one of eight riders fell during the Harley feature. He was unhurt and pushed his Harley to the infield.
SIDECARS: A season-high eight of the extreme sidecar teams competed in the fifth sidecar appearance at Industry this season. They ran four heat races won by four different teams and a consolation race won by a fifth different team. With four sidecar rigs in the feature, Dual Anderson and his sidecar swing-man Ethan Smith led all four laps for their second Industry 2013 victory on a 1,000cc Kawasaki. The Joe Jones/Johnny Glover No. 1 team made a closing charge on the inside from turn four to the finish line on the final lap. Their 1,000cc Suzuki rig fell just short of victory. The No. 2 rig of paraplegic driver Bryan Motis and his “working passenger” Josh Bennett placed third. Gerard Jackson/Dave German, aboard the red No. 66, finished fourth.
Danny Baker passed first lap leader Kevin Fife and led the final three laps of the 500cc D-2 main for his first triumph this season. Fife, Chris Wiggins and Chris Jones followed. Steve “Beachball” Brown, who lost 80 pounds to resume speedway motorcycle racing, won his third 500cc D-3 victory of 2013 at Industry. Pam Bennett, a 52-year old grandmother who raced speedway from 1975-82, led the first two laps on her Weslake. She finished third in only her third race this year. Dave Troutt, a two-time D-3 winner at Industry this season, started 30-yards from the gate in the handicapped 5-lap race. He also passed Bennett on the third lap and finished a close second. “Rev” Wade Whitcomb placed fourth. Three riders scratched after earlier crashes.
A six-rider field of 250cc Junior Division riders had four veteran 250cc teenagers at the starting gate with two newer 250 riders at the 20-yard line. Broc Nicol, 15, led all four laps for his fifth Industry feature trophy this season. Four-time winner Dillon Ruml, 14, was second, with Dillon Leedy, Michael Wells, and Hayley Perrault completing the top five. Nor Cal 14-year old first-year Junior Gage Geist (relocated from Sacramento to Temecula) finished a close sixth in his first night at Industry Speedway.
MINI 150CC: Two divisions of mini-150cc juniors raced heats and mains. Sebastian “Big Daddy” Palmese, 10, started 40-yards from the gate and fell on the initial lap of the 150s D-1 main. He restarted 50-yards from the gate after a ten yard penalty. Palmese passed early leader Maverick Molloy on the fifth and final lap in the second turn to record his ninth Industry feature victory this year. Courtney Crone, 12, placed third after missing last week because of a trip to Las Vegas. Tristan Britt,10, won his third mini-150cc D-2 main for less experienced juniors.
The 50cc pee-wee division field had a season-high eight riders this week. “Lightning” Luke Whitcomb, 7, charged from the 50-yard line on his Suzuki 50 to take the lead on the third of five circuits. It was his sixth pee-wee feature victory this season at Industry. Rookie Conner Salazar, 5, placed second on his Yamaha 50 in his best result to date.
The inaugural “Silver Cup” for Junior Speedway and Mini Speedway riders will be held Saturday, August 17 at 11:00 am. About 28 riders from Nor Cal and So Cal are expected to race in the first Industry daytime speedway event. The national championship racing format will be used as it was the for recent US National Championship qualifier series for 500cc D-1 riders. Only two Wednesday nights of Industry Speedway racing remain (August 21 and 28). August 28 is the annual California State Championship event that attracted a premier field of D-1 riders and about 3,000 spectators last year. Billy Hamill, Billy Janniro, Charlie Venegas and other top D-1 riders will compete for the coveted 2013 California State Champion title.