Costa Mesa Speedway
Orange County Fairgrounds
Costa Mesa, California

2013 Speedway
July 13, 2013 - Costa Mesa
Results By: Ryan Evans

Billy Janniro studies the track before taking home the Fair Derby trophy.	Rudy Laurer won the Support Class, more than making up for last year's mistake of thinking the white flag was the checkered flag.	Terry Clanton interviews Josh Larsen just before the main, Josh took second place.
Getting into the main via the Last Chance race, Tyson Burmeister got up from a crash with Tommy Hedden to take third in the twice restarted main.	Tommy Hedden had a nasty crash with Burmeister in the first restart of the main. He got up to walk away but did not participate in the third and final start of the main.	Jodie Jacklett and Shawn Eldredge were all smiles before (and after) Shawn took second in the Support Class main.
Look who's now on a Big Boy Motorbike (500cc). It's 16 year old Braden Sauer. He looked impressive with two heat race wins but just missed out on making it into the Support Class main.	It's not often that you see Dillon Ruml as just a spectator. Check out the full house behind him for the Fair Derby.	Billy Janniro accepts the Fair Derby trophy from the lovely Miranda Oxley.

41st Orange County Fair Derby - Costa Mesa, CA, USA - July 13

Billy "The Kid" Janniro added another prized possession to his burgeoning trophy case by winning the 41st Orange County Fair Derby after a wild main event that required three starts in front of a large crowd at the world famous Costa Mesa Speedway.

"Battling" Buck Blair and Janniro started side-by-side in gates one and two, respectively, and entered the first corner together. Janniro found enough traction on the outside to take the lead on the back straight while former World Finalist Josh Larsen got underneath Blair to take second. Janniro was well on his way to victory on the second lap when Blair spun around and collected Tyson Burmeister in the process. The red flag came out and Blair would be penalized for the restart. It took several minutes to separate Blair's and Burmeister's bikes which were intertwined with each other. Burmeister's right peg was a casualty and he replaced it with one from a backup machine just before the two-minute clock expired.

Larsen held a slight advantage entering turn one but Burmeister and Tommy Hedden tangled and both were sent sliding hard into the wall in turn one. Both riders were down for several minutes. Burmeister walked away on his own but Hedden had to be helped back to the pits and both of their bikes were bent. Hedden was definitely not taking part in the restart and it looked as though Burmeister would join him on the sideline, but people frantically swapping the peg Burmeister borrowed back on its original machine so that he could ride. He emerged from the pits to an appreciative ovation from the fans and took his place at the tapes.

Larsen made the best start again but not enough to get completely across Janniro. The former National Champion muscled Larsen off the inside line and led exiting turn two. Burmeister came up the inside on the back straight but Janniro dropped in front of him as they entered turn three. Larsen went around the outside of Burmeister on the second lap but the leader was gone. Janniro was first to the checkered flag and collected the prestigious bronze hat trophy, Larsen held on to second, Burmeister finished third, Blair was fourth, and Hedden was credited with fifth.

Former National Champion "Flyin" Mike Faria kicked off the evening with a win over former Under 21 National Champion Austin Novratil. Russell Green scored an impressive victory over Larsen in event two. Janniro defeated Burmeister in event three. Blair ended round one by beating Tyson Talkington.

Blair began round two by getting his second straight victory. Hedden held off Larsen to win the next heat. Janniro made it two straight wins by defeating Shawn "Mad Dog" McConnell. Burmeister beat Green for his first win of the night.

Burmeister started the final round of heats by defeating Faria for his second win in a row. Larsen beat Blair in the next event. Aaron Fox ran away with the win in event 17 and handed Janniro his only defeat of the evening. McConnell finished off the heats by beating Hedden.

Blair led the first semi from the start and Hedden put the outside to good use and snagged second place to transfer to the main. Janniro and Larsen finished one-two in the second semi and moved on to the main.

Burmeister led the Last Chance from start to finish and booked the final spot in the main event field. Faria finished second, McConnell was third, and Talkington finished fourth.

The Support Main Event had excitement before the riders ever approached the tapes. Rohn Zellner was idling his bike on the peg when he suddenly jumped off because his bike had caught fire. The track staff reacted quickly to extinguish the blaze. Nobody was harmed and Zellner even managed to borrow a bike for the race. Once the race actually began Rudy Laurer held off a very persistent Shawn Eldredge the entire distance and was victorious. Harold Hartke finished third and Rohn Zellner was fourth. Laurer and Eldredge both collected new helmets courtesy of Piston Bones which is owned by former speedway racer Brian Pappalardo.

The Fair Derby was held on the opening weekend of the annual Orange County Fair, which occurs at the fairgrounds on which Costa Mesa Speedway runs its events. It attracted its typically large crowd and is also serves as a showcase for speedway to potentially gain new fans because all fair patrons are admitted free into the speedway venue. The crowd was overflowing at times with the stands packed throughout the evening and many spectators standing behind the VIP boxes and in turn one.

The Orange County Fair continues until August 11. Therefore, the next event at Costa Mesa Speedway will be Harley Night on Saturday, August 17 and will include the ever-popular street-legal Harley races.

RESULTS

Support Main Event
182 – Rudy Laurer
357n – Shawn Eldredge
290 – Harold Hartke
118 – Rohn Zellner

First Division Heat Scoring 1 2 3 T
2 – Josh Larsen 3 3 4 10
6 – Shawn McConnell 2 3 4 9
7 – Michael Raines 2 1 2 5
9 – Mike Faria 4 3 3 10
13 – Nate Perkins 1 0 2 3
14 – Eddie Castro 1 1 0 2
14n – Billy Janniro 4 4 3 11
21 – Brad Sauer 0 E 1 1
23 – Steve Russell 1 1 1 3
26 – Tyson Burmeister 3 4 4 11
27 – Austin Novratil 3 2 1 6
37 – Joe Donaldson 0 0 0 0
38 – Ryan Tovatt 1 1 1 3
39 – Buck Blair 4 4 3 11
40n – Tommy Hedden 2 4 3 9
43 – Charlie Venegas 2 2 0 4
46 – Aaron Fox F F 4 4
48 – Tyson Talkington 3 2 2 7
321 – Russell Green 4 3 0 7

Race Results
1: Faria, Novratil, Venegas, Perkins, Donaldson
2: Green, Larsen, McConnell, Castro, Sauer
3: Janniro, Burmeister, Raines, Russell, Fox (fell)
4: Blair, Talkington, Hedden, Tovatt, Ramirez (fell, remounted)
8: Blair, Faria, Talkington, Castro, Fox (fell)
9: Hedden, Larsen, Novratil, Raines, Donaldson
10: Janniro, McConnell, Venegas, Tovatt, Sauer (engine failure)
11: Burmeister, Green, Ramirez, Russell, Perkins
15: Burmeister, Faria, Raines, Russell, Venegas
16: Larsen, Blair, Talkington, Tovatt, Green
17: Fox, Janniro, Perkins, Novratil, Donaldson
18: McConnell, Hedden, Ramirez, Sauer, Castro (tape penalty)
Semi #1: (restarted) Blair, Hedden, Burmeister, McConnell, Novratil (penalty line) (retired)
Semi #2: Janniro, Larsen, Talkington, Faria, Green

First Division Last Chance
2 - Josh Larsen
48 - Tyson Talkington
7 - Michael Raines
321 - Russell Green

First Division Main Event
9 - Mike Faria
308 - Max Ruml
11 - Bobby Schwartz
2 - Josh Larsen
27 - Austin Novratil (fell)

Past Fair Derby Champions
1970 – Bill Cody
1971 – Sonny Nutter
1972 – Rick Woods
1973 – not contested
1974 – not contested
1975 – Mike Curoso
1976 – Bruce Penhall
1977 – not contested
1978 – Bobby Schwartz
1979 – Alan Christian
1980 – Mike Muntean (handicap race)
1981 – Lance King
1982 – Mike Bast
1983 – Kelly Moran
1984 – John Sandona
1985 – Robert Pfetzing
1986 – Mike Faria
1987 – Mike Faria
1988 – Shawn McConnell
1989 – Steve Lucero
1990 – Bobby Schwartz
1991 – Phil Collins
1992 – Mike Faria
1993 – Bobby Schwartz
1994 – Bobby Schwartz
1995 – Steve Lucero
1996 – Robert Pfetzing
1997 – Shawn McConnell
1998 – Bobby Schwartz
1999 – Mike Faria
2000 – Charlie Venegas
2001 – Josh Larsen
2002 – Mike Faria
2003 – Mike Faria
2004 – Mike Faria
2005 – Mike Faria
2006 – Bryan Yarrow
2007 – Ricky Wells
2008 – Jimmy Fishback
2009 – Eddie Castro
2010 – Buck Blair
2011 – Billy Hamill
2012 – Billy Hamill

Ryan Evans