Charlie “the Edge” Venegas, from pole, made his second trip this season to the Industry Speedway podium top step on “Bruce Flanders Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Night”Wednesday. The feature was race 37 of the evening during week seven in season 11 at the Industry Hills Expo Center Grand Arena. The winner wheeled his bike from the starting gate during rider introductions after his mechanic noticed the top bolt of his front shock absorber was loose. He tightened it and wheeled the same 500cc Jawa to the starting line. Venegas shot into the lead immediately and led all four laps in front of about 800 spectators present and many viewers on the live Internet telecast.

New USA World Team Cup rider Max Ruml, 17, ran second on lap 2, but the steel shoe on his left foot came loose and dangled, so he could not put it on the ground for balance in the corners. Austin Novratil, 19, passed him on lap 3 and finished second, two lengths in back of Venegas. Ruml held on for third, two lengths behind the runner-up. Tyson Burmeister, 29, ran fourth all the way. He slowed on the final lap and trailed by a straightaway.

Rising star Broc Nicol, a 16-year old 500cc rookie, started from gate two and led all four laps of the Division 1 consolation race over pressing, outside-runner Eddie Castro. Russell Green and Rocco Scopellite followed. The two semi-final races went to gate four starter Venegas in a flag-to-flag ride over pole starter Burmeister. The second semi was a similar led all the way ride from the outside lane by Novratil over inside lane starter Ruml, from Huntington Beach.

Ruml was the only rider who won all three of his heat races, scoring a maximum nine points. Three riders—Castro, Burmeister and Novratil—tallied eight points via two wins and a second place. Venegas had seven points with one win and two seconds. It took five points this week to qualify for the eight spots in the the twin-semi-finals.

Harold Hartke, a 44-year old mechanic from Burbank, started from the outside lane and won his first 500cc D-2 main of 2014. He led every lap. His only other D-2 win at Industry came in 2012. Bruce Marteney, of San Dimas, dropped to fourth on the first lap. He finished second by passing two riders on lap 3 and edged Ron Davis and Carl Gazafy.

D-3 500cc feature winner Wade “the Rev” Whitcomb, 58, made it a night to remember for the Whitcomb family in Anaheim. The pastor of Garden Grove Baptist Church and father of four sons won his first D-3 main event since he won his first D-3 at Industry 52 weeks ago on July 13, 2013. He won this time in a five rider field aboard his No. 227 Weslake. His wife Gina and son Mark, 7, (a look-alike for older brother Luke) were in the stands beaming with pride.

The Rev had watched his son “Lightning” Luke, 8, win his first 150cc Division 2 main at Industry in a three-rider field. Luke was a dominant pee-wee rider for two years when he won eight p-w mains in 2012 and six mains last year on his 50cc bike. Irrepressible Luke struggled earlier this season to master the additional horsepower of his new 150cc bike and fell several times in the corners. He won his first 150cc feature May 10 at Costa Mesa Speedway. Smiling Luke was as thrilled watching his father win as he was after he won. Father and son posed for media photos together on the podium steps during post-racing trophy presentations and photo period. They also posed for photos with D-1 winner Venegas and his son Keelan, 10, a friendly rookie 150cc rival of Luke and recent winner.

Gage Geist, 15, led all four laps of the Junior Division 250cc main in a six rider field. Dillon Ruml, 15, had taken the lead on lap 2 but then fell in the first corner on lap 3. He was excluded from the complete restart for causing the red flag. Braydan Galvin, 15, came back from a nasty-looking header flip in turn four during a heat race to place second. Sammy Ramirez, 14, Courtney Crone, 13, and Michael Wells, 13, finished in P. 3-5 respectively.

Jake Isaac, 11, of Whittier, led all four laps of the 150cc Division 1 main for his first 2014 victory. Slater Lightcap did not start. Charlie Trana, a 7-year old rider from Folsom, made his Industry debut and finished second. The Fast Fridays Speedway (Auburn) regular was visiting So Cal and Lego-land on vacation with his parents and 5-year old sister as a 9^th birthday present for his brother. He took his 150cc bike along to get experience at Industry prior to the 2^nd annual AMA/FIM Youth Silver Cup on Sunday afternoon, August 10.

Luke Whitcomb's No. 27 led every lap in his 150 cc D-2 class. Andrew Russell, 9, placed second. Keelan Venegas had narrowly edged Whitcomb in their two heat races. In the main, “Lil Edge” Venegas trailed “Lightning” Luke by 10-15 yards on lap 2 when he fell easily in turn four. He rose quickly and pushed his bike into the infield.

The opening main event was “an Oklahoma land rush” with a season-high nine pee-wee division riders, several of them newcomers at Industry. They rode 50cc Honda and Yamaha bikes. This week Dustin Staggs, a 9-year old from Fullerton, led only the final few feet in a two rider dash to the finish line. Newcomer Gordon Teuber, 8, from Rancho Palos Verdes, led the first three laps and finished second. Rookie and four-time Industry pee-wee feature winner Travis Horn, 6, earned third this week. Cole Ayers, 8, Cameron Titterness, 6, Gunner Haggard, 6, Jose Navarette, 5, Richard Stephens, 9, and Conner Salazar, 6, finished fourth through ninth.

PIT NOTES: The 50/50 total collection this week was $968 and the spectator with the winning ticket received $484. D-1 riders received the other half. ... Shawn “Mad Dog” McConnell, of Brea, had intended to race at Industry Speedway July 16 but he blew his fifth engine this season Saturday at Costa Mesa Speedway. The Pirate Speedway promoter returned to his role as speedway bike racing promoter Friday, July 18. The Pirate track is just beyond turn three of Orange Show Speedway, where Figure 8 driver Rod Proctor is the new promoter of the now paved quarter mile oval.

Venegas said he would not be racing in the PAS Long Track Championship July 19 after racing in the North-South Teams Civil War in Auburn Friday night, July 18. He said he planned to race in the AMA National Round 2 at Ventura Saturday, June 28. He raced June 27 in Auburn and had a Southwest Airline flight booked from Oakland to Burbank Saturday. The airline canceled all flights that would allow him to make the Ventura race on time. After round 1 at Costa Mesa he is still in the top 14 in points. Round 3 will be at Industry Saturday, August 9.

Sidecars were not on the racing schedule this week, but the No. 1 and No. 2 sidecars were on display for fans inside the front entrance. Cori Moss, a female bartender at the front bar wanted to try riding at speed as a“swinger” in a sidecar. Champion driver Joe Jones tutored her on her role as his sidecar rider. She donned leathers prior to the third round of D-1 heat races. Jones took some easy laps with her. Then he ripped off four race-speed laps with Cori hanging out the sidecar providing counterbalance in the turns. She dragged her foot when necessary and performed admirably. Spectators gave her enthusiastic applause on their cool-off lap as she waved back to them. She then left the pits and returned to her usual bartender job after marking off one of her bucket list items.

Present in the stands this week were Irwindale Speedway NASCAR late model driver Mike Johnson, from Covina, open-wheel champ Wally Pankratz, and USAC midget owner/driver Jerome Rodela, of El Monte. Jerome told me he raced a midget for the first time in about five years Saturday, July 12 at Madera Speedway in a co-sanctioned USAC-BCRA event with a 100-lap Fred Gerhardt Classic feature. Jerome, driving the No. 5 Tres Van Dyne midget, led the feature for 42 laps until he was spun out while lapping Jared Blondel. Mike Snider won the main. Original Industry Speedway promoter Freddie Orozco, of Riverside, attends regularly and still tries to promote the sport. Freddie takes speedway bikes to speedways in Irwindale and Perris to promote speedway bike racing.

On Saturday, July 12 So Cal's Greg Hancock, entered the speedway bike 2014 World Championship round seven of 12 as the series point leader by one point 79-78 over Brit Tai Woffingdon. The Saturday, July 12 5:00 pm local time British Grand Prix at Cardiff, Wales took place in the beautiful decade old 50,000 seat Millineum Stadium. It was packed with enthusiastic fans of speedway. The entire event, heat races through semi-finals and feature, was telecast live on the Internet from 9 am to 12 noon PDT. It was captivating and educational to see a world championship event in progress. Sixteen riders faced each other at least once and rotated through all four starting gates by pre-determined lane assignments for the heats. Two British announcers on the telecast were knowledgeable about speedway and by their accents you knew you weren't in Kansas anymore Dorothy.

Greg (No. 45) Hancock, 44, won the feature by leading all four laps from the outside gate. A 23-year old Brit, Woffinden (No. 1), finished second, with 22-year old Aussie Darcy (No. 43) Ward third, and 30-year old Polish rider Krzyszto (No. 507) Kasprzak fourth. Their point totals for all heat races through the feature (seven rides) showed Woffinden had 18, Ward 15, Hancock 14 and Kasprzak 10. So Hancock won the British GP but lost his series point lead to Woffinden by three points—90-87. The Welsh crowd gave Hancock, from Costa Mesa, enthusiastic applause during his victory lap. He was emotional as well. The former world champion is popular in Europe as he is in the USA. The top three finishers stood on podium steps for Olympics-like presentations and a recorded USA National Anthem played for winner Hancock. It was very moving. To watch future rounds in this exciting Speedway World Championship series log ontowww.speedwaygp.com. The site is excellent and gives race dates, rider profiles, point standings and other interesting items.