Industry, CA., Aug. 28 – Charlie “the Edge” Venegas won the 38th running of the speedway motorcycle California State Championship Wednesday night at Industry Speedway in the Grand Arena of the Industry Hills Expo Center. More than 2,000 spectators attended the eighth consecutive running of the event at the site. The 25-year speedway bike racing veteran from San Bernardino rode his GM bike backed by Borge Development and Red Line Oil. Venegas, 46, won the prestigious event for the fourth time. His other title years were 1997, 2007-08. The event was not run from 1998-2005. Industry Speedway revived the event in 2006.

Twenty 500cc Division 1 riders ran four rounds of heat races and accumulated points on a 3-2-1-0 basis. High-point riders advanced to the championship final, event 43. The busy evening had four breaks for track preparation. Four other divisions also raced. A 500cc Invitational (Support Division) had seven riders and was the only division that used 4-3-2-1-0 scoring. The Junior 250cc class had seven riders. The Mini 150cc first division had four participants; the Mini 150cc second division also had seven riders in action. Each of the supporting divisions raced two heats and a main event.

The Division 1 final figured to be a match-up of Billy Janniro, the 2010-12 California State Champion, seven-time 2013 Industry feature winner Billy Hamill, the 1996 World Speedway Champion, and five-time 2013 Industry feature winner and past Industry track champion Venegas. Hamill's GM engine failed terminally during his first heat race while leading on the third lap. The rocker arm broke and went through the valve train. That ended his night and quest for his his first California State Championship. He did not have a backup bike in the pits because he has been preparing for a road race at Toole, Utah over the Labor Day weekend.

Janniro, from Rancho Cordova (near Sacramento), and Venegas each scored three victories in their four heat races. Only Tyson Burmeister (No. 26) beat Janniro (No. 14N) in the first round. In the third round Venegas was docked ten yards for touching the starting gate tapes with his front wheel. He recovered by racing to third place and one point. Aaron Fox and Janniro, 33, tied at 11 points for most points and advanced directly to the final event.

RUNOFFS: Three riders—Venegas, Burmeister and Shawn McConnell—tied at 10 points and ran a runoff race with the winner moving to the final. Venegas, from lane four, won while Burmeister and McConnell went to the Last Chance race. The next runoff race was for three riders tied with nine points. Buck Blair, Mike Faria and 16-year old D-1 rookie Max Ruml raced four laps with only the first two finishers advancing to the Last Chance race. From the outside lane Ruml won over Blair. Four-time California State Champion Faria was a close third, but done for the night. The Last Chance qualifier went to Burmeister, who led all four laps from the inside lane and moved into the final. McConnell, Blair and Ruml followed, but they had to watch the championship final.

FINAL: First lane choice went to Fox and he selected the inside lane. Janniro chose lane two and Venegas then picked lane three, leaving the outside lane to Burmeister. When the starting gate lifted shortly after 10:00 pm, Fox shot into the lead as Janniro searched for racing room. As he did a week earlier at Industry en-route to a spectacular victory over Hamill and Venegas, Janniro went to the outside leaving the second turn on the initial lap. He powered to the outside in the third and fourth turns and appeared capable of taking the lead from Fox. However, Janniro's front wheel rose high in the air suddenly, dumping him off the back of the bike onto the track. His bike flipped end-over-end several times and slammed into the plywood crash-wall protecting the grandstand at the exit of turn four. Janniro popped up quickly to his feet even before his bike came to rest on the track. He walked to the pits without injury. He knew his race was finished by championship rules for causing the red flag. A complete restart several minutes later had Fox, Venegas and Burmeister on the starting line. Venegas grabbed the lead before the first turn and led all four laps. Fox, 25, trailed by three lengths with Burmeister, 29, two lengths in back of Fox.

The Invitational or support main also had a red flag incident on the first lap. Danny Baker fell in the first turn and collected Chris Jones. Baker was excluded. Davey Shaw, a 36-year old 18-year US Navy Seabee from Port Hueneme, made his Industry debut after returning from Okinawa recently. He also had tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The nephew of speedway champions Steve and Mike Bast rode his 500cc JAWA. He won both of his heat races, as did Baker. Shaw led all four laps in the main. Carl Gazafy finished second after second place Jones fell on the second lap in turn two. He remounted and placed third.

JUNIORS: The Junior 250cc final went to Kurtis Hamill, 14-year old son of the D-1 veteran. He led all four laps over the only other finisher--Dalton Leedy, 15. Referee-called penalties for jump starts excluded Dillon Ruml, 14, and then Broc Nicol, 15. The Mini 150cc first division main had three starters after Gino Scopellite scratched. On the initial lap leader Courtney Crone, 12, fell in the third turn and was excluded for causing a red flag. Se'bastian “Big Daddy” Palmese, 10, led all four laps over Maverick Molloy, 12. It was Palmese's 12th feature triumph of 2013 at Industry Palmese won the inaugural Silver Cup Championship in the Mini 150cc first division on Saturday, August 17 at Industry.

The Mini 150cc second division final also had an opening lap red flag. Two heat race winner Tristan Britt fell while leading on lap 2 in the second corner. Alex Martin, 8, inherited the lead, but he fell in the third turn. Rules disqualified Britt for causing the red flag initially. On the complete restart, Sterling Martin, the fraternal twin of Alex, led all four laps over Slater Lightcap and his twin Alex. Lightcap had won the final starting spot by winning a runoff race with Travis Hamilton, who tied him with three points in their two heat races. Britt won both of his heats and led with six points. The Martin twins, from Salinas, each won a heat race and tied for second place with five points. Sterling also won the Mini 150 cc second division Silver Cup Championship at Industry on August 17. Alex won two Industry features in July.

NOTES: The tentative 2014 Industry Speedway racing schedule shows a 16 event racing schedule from Wednesday, May 28 through Wednesday, August 27, which will be the 39th California State Championship. The first week of August will have three events. Friday, August 2 will be a National qualifier round. The next afternoon will be the second annual Youth-only Silver Cup Championships for 250 and 150cc riders. August 6 will be the regular Wednesday night program and will honor “Legends of Speedway”. ... The 50/50 collection this week was $1,452, a NTR, and the lucky ticket holder in the grandstand received a track record $726. The other half went to the riders.

The inaugural California State Championship (CSC) was run in 1968 with Sonny Nutter the first winner. Sixteen different riders have won the 38 CSC titles. Brothers Steve and Mike Bast, regulars at the Fast Fridays track in Auburn, each won six CSC titles in the first 16 years of the event. Each of the Bast brothers won four CSC titles in a row. Three riders have four CSC P. 1 trophies. They are: Steve Lucero, Mike Faria and now Venegas. Janniro was going for his fourth consecutive CSC crown, but he will have to wait a year. Bobby Schwartz has two CSC titles. Winners of single CSC titles in addition to Nutter are: Alan Christian, Bruce Penhall, Lance King, Bobby Ott, Sam Ermolenko, Chris Manchester, Josh Larsen (2006), and Ricky Wells (2009).

Newcomers to Industry Speedway at the Industry Hills Expo Center rave about the facilities, including restaurant, outdoor dining patio, clean restrooms, roof-covered arena with open sides, well-prepared dirt track, and replays on a large, color video screen in the third turn. Even vented, large dark screens to block sun setting in the west draw favorable remarks. With increasing average weekly attendance (22,000+ people attended Industry speedway bike races in 2013) speedway bike racing is growing in popularity. Year ten has seen continued growth of the sport. A ladder system, from pee-wees to 150cc to 250 cc, to 500cc Division 3 and 2, is in place. A crop of talented youth and junior riders will keep the talent pool growing.

IHEC granted viewing of the complete August 28 California State Championship on the Internet live and free of charge. Speedway fans unable to attend could just go to www.IndustrySpeedway.com and click “watch live”. Track announcer Bruce Flanders announced that news to the largest crowd of 2013 so they could call friends at home. A 12-page program had three pages of color and was distributed free of charge to incoming fans. For the first time this season, no programs remained before racing concluded. ... USAC-CRA car owner Dwight Cheney was in attendance. He said he was towing north for the USAC sprint car/midget weekend doubleheader at Calistoga Speedway. On board his trailer will be Matt Mitchell's sprint car with Dwight's 410 engine in it, and a midget No. 7 for a Kiwi driver named Buckley, who also watched Industry Speedway bike racing in person.