Venegas Wins Industry Speedway Feature July 10, 2013
By noderel:
Industry, CA., Jul. 10 – Charlie “the Edge” Venegas, from San Bernardino, regained his winning edge Wednesday at Industry Speedway in the Grand Arena of the Industry Hills Expo Center. The past track champion and holder of the most feature victories record at the track won the 500cc Division 1 main event for the first time in 2013 in front of about 1,500 spectators. Presenting sponsor Haddick's Towing & Auto Body of the City of Industry staged a classic car show at the spectator entrance. Venegas credited his dominating victory to the use of a borrowed GM cycle that delivered solid horsepower. “It puts me on equal footing with (Billy) Hamill,” said Venegas after his victory. He had his usual JAWA cycle in the pits as a backup.
The winning cycle belongs to 26-year old rider Kenny Ingalls, of Foresthills, northeast of Auburn. Ingalls had used it to race in Europe until he was injured and returned home. He loaned it to Venegas who has won with it at Fast Fridays Speedway in Auburn. “It was worth driving south from Auburn Sunday with this GM ride,” the winner said as he walked from victory lane ceremonies in the infield with his son Keelan, 9, holding his trophy. Venegas' No. 43 has been sponsored for years by Red Line Oil and Borge Development. He said he will race the borrowed GM cycle Friday at Pirate Speedway in San Bernardino, and Saturday at Costa Mesa Speedway during the annual Orange County Fair event.
Venegas is a 46-year old professional racer and 25-year speedway motorcycle racing veteran with numerous championships on his resume. He has been absent this year from the top step of the infield podium during post-race trophy presentations to winners of each division. Venegas missed one of the five prior Industry races this season because of the death of his sister-in-law. Billy Hamill won all five D-1 features at Industry this season on his Hagon Shocks GM cycle. He was not present.
TEAM USA: Earlier Wednesday Hamill, Gino Manzares and D-1 rookie Max Ruml, 16, flew from Los Angeles to Great Britain. They are Team USA members of the World Team Cup semi-final round at Kings Lynn, England on July 15. They will be joined on the USA team by Greg Hancock, Ryan Fisher and Ricky Wells, who race all year in Europe. The four rider Team USA will have Hamill as team manager and D-1 rookie Ruml, from Huntington Beach, as a reserve rider.
After three heat race rounds, Venegas was the only rider with three victories and the maximum nine points. He also led all four laps of his semi-final event to qualify for the feature and earn initial lane choice. He selected lane one. Aaron Fox next picked lane four at the crash-wall. Jimmy Fishback, making his first Industry start of 2013, opted for lane two, leaving Shawn McConnell with the third lane. When the starting tapes lifted Venegas shot into turn one first. He opened a three lengths lead after the first lap over Fox, the other semi-final winner. McConnell passed Fox on lap 2 and trailed Venegas by four lengths at the finish. Fox placed third, one length behind McConnell. Fishback was in the three-way fight for second until he slowed near the checkered flag and trailed at the finish by three lengths.
ADDED $1,000: An anonymous donor gave $1,000 for the riders in the scratch main event. Prior to the main event the four riders in it decided to split the added money evenly with $250 each going to the four riders. That cash was in addition to their usual purse from the promoter, Industry Hills Expo Center, and money from the 50/50 cash drawing, which collected $872 this week. A fan won half as usual and $436 went to speedway cycle riders. Buck Blair won the D-1 consolation race for third and fourth place finishers in the two semi-final races for top eight riders in points after the heat races. Tim Gomez, Jason Ramirez and Tyson Burmeister followed Blair.
In the exciting 1,000cc sidecar main event, Joe Jones and his “swing-man” Johnny Glover led all four laps in defeating the paraplegic Bryan Motis/Josh Bennett team. Dual Anderson/Ethan Smith and the Driggers brothers—Casey and Riley—placed third and fourth respectively. With six sidecars teams racing this week, there were two rounds of sidecar heats. The Driggers siblings won a three rig race for the fourth and final starting position in the feature.
Chris Jones, brother of the sidecar winning driver, started from the third lane and led all four laps of the 500cc D-2 main. After his victory lap with the checkered flag, Jones returned it to the starter and performed his usual celebratory cartwheels from the finish line to the first turn. He completed eight cartwheels this week. Kevin Fife, of Riverside, won his initial 500cc D-3 (for entry level riders) feature this year.
Broc Nichol, 15-year old 2012 Junior National Champion, won the 250cc Junior feature in a three-rider field. A five rider mini-150cc main had two riders start 50-yards from the starting gate. Maverick Molloy, 11, from Chino Hills, won his first Junior Division main at Industry on his No. 34 McDougal cycle. He led laps 2-5 and defeated the last feature winner, Courtney Crone, the other 50-yard line starter. The 50cc pee-wee division had six riders. “Lightning” Luke Whitcomb, 7, started alone, 50-yards from the starting gate. The irrepressible blond youngster took command for good on lap three of five for another popular victory with fans.
PIT NOTES: Jimmy “Little Animal” Fishback III, of Rancho Cucamonga, has been away from his usual D-1 cycle racing in 2013. He was shown in action on his No. 25 Hagon Shocks cycle on the cover of the free program given each week to all spectators. Fishback, 32, has raced successfully this year on the Lucas Oil Off-Road Series in an Unlimited Pro Lite Truck. His dad and grandfather also raced off-road. Jimmy told me he raced his truck at the Lake Elsinore off-road track and in Utah. The Lucas Oil Series is televised on the MAV-American Real TV Network. Jimmy has one podium finish (P. 3) at Lake Elsinore. He will be racing his truck in the upcoming Glen Helen off-road race near San Bernardino. His co-owned truck is competing against more well-funded teams so he is seeking sponsorship.
A first-time 500cc rider at Industry this week was D-2 rider Brandon Sturzenegger, from Athens, PA, near the New York border. He is a speedway cycle racer (No. 32a) at Champion Speedway in upstate Owego, N.Y. His dad and his older brother were speedway cycle racers. Brandon raced at Industry on a JAWA cycle owned by Shawn McConnell, of Brea. It is the cycle usually raced by Shawn's son Troy, who had to work Wednesday. The eastern visitor had a rough introduction to Industry. He was running second on the final lap when he fell into the infield leaving turn two in his first heat. His second ride in event 20 was more spectacular. He was in P. 3 on lap 3 when his cycle raced out of turn two, veered to the right, and crashed completely through the backstretch plywood crash-wall and out of sight. He was unhurt. Brandon, 16, will race one of Shawn's cycles Friday, July 12 at McConnell's co-promoted Pirate Speedway in San Bernardino. Buck Blair won the July 5 D-1 Pirate feature. Brandon will race it also on Saturday, July 13 in the O.C Fair race at Costa Mesa.
McConnell, who is known affectionately as “Mad Dog”, has a pair of trademark Goofy-like dog ears flying from the back of his helmet. He was the featured “Rider Spotlight” rider this week with a full page action photo in the free printed program. He sat in the booth inside the front gate from 6:30 to 7:00 signing autographs and chatting with spectators. ... D-1 rider Michael Raines (No. 7) finished third in his first heat. While leading his second heat on lap 2 his engine “blew” entering the first turn. That costly misfortune ended his night. ... D-3 feature winner Fife is a 43-year old carpenter at the famous Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park. ... Winning sidecar driver Joe Jones missed a week at Industry because of his ten-day fishing trip to Alaska. He caught 400 pounds of halibut.
Courtney Crone will be racing one of two Ford Focus midgets owned by Wally Pankratz at Ventura Raceway on Saturday, July 13. It will be her third race at the ocean-front speedway. Her exhibition run at Industry Speedway in one of Wally's FF midgets will occur later this summer. ... There were 40 races run at Industry between 7:30 and 9:53 pm with just two breaks for track preparation by the grader. The temperature was 81 at 6:10; it was still 73 when the final race concluded on a balmy night. ... Next Wednesday, July 17 will be the annual Bruce Flanders Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Night. Prizes will be awarded by IHEC management to persons wearing the ugliest Hawaiian shirts. The 2013 National Championship Qualifier Round 3 of 4 will be held at Industry Speedway on Saturday, August 3. Round 4 will occur six nights later on Friday, August 9 at Pirate Speedway on the grounds of the Orange Show Fairgrounds, just off Interstate 215.