2000 North American Archive of International Speedway

Message Section
June 5, 2000

From: gary_rob@ix.netcom.com
To: "Internet Speedway Fan Club List" 
Subject: Fast Fridays Speedway Auburn CA - June 2 2000
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 09:37:22 +0200

Fast Fridays Speedway, Auburn, CA - June 2, 2000

Following last week's world championship qualifier it was back to the
regular program at Fast Fridays Speedway in Auburn, CA, with 3 divisions
of Speedway and 3 divisions of Junior Speedway. It was a good evening of
racing, with some very close finishes. The track as always was well
prepared, but with less dirt on it than last week. Nobody seemed to want
to use the outside. The weather was hot. I got so thirsty I had to drink
a Budweiser. Not a pleasant experience!

Scratch Main
1. Billy Janniro
2. Tommy Hedden
3. Bobby Hedden
4. Charlie Venegas

Really not the race that anyone was expecting. Charlie Venegas did not
get one of his lightning starts. Tommy Hedden took the lead, with Billy
Janniro in second. Bobby Hedden and Charlie were both working on getting
past Billy, while he was focusing on closing the gap between himself and
leader Tommy Hedden. On the last lap, Billy moved up closer and pulled
along side on the race to the flag. It was very close, with the referee
giving the race to Billy. Although he has won a number of handicap mains
at Auburn and Scratch Mains at Livermore and Chico, this was Billy
Janniro's first Auburn Scratch Main Win. Full credit to him, because the
field was not lacking in any way. A returning rider this week, after a
four year absence, was Dustin Schroeder.

Scratch Consi
1. Mike Faria
2. Bart Bast
3. John Cook
4. Bob Hicks

Handicap Main
1. Mike Faria
2. Ryan Fisher
3. Bart Bast
4. Bobby Hedden
5. Tommy Hedden
6. Robert Curry

Another good close race. Early leader, Robert Curry was moved over by a
surprising shove from Ryan Fisher. Whether intentional or not, it looked
a bit heavy handed. Mike Faria managed to get past Ryan to take the win.

Handicap Consi
1. Paul Orlandi
2. Bob Hicks
3. Billy Janniro
4. Chad Felicio
5. John Cook

Charlie Venegas also qualified but was a non starter.

Veteran Paul Orlandi made his first appearance of the season and his
first appearance on a laydown. John Cook from the 50 yard lane had
worked his way up to third and was battling for second, but mistook the
white flag for the checkered. His excuse was a busy week, having
traveled from Auburn last Friday to Poland for Sunday, Sweden for
Tuesday and back to the US on Thursday.

Div 2 Main
1. Jon Curry
2. Ivan Sevart
3. George Snodgrass
4. Rachelle Kerr
5. Tom Adams
6. Derek Silva

Jon Curry started his first week racing a 500 by demonstrating the value
of several years in the Junior program. The lead he built up in his heat
was sufficient to allow him to maintain the lead, despite making a few
mistakes. He was more confident in the main. Ivan Sevart worked his way
up to second but could not catch Jon. 

Div 2 Consi
1. Mark Thomas
2. Matt Browne
3. Scott Olney
4. Shawn Eldridge
5. Mike Browne
6. Don Chipman

Div 3 Main
1. Bruce Baker

Sorry, I didn't get the rest of the results. By my account, the other
riders in this race were Robert Mellor, Les Veale, Geno Bellino, Vince
Bertolucci, Din Blankenbiller, and David Quick.

Dino Blankenbiller lead the race until the last turn on the last lap
when he ceremoniously fell down in the middle of the turn.

Div 3 Consi
1. Ron Woodsford
2. Mike Douglass
3. Dave Baker
4. Bill Warnock
5. Mike Achilles

Also in the race were Mark Woodward, Devin Devreece, and Mark Blassey

Junior Div 1
1. Greg Hooten Jnr.
2. Eric Carillo
3. JJ Martynse
4. Bryan Yarrow
5. JT Mabry
6. Chris Kerr

Greg Hooten took the Division 1 Junior Main event despite hard pressure
from Junior National Champion Eric Carillo. Greg has come along way in
the past 12 months.

Junior Div 2.
1. Chris Olney
2. Mark Carillo
3. Danny Easley
4. Josh Newby
5. Alex Marcucci

Junior Div 3
1. TJ Fowler
2. Amanda English
3. Tom Fehrman

Also in this race were Paul and Mitchell Johnson, Jay Rickets, Jeff
Butler and Bruce Bast.

Even the Junior Div 3 race had a close finish with TJFowler working his
way up as the only 20 yard handicap rider and leaving it to the final
straight to pass Amanda English.

Next week there is again Speedway at Auburn on Friday, then Saturday
June10 is Sideways Saturdays opening night at Cal Expo in Sacramento.

Gary Roberts - groberts@iee.org

From: karl.iat@dial.pipex.com
To: "Internet Speedway Fan Club List" 
Subject: Swedish GP
Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2000 12:03:11 +0100

Just a few thoughts on P.R. suicide that was the Swedish GP:  I was
finally able to persuade the landlord of my local pub to change the TV
to the GP on Saturday, despite calls from other customers to keep the
over 60s live snoring contest on, but I don't think he will do it again!

A few comments were made about years gone by when they went to watch and
I managed to get them interested enough to start making saying "I'll
pick yellow/black for this race" etc. and then the refereee decides to
lose any future interest from these people and doubtless lots of other
armchair observers.  First a rider is out, then in, then out again
-which was clearly a totally wrong decision.  As to the meeting itself,
Tony Rickardsson was undoubltedly the pick of the bunch, winning his
races by some distance and full marks to the consistency shown by Loram,
Wiltshire & Crump.  The Nilsen/Hamill incident was not an easy one to
call from watching on TV although it did seem that Billy did'nt have
much track left going into the bend.  With the Crump/Gollob crash, yet
agin we witness the Jason dive as accepts he's been passed and wants a
re-run chance- only this time his lay-down went wrong as his leg caught
Tomasz's back wheel and caused a bigger fall than intended.  (We at
Ipswich have seen him use this tactic twice this year, both when there
was clearly no contact with the rider on the inside.)  It was clear that
Golob was in front and there was plenty of room for Jason to move
outside. (that should cause some reaction!)  Then onto the A final when
Tony is run into by Loram and has his front wheel hit but strangely gets
excluded - could the ref be trying to make-up for the Gollob incident by
this time excluding the outside man.
The only way to try and get fairer decisions is for the referee to not
be too hasty with the exclusions and watch the video evidence and
perhaps speak to the two riders involved before making the decision ( or
the independant expert as Ray Blackwell points out).

Anyway, after all this the general view in the pub was that Speedway is
disorganised and clearly laughable and unfortunately I'll have to make
do with Internet updates for the next GP.

Cheers

Karl

From: sboz@vtown.com.au
To: "Internet Speedway Fan Club List" 
Subject: Oz GP Comp. results.
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 21:57:46 +1000

Hi all,

Some interesting results from the Oz GP Comp with most tipsters 
gaining some points. Top scorers were Krystian Goralski of Poland and 
Lee White of Oz with 15 points. Lee White heads the table with 17 after 
two rounds. Results are posted on the web site.

Round three tips can be sent in anytime from now. Sorry, competition now 
closed for newcomers.

Cheers,

Peter Henderson
Gold Coast, Queensland
'Speedway Bikes of Oz'
http://plhenderson.tripod.com/index.htm