Santa Maria Raceway

1900 Hutton Rd.
Nipomo, CA 93444
Information Line: (805) 922-2232

AMA National Championship Series, Round 3
Santa Maria Raceway - July 28, 2018
Results by: Steve Evans

YouTube Video - by Anthony Bernardi

JANNIRO BRINGS HOME THE WIN IN SANTA MARIA

Billy Janniro scored his third AMA National Championship Series win of the year and took the series lead from rival Luke Becker as the 2018 title race reached its halfway point at Santa Maria Raceway, CA, on July 28th.

It was a night of fast and often close racing on the FIM sized race track in Central California. Jimmy Fishback surprised all with a superb gate and defeat of Luke Becker in Heat 1. Austin Novratil roared away from his rivals to win heat 2 by a distance. Janniro won heat 3 but the surprise was Russell Green who was right on his tail for all four laps. Smooth operator Bart Bast rounded the field from gate 4 in heat 4, leading home Dillon Ruml.

Round two saw Fishback win heat 5 from Bast. Becker got on the winning the side of things taking heat 6 from Blake Borello. Novratil was the heat 7 victor with Green second and very much in the mix. Janniro went two for two, leading home Ruml in heat 8.

Ruml got his first win on the score sheet in heat 9, with Fishback losing his perfect score and coming second. Janniro won heat 10 from Becker and Tommy Hedden as the big two had their first showdown of the evening. Janniro's win put him one point ahead at this point in series standings. Aaron Fox got a win on the boards in heat 11 from Tim Gomez, with Dan Faria and Michael Wells exchanging third before the NorCal rider Faria won out. Heat 12 saw Novratil remain as only the second unbeaten rider, defeating Bast.

Round 4 quickly followed, heat 13 was the battle of the unbeaten two and it was Novratil who took down Janniro as the two locked horns in a close battle. Heat 14 had Becker lead home the ever consistent Green. Dillon Ruml got his second win of the night in heat 15 from Fox. The round concluded with Tim Gomez taking a very nice win over fan favorite Eddie Castro.

Heat 17 saw Fishback returning to winning ways, leading home Castro. Heat 18 was surrounded with drama and controversy. Tim Gomez fell at the end of lap three in the second staging, forcing a re run (the first staging being called back for an unsatisfactory start). The third staging had a nasty accident as all riders got close coming out of turn 2. Becker went down after seeming contact from Novratil, and was run over by Ruml, laying motionless on the track while medics attended. After Becker's season changing accident at the track last year, concerns were high but were soon lifted as the tiny Northern Californian star jumped to his feet and remounted his bike for the restart, which referee Steve Lucero ruled all three remaining riders could partake in. The re run saw Novratil fall while third and get an exclusion, ending his perfect night. Becker beat Ruml in the 5th staging. Janniro beat Fox in heat 19, with Tommy Hedden rounding matters out with a win over Green in heat 20, but his late surge did not get him into the semi's, Hedden unluckily missing out to Bast for the last spot on count back.

The business end of the event proved very exciting, with Janniro winning Semi 1 from Fishback, Fox and Green. Becker won the second semi from Novratil, Ruml and Bast.

The drama continued in the final. The first running saw Fishback appear to drift into Novratil on the exit to turn two and Novratil went down. Novratil however was deemed the cause of the stoppage and was excluded. The re run had a start line incident with Janniro appearing to jump the start / make contact with the tapes but a complete restart was ruled. Janniro made a superb gate from the inside in the third staging while Fishback performed a beautiful cutback to pass Becker coming out of turn 2. Becker chased hard but the finish order was Janniro, Fishback, Becker.

The event was a definite story of hard work with track owner Nick Duggan investing much time and resource in the track surface, following the advise of an FIM official in a complete revamp of the surface. Duggan is a local businessman who took sole ownership of the track in the past off season. There are plans afoot to invest heavily in the facility and speedway could hugely benefit from a long term partnership with the visionary Australian.

The AMA National Series quickly resumes at Industry Racing on August 11th with the AMA National Best Pairs the week prior at Perris.

Results / Points:
Final
1 Billy Janniro (20 points)
25 Jimmy Fishback (16 points)
22 Luke Becker (17 points)
7 Austin Novratil (14 points)

Vintage / Support Main
240 Dan Waller
180 Malcolm Roe
27 Bob Waller
37 Joey Donaldson