From: Gary Roberts
The last meeting of the season took place at Fairgrounds Raceway, Santa
Maria, last Saturday. There was a Harley Davidson get-together going on
locally and thanks to Speedway enthusiasts/Harley riders
Sonny Nutter
(1969 California State Speedway Champion) and Dave Jenkins (sponsor of
Mark Maynard
and Jimmy Collins)
for spreading the word, we ended up
with quite a good crowd.
Racing was good, as ever, with quite a lot of overtaking. The track remained so good all evening, that I was priviledged to be one of several lucky ones to go out and get a few practice laps in afterwards. We are incredibly lucky to have such a great track. I am told that during the off season turns 1 and 2 will be reshaped to be made more pointed like 3 and 4. Currently its a bit egg shaped, not that any rider has complained. (One or two spectators have commented).
This last couple of weeks have provided a full program since both Costa Mesa and Auburn are well and truly closed for the year. Winner this week was Tim Tucker, a Costa Mesa regular. Local man Kitt Nay looked good all evening, making some spectacular moves in a couple of races to come up from behind. Matt King, from Northern California also rode very well. Marvin Sonnier, last week's winner had a good evening too. Frank Pecce, who rode at Santa Maria only once before had a good evening and lead the B main for three and a half laps before going wide out of turn 2 and hitting the wall.
Results: Matt King 14 Tim Tucker 13 Kitt Nay 13 Marvin Sonnier 12 Frank Pecce 11 John VanderMuelen 9 Mark Maynard 9 Paul Herman 8 Rudy Maresca 6 Dave Booth 6 Mark Adams 6 Sean Larned 5 Gerry Duttweiler 4 Tim Reilly 2 Paul Baldwin 2 Don Johnson 0 reserve 3 rides Jeff Smith 0 2 rides A final Tucker, Sonnier, Nay, King, Maynard B final Maynard, Herman, VanderMuelen, Pecce, Larned C final Larned, Booth, Adams, Duttweiler, Maresca (n/s) D final Duttweiler, Baldwin, Reilly, Johnson
We all hope that Santa Maria will pick up next year. The promoter has
invested a lot of money this year to just keep it running. It is a
great track. We have all the necessary facilities and an extremely
capable and enthusiastic track staff. If only we had a consistent,
reliable and sufficient supply of riders, it would be worth advertising
the events and trying to get a crowd. Several times this year we have
had a program printed on Friday nights showing 18 riders and 24 hours
later, only 8 show up. With a show like this, we dont have a product.
It is pointless advertising it. I would like to take this opportunity
to appeal to all interested potential riders to contact
John VanderMuelen
(805) 937 8584 as soon as possible and let him know that
you want to ride next year. We plan a couple of practice sessions
during the winter, more if demand requires it. We would like as much
support as possible, to convince our promoter to continue investing in
us.
Gary Roberts - groberts@iee.org
Previous race, '97 Race Calendar
