Perris Raceway
Burton Road
Perris, California
Team Racing - Round 1
Perris Raceway December 10, 2016
By: Steve Evans dreamteamspeedway@sbcglobal.net
Dorcey Wingo Photos
Results from Perris and are Continued Below...
EAGLES AND HEATHENS WIN TEAM SEASON OPENERS, BECKER ONCE MORE TAKES THE MAIN!
The 2016/17 Winter Team Racing League opened at Perris Raceway on Saturday December 10th with two very
close matches eventually going the way of the Perris Eagles and Huntington Heathens.
Luke Becker continued his domination with a fabulous 15 point maximum including the Main Event.
The race format mirrored the 2016 British Elite League format through 14 heats, with the final two heats
being World Cup format involving one rider from all four teams. Heats 5-11 and 15 ran Handicaps. Both the
Vikings and Aces only tracked five riders each due to injuries and withdrawals, so each was allowed to run
'guest riders' from other teams to fill a vacant team spot.
Perris Eagles 48 – Ventura Vikings 43.
The depleted defending champions pushed the home team close but eventually ran out of gas as the Eagles won by
5 points. The Eagles were led by an impressive 13 from Dillon Ruml and 12 from
Gage Geist, and they had good support from Rick Valdez,
Ron Davis and Chet Kohler. Harold Hartke
won three heats on the way to a top 13 score for the Vikings, with Kurtis Hamill winning 2 on
the way to a 9+1 haul. After an opening Eagles 5-1 the Vikings edged back to tie the event at 12 after 4 heats. Eagles then moved 6
ahead after 8 but the Vikings clawed a 39-39 tie after 13 heats. A heat 14 4-2 from Ruml and Kohler put the Eagles two up with
just the nominated heats to go but a Ruml victory in heat 15 and a Geist second place in heat 16 sealed the Eagle first win
after six straight losses.
Eagles 48 – D Ruml 13, Geist 12, Valdez 7+1, Davis 7, Kohler 5+1, R Sauer 3+3. Brown 1.
Vikings 43 – Hartke 13, Hamill 9+1, McNutt 6, Bryant 5, Armas 1, Guests 9+1 (Richards 5, Becker 3, Zellner 1+1).
Huntington Heathens 51 – Santa Maria Aces 40
The strongly favored Heathens recovered from a 6 point early deficit to rally to an eventual11 point win over the
Aces. Luke Becker led the way for the Heathens with a 15 point maximum with
solid support from the ultra impressive Rick Richards on 11,
Steve Bowen on 9+2, Joey Donaldson on
7+2 and Rohn Zellner on 7. The Aces had veteran Rudy Laurer
scoring a sublime 14+1 with Doug Nicol, guesting for son Broc who was recovering from
surgery to remove metal from his 2015 broke leg, scoring 8+1 in solid support. Aces led by 6 after 6 heats but two
straight 5-1s gave the Heathens the lead by heat 8. From thereon the Heathens sailed away, though a 7-1 in heat 14
from Hayley Perrault and Rudy Laurer
(on a double point joker) for the Aces kept things closer. Becker was lights out all event with 5 wins. The Aces
will have spearheads Broc Nicol and Max Ruml
returning to the line up in February.
Heathens 51 – Becker 15, Richards 11, Bowen 9+2, Donaldson 7+2, Zellner 7, Barry 2, Osmer 0.
Aces 40 – Laurer 14+1, D Nicol 8+1, Perrault 6+1, Hansen 6, Moreau 4+1, Guest 2 (Sauer 2).
The final two events featured 1 rider from each team but points still counted within the matches. Heat 15 was
Handicapped, Dillon Ruml gave chase to Rick Richards
and eventually found his way by for the victory from the 50 yard line. Heat 16 (Main event) featured Becker, Hamill,
Geist and Nicol. Becker was fast away though had to fend off a hard chasing Geist in turn 1 on his way to another
Main event win at Perris. Hamill secured third ahead of Doug Nicol.
League Standings
Heathens – Won 1 (51-40)
Eagles – Won 1 (48-43)
Vikings – Lost 1 (43-48)
Aces – Lost 1 (40-51)
Other Divisions
Four other division partook in the event, each having two heats and a Main. The Support Class featured 5 riders.
Heat 1 was won by Tom Bryant, with newcomer, former Sprint Car Champion
Randy Moody winning heat 2. The Main event saw veteran Bryant win from flag to flag,
his fourth in a row at the track! National 250cc Junior Champion Sebastian Palmese
won both of his heats, the first being an epic dual where Jake Isaac made him work
all the way. Palmese was leading the Main but dropped a chain, Isaac getting win over Sara Cords.
Jose Navarrete won all 150cc Mini heats and the Main event.
Gavin Geist, who cleaned up three weeks earlier made chase from the 40 yard line
but couldn't quite make up the ground. The two rider Pee Wee Class provided three epic side by side races,
Levi Leutz taking heat 1 and Gavin Geist taking heat 2 and the Main.
The event featured the annual Christmas gathering of the speedway family. Over 100 toys were donated for the Toys
for Tots campaign, start marshal Tom Fox came dressed as Santa's elf with the rest of the staff wearing Santa Hats and
a lit up Christmas tree on the infield. Jake Isaac won the prize for best decorated
Christmas pit with Ron Davis winning the Ugly Christmas sweater contest.
After the Holiday Break racing resumes at Perris on Saturday 14 January with the 2nd Annual Winter Olympique featuring
earned Handicap Racing. Team racing returns on February 4th and March 18th, with the season concluding on April 22nd with
the qualifying round for the 2017 AMA National Championship Series.
Results
Division 1
22 Luke Becker
10 Gage Geist
41 Kurtis Hamill
98 Doug Nicol
Support
220 Tom Bryant
110 Randy Moody
274 Lawrence McNutt
109 Don Nemarnik
323 Stewart Armas (fell)
303 Dennis Osmer (non starter)
250 Junior
16 Jake Isaac
14 Sara Cords
42 Sammy Tetrault
28 Aidan McNutt
18 Sebastian Palmese (engine failure)
150 Mini
48 Jose Navarrete (0)
33 Gavin Geist (40)
96 Andrew Russell (20)
42 Czane Dunbar (0)
Pee Wee
6 Gavin Geist
3 Levi Leutz
Most Festive Pits – Jake Isaac
Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest (sound decibels of crowd)
Ron Davis 100.5
Stanford the Dog 96.1
Paul Flanders 93.4
Crazy Chris 93.1
Philip Harmatiuk 92.7
Steve Evans 88.6
Mike Reed 88.3
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