Ryan Evans Report #3 on the 2000 Season

Ryan Evans' First Report on the 2000 Season
Ryan Evans' Second Report on the 2000 Season
Ryan Evans' Third Report on the 2000 Season
Ryan Evans' Fourth Report on the 2000 Season

A lot has happened in the last two weeks.
First of all, thanks to Kim Gregory for my video of the Olympique Main Event on his website. I recorded last night's Scratch Main as well. Unfortunately, I can only get scratch races because I'm actually recording with a digital photo camera and can only get 60 seconds of video on a disc.

Costa Mesa Action!
Get your Videos from Raz Videos E. Walnut St. , Pasadena, CA 91107 , Phone: (818) 449 1175 , Web Site: http://www.razvideo.com"

  Click HERE to see the video of the June 3, 2000 Main Event! These are the June 3 results from Costa Mesa

The North American World Championship Qualifier featured a lot of interesting results. First of all, Mike Faria put in a champion's effort to capture the title and show that he isn't slowing down at all. Josh Larsen, who had competed only once all season prior to the event, didn't show any rust as he took a hard-earned second. They will join Sam Ermolenko and John Cook in Poole on June 18 for the Overseas Final. The top 8 will then qualify for the Intercontinental Final.

Josh will be competing on bikes provided by life-long friend and former Junior pal Greg Hancock at the Overseas Final. Josh will leave for England early next week.

Ryan Fisher shed some light on his future by scoring 8 points even though he was excluded on a questionable decision in his last race.

Bart Bast got off to a dismal start by finishing third in the first round, but a dispute over some questionable restarts in the second round lit a fire under the former National Champion as he reeled off three straight wins before a third in the last round eliminated any championship hopes.

Billy Janniro and Charlie Venegas each suffered through dismal nights by scoring five and six points, respectively, and each sampled the Auburn dirt during the evening.

Overall, it was a good show as I've enjoyed each trip that I've made up north and I look forward to making a couple more this year.

As mentioned on speedwaybikes.com, 7-time former US National Champion Mike Bast will be inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame this summer. In my opinion, he's the greatest domestic-based rider of all time. Say what you want, but he has 7 National Championships, including 5 consecutive, and no one else has more than 3.

Ivan Mauger once stated that he would not have won as many World Championships if Mike Bast ever went to Europe.

Funny tongue-in-cheek comment from a SoCal person who went up North: "How many Basts are there?" Well, I thought that it was 6 (Harlan, Harlan, Jr., Bart, Ryan, Brenton, and Ivan Sevart), but now I see that Bruce Bast is listed in the results from Friday. If there are more Basts currently racing please let me know.
1/ Bruce Bast
2/ Mike Bast
3/ Bart Bast
4/ Ryan Bast
5/ Harlan Bast Jr.
6/ Harlan Bast Snr.
7/ Harlan Bast
8/ Brenton Bast
9/ Phillip Bast

Former World Champion Barry Briggs was in attendance at Costa Mesa Saturday Night. "Briggo" turned many laps there throughout the 70's in the "US versus The World" series that used to be held.

Brad Oxley, Ryan Fisher, and Eddie Castro put on a great show during intermission last night as they competed against each other on street-legal Buell Blasts. They diced with each other for four laps side-by-side and the crowd was thoroughly entertained. Oxley then raced against the Harley riders in the flattrack heat aboard the street-legal machine and whipped them soundly.

Chris Manchester, who lives in Southern California now, has adjusted himself to the tiny oval and has been one of the fastest riders the last two weeks. He, too, made a great showing of himself in Auburn by finishing third.

As most of us know, Ryan Fisher and Charlie Venegas are traveling up and down the state to compete at Auburn and Costa Mesa, but what about Kevin Fereira? The Support B rider has been at Costa Mesa several times this season.

Support/First Division rider Danny Perkins continues to bring a large legion of fans every week to Costa Mesa. The large Perkins clan can be found on the back straight every Saturday night. Speaking of Perkins, I noticed that he was competing on a laydown Saturday Night instead of a Weslake.

Not to be outdone, Support B rider Rick Valdez also has a large group of supporters who sit in turn one.

Dukie Ermolenko's Speedway Academy has now added other instructors. Anyone who wants to take part in Dukie's Academy cannot only have Dukie as an instructor, but may also have Josh Larsen, Charlie Venegas, or Gary Hicks show them how to get sideways. You can talk to Dukie at Costa Mesa.

Dukie is also staging races at Maely's for Support and Support B riders on Sunday Mornings. The first Sunday he had over a dozen riders who competed in a Scratch format. Today (June 4), Dukie was expecting 16-20 riders. This is an excellent way for a rider to get valuable experience and lap time. Again, contact Dukie for details and the dates that he is staging races.

Happy belated birthday to 1997 World Champion Greg Hancock who turned 30 yesterday (June 3).

Ryan Fisher must have set some sort of record by competing on no less than five different bikes last night.

Support rider Sean McDougall has an interesting nickname sewn onto the back of his kevlars... "Chachi"

Speaking of borrowed bikes. I joked with Bobby Schwartz that he needs to open up a speedway bike rental business. This trend started in the National Championship Final last year when he loaned Mike Faria a bike. This year, Lance King borrowed a bike for an evening and Josh Larsen borrowed a bike for an evening. Last night, after seeing Chris Manchester experience bike troubles prior to the Scratch Main. Bobby, who was already dressed and sitting in the stands, sprinted across the track to the pits to retrieve his bike for Chris. Boogaloo is still proving, after 27 years in this sport, that he is still a first-class person, as well as a first-class rider.

Jimmy Sisemore, who hasn't been racing this season, will still be taking his place in Owego, New York for the US Open later this summer to defend his title.

Congratulations to Jonathan Curry who graduated from the Junior ranks in fine style by winning the Second Division Main Event Friday Night.

Anyone who followed the Indy 500 may have noticed that a former Junior Speedway rider was competing. What former Junior rider, you ask? Well, back in the early 70's, before Junior Speedway as we know it today existed, kids used to race at Costa Mesa on their Honda Mini Trail 50's and they called it "Junior Speedway". Among the regulars, was a hotshot young rider by the name of Jeff Ward. Ward finished 4th last week at Indianapolis.

Friday Night at Auburn is Kids Night.

NorCal fans and riders, don't forget that Sideways Saturdays kicks off its 2000 season on Saturday Night at Cal Expo in Sacramento.

Next week at Costa Mesa is the Jack Milne Cup. Gary Hicks has said that he will try to return from his rib and collarbone injuries of three weeks ago to defend his title and keep the trophy in the family.

Keep it Sideways......
Ryan Evans sideways31@aol.com