Champion Speedway

344 East River Drive
Owego, New York 13827

US Open Championship
Champion Speedway, Owego, NY
September 3 & 4, 2016

Promising Californian youngster Broc Nicol won a major 500cc Speedway Title over Labor Day weekend, Sept 3/4, in Owego, NY! The two-day event, the US Open Championships, is hosted annually at Champion Speedway and past winners include such names as Bruce Penhall, Bobby Schwartz, Mike Bast, Gene Woods, Rick Miller, John Cook, Josh Larsen and Chris Manchester, just to name a few of International experience!

At the end of the heat rounds on night one Nicol sat 5th in points with 7, behind leader Casey Donholt, who was on 12 points, Tommy Hedden who had 11 and Adam Mittl and Mikey Buman who were both tied on 9. Nicol qualified for the 5 rider A Main and rode the outside of the slick track impressively for several laps and was abut to overtake Donholt for the lead but suffered a flat tire and ended last. Round One Main Event final results were...1. Casey Donholt 2. Tommy Hedden 3. Mikey Buman 4. Adam Mittl 5. Broc Nicol. Another top California teen prospect, Luke Becker, was also taking part in the meeting and was incredibly fast, but suffered two DNF's which relegated him to the night's B-Main, which he handily won.

Nicol was top scorer on Sunday evening's heat program rolling through his heats and earning a birth in the 5 rider, 4 Main Event system final. The 5 riders total Main Event points from Sat and heat points would carry into Sundays Mains and be added on as follows...10 points for a win, 7 for second, 5 for third and 3 for fourth. 5th would score zero. Becker made an awesome start from the outside to win Final One. Becker again was leading the second final but had a chain snap and Nicol went from second place to take the win! Nicol would again be steady to win the third final and build the overall points lead up for the championship thus securing the title before the last ride! A crash occurred on the start of the final event and Becker ended up starting from the penalty line on the re-start. Donholt used the inside starting position to his advantage and made a strong start to lead the closing race from start to finish. Nicol took the safe approach with title already in hand and came in fourth. Nicol, on his Hagon Shocks/Ascot clothing/Arai sponsored GM, used speed, consistency and smarts to take the title along with his excellent talents at the starting gate!

US Open Speedway Championships Overall
1. Broc Nicol 59 points
2. Casey Donholt 50 points
3. Mikey Buman 44 points
4. Luke Becker 41 points
5. Tommy Hedden 39 points

   

Steve Koletar Photos

The other results below are not official. They are gathered from asking around on Facebook. I would like to thank LFC58‏@AStarInExile and Torch Read for the grunt work.

Bottom line is that Broc Nicol raced Friday night at Fast Fridays, then flew to New York to claim the US Open Championship.

A Final Race 4
1. Casey Donholt 50 pts
2. Mike Buman 44 pts
3. Tommy Hedden 39 pts
4. Broc Nicol 59 pts
5. Luke Becker 41 pts
Last race was rerun after Becker and Nicol crashed entering turn 2 on lap 3. Both got up and took part in the rerun.

A Final Race 3 Result
1 Broc Nicol 56
2 Mike Buman 37
3 Tommy Hedden 34
4 Casey Donholt 40
5 Luke Becker 41
Becker shed a chain on lap 4 when leading

A Final Race 2 Result
1. Broc Nicol 46
2. Luke Becker 41
3. Casey Donholt 37
4. Mike Buman 30
5. Tommy Hedden 29
Re-Run after Hedden broke the tapes

A Final Race 1 Result
1. Luke Becker
2. Broc Nicol
3. Casey Donholt
4. Tommy Hedden
5. Mike Buman

B Final Result
1. Jeremy Parsons
2. Adam Mittl
3. Ricky Richards
4. David Meldrum

C Final Result
1. Jerry Harman Jr.
2. Dave Oakden
3. Jeff Garlinghouse
4. Gene Bonsignore
5. Pieper

D Final Result
1. Andy Crawford
2. Russ Cornell

US Open Championship
2016 - Broc Nicol
2015 - Casey Donholt
2014 - Max Ruml
2013 - Josh Larsen
2012 - Chris Kerr
2011 - Shawn McConnell
2010 - Tommy Hedden
2009 - Tommy Hedden
2008 - Shawn McConnell
2007 - Shawn McConnell
2006 - Duke Ermolenko
2005 - Shawn McConnell
2004 - Tom Sephton
2003 - Bobby Schwartz
2002 - Cam Rafferty
2001 - Jim Sisemore
2000 - Josh Larsen
1999 - Jim Sisemore
1998 - Chris Manchester (AMA Open / US Open Championship)
Note: Back in 1998 Jason Bonsignore was working with the AMA and that probably had an impact on the "Official" title used for his big event. While it may have been billed as the "AMA Open" to placate the AMA in reality, to those of us in the East, it was the revival of the "US Open". There were no programs issued for the event in 1998. In 1999 all references were made to it as the US Open Championship. (See images below.)

Previous "US Open" Winners:
Note: These are compiled from various sources and are about as close as I can get them. There were various titles for this race until 1998.
1997 - This was the year that Jason Bonsignore brought speedway back to Owego and only four meetings were planned with the season finale being a USA vs Canada team race. The US Open was not staged this year.
1993 - 1996 No Races
1992 - Warren Diem (East Coast National Championship)
1991 - Warren Diem (East Coast National Championship)
1990 - Warren Diem (East Coast National Championship)
1989 - Warren Diem (East Coast Speedway National)
1988 - Warren Diem (East Coast Speedway National))
1987 - Tom Burge (East Coast Speedway Championship)
1986 - Warren Diem (US Speedway National Championship)
1985 - Bruce Nelson (East Coast Invitational Championship)
1984 - Gene Woods (US National Invitational)
1983 - John Cook (US National Invitational)
1982 - Rick Miller (US National Invitational)
1981 - Gene Woods (US Open National)
1980 - Gene Woods (US Open National)
1979 - Mike Bast (US Open National)
1978 - Norm Robinson (US Open National)
1977 - Bobby Schwartz (US Open National)

1999 US Open Information
There were no programs issued for the event in 1998 but this is a scan of the 1999 cover for it. From that you will see that it was listed as the "A.M.A. U.S. Open Speedway Championship" and shows a photo of the of the 1998 winner captioned as the "1998 U.S. Open Champion".	Above is an extract from an interview with Jason Bonsignore published in the ECSN (East Coast Speedway News) Sept/Oct 1999 issue in which he refers to last year's meeting as the U.S. Open.