From: Gary Roberts
Coincidentally, on the same night as ex- California Junior rider, Greg
Hancock wound up his World Championship win, the 1997 California Junior
State Championships were held at Santa Maria on Saturday, along with a
regular speedway program. In addition, there were go carts and
flattrack.
The Junior State Championship produced some good racing, particularly in the Division 1 class. One of America's possible future world champions, Ryan Fisher won this with a maximum score. It is easy to underestimate the importance of this event. The competitors for this event 13 years ago would have included Billy Hamill and Greg Hancock. I wonder how many future world champions are among the following list?
Division 1 Ryan Fisher 15 Bryan Yarrow 7 Eric Carillo 4 Donny Robinson 3 Division 2 Jonathan Curry 15 Justin Boyle 10 Division 3 Josh Newby 12 Tim Gomez 12 Alex Marcucci 6
The run-off for the division 3 championship went to Josh Newby after Tim Gomez fell, bruising his arm. He was unable to come back for the re-start.
Eric Carillo rode a newly put together machine, which was still suffering teething troubles. In his fourth heat he put on a good race, leading Ryan for nearly three laps.
The regular Speedway program is still short of riders. Like last week we were fortunate to have a number of riders who made the 250+ mile trip from up north. Unlucky Kevin Cullen damaged his leading link forks in his first heat and was unable to compete again. A long drive for 3 laps.
Matt King got his first main event win, after a second and a third earlier in the season. Matt is has competed more Santa Maria events than any other northern California rider.
Paul Herman rode his first ever Speedway event, and scored 2 points. He then won the C and B mains and ended up in the A main. THis is the first time a rider has transfered from the C to the A and the best performance ever for a first night rider. Paul has a number of year flat track experience.
Results: Kit Nay 14 Mat King 13.5 Bill Newby 13 Mark Maynard 11.5 Mike Boyle 8 John VanderMeulen 7 (reserve 4 rides) Bill THomas 6 Gerry Duttweiler 5 Terry McCurdy 4 Jimmy COllins 4 Paul Herman 2 Jason Chabot 0 A main: King, Nay, Newby, Maynard, Herman B main: Herman, Thomas, Duttweiler, VanderMeulen, Boyle C main: Herman, McCurdy, Collins, Chabot
There are still two more events at Santa Maria, on October 11 and
October 18. No racing next weekend because the Fairgrounds has some
monster track pull, or similar and the following week is the Costa Mesa
National.
Gary Roberts - groberts@iee.org
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