VENTURA RACEWAY

10 West Harbor Blvd.
Ventura, CA 93001

2018 AMA Speedway National Championship Series, Round 2
Janniro wins Ventura but Becker retains Series Lead
June 23, 2018 - Ventura Raceway
From Steve Evans

YouTube Video - by Anthony Bernardi

Results from Ventura Racing and are Continued Below...

	Paul Flanders Photos
Dillon Ruml was on the pole position at the starting line for the main event.	With bike and mechanical support from brothers Ronnie and Denny Scopellite, Billy Janniro takes the main event win.	With a second place finish in the main, Luke Becker hung onto the points race lead by the slimmest of margins.
Austin Novratil rallied from a last place finish in his first heat to take third in the main.	Dillon Ruml's fourth place in the main places him fourth in the points standings.	Hayley Perrault hauled in the support class win.
Joe Jones and Tom Summers swept the sidecar heats and main.	Kurtis Hamill got the call to replace Broc Nicol when Broc picked up a team ride with the British Sheffield Tigers earlier in the week.	Daniel Faria, with his sister Jaime wrenching, looked impressive.

AMA SPEEDWAY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES ROUND 2, VENTURA, CA 23 JUNE 2018.

JANNIRO AND BECKER STAR IN BEACH BLOCKBUSTER!

The 2018 AMA National Speedway Series is shaping into an epic title battle between 8 time champion Billy Janniro and his young protégé Luke Becker. Becker was back after two more months in Europe that have included races in several countries, riding alongside mentor Greg Hancock in the Polish League and a newly announced Swedish League contract (which he exclusively revealed during the rider introductions). Both riders won six of their seven races and dropped just one point all night, to each other. Becker won heat 1 and Janniro visibly ramped us his charge for the rest of the night, defeating Becker to win the Main Event, though both riders ended up on an equal 20 points for the night. Becker goes into Round 3 at Santa Maria in July with 39 points, Janniro 38 and the only other rider within striking distance is Austin Novratil (31 points), who reeled off 4 wins in another fast and impressive performance. The gap from Novratil to fourth placed Dillon Ruml is 11 points,

The luck of the AMA made draw put arguably the four favored contenders, Janniro, Becker, Novratil and Ruml in heat 1. It was Novratil who gated though Becker immediately showed his hand with a charge inside going into turn 3 to get the lead. Novratil unfortunately retired from the heat having lost the tear off on his goggles but by this time Janniro was already up to second. All three riders won out their races in rounds 2-5 putting them as the top there qualifiers in the semi finals.

With three Ventura specialists in Max Ruml, Broc Nicol and Gino Manzares now racing in the UK and missing the series, the big question was how would the fast and banked Ventura as a spectacle do without them? The answer was “just fine” as the rest of the field rose to the opportunity and ran some very thrilling and close races. NorCal veterans Tommy Hedden and Bart Bast both started with wins and Hedden followed up with another in round 2. Hedden won heat 3 with a brilliant inside pass to displace the fast trapping Tim Gomez (who's night sadly ended early with motor issues), Bast pulled a similar move on Fishback in the prior Heat 2. Both NorCal veterans had hugely impressive displays and ended up on 10 points from the heats and got third place in their respective semis.

Dillon Ruml had a tough evening, scoring just 8 in the heats including a fall while leading heat 14. he did however win two heats and then place second behind Becker in semi 1 to make the main.

Behind these six riders it was really too close to call. Four riders finished on 7 points, the count-back put the very fast Dan Faria and Sam Ramirez into the semi finals, eliminating Fishback, who was battling bike issues late on, and Jason Ramirez. Russell Green and Aaron Fox both won heats but ended on 6 and 5 respectively.

Semi final 1 saw Becker, who was winning some races by over four seconds from his nearest rival, once more go off at warp speed with Ruml getting second over Hedden and Faria. Janniro responded with some breathtaking outside line riding in an equally dominant win in semi 2 over Novratil, Bast and Sam Ramirez. You could not help to think that Janniro was mentally preparing for the showdown with Becker coming up in the Main.

The Main saw Becker go off of gate four, but his front wheel lifted some going into turn 1, putting him last, while Janniro made no mistake and trapped. The 8 time champion seized his chance, revenge and kept the points gap to 1 with his fifth Ventura gold in six years. Becker worked hard to pass first Ruml and then Novratil to get a consolation second. Novratil ended off another fine National display with third.

The AMA National Championship Series goes back to Santa Maria on July 28th before hitting the short tracks at Industry and Fast Fridays to round off matters for 2018.

Ahead of the main show and between rounds, three other divisions were contested. Joe Jones and Tom Summers dominated Sidecar action. Hayley Perrault won Support whilst local favorite Dan Waller once more raced to Victory in Vintage.

The Ventura AMA race is in its 6th year and its popularity is bigger than ever, with the largest crowd so far in attendance with full stands of loud and enthusiastic fans. Big applause was rightfully on hand when presenter Chris Ackerman introduced grand marshal Putty Mills, who at 94 years old is likely the oldest living current rider (Mills takes an annual birthday skid with fellow members of the Central California Speedway Association). Mills is a World War 2 veteran having served in the Battle of the Bulge and later went on to work at NASA on the Apollo program.

AMA National Championship Series Round 2
Main Event
1-Billy Janniro (20)
2-Luke Becker (20)
3-Austin Novratil (15)
4-Dillon Ruml (10)

Tommy Hedden 11
Bart Bast 11
Daniel Faria 7
Samuel Ramirez 7
Jason Ramirez 7
Jimmy Fishback 7
Russell Green 6
Eddie Castro 6
Aaron Fox 5
Kurtis Hamill 3
Michael Wells 2
Tim Gomez 0
Hayley Perrault (reserve) 0

Sidecar Main
1-Joe Jones / Tom Summers (+ 3 heat wins)
2-Robert Curry / Lori Curry
3-Dillon Osborne / Ashley Gibbons
4-Ace Kale / Kevin Kale

Support Main
1-Hayley Perrault (+2 heat wins)
2-Michael Lane
3-Mike Miller (+1 heat win)

Vintage Main
1-Dan Waller (+1 heat win)
2-Malcolm Roe
3-Bob Waller
4-Kurtis Hamill fell (+1 heat win)