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The Dirt Track
Kern County Raceway Park
Bakersfield, California
AMA Speedway National Best Pairs Championship
KCRP Bakersfield - November 4, 2023
by Steve Evans - Photos by Dale Miller
RUML BROTHERS DOMINATE TO LAND THIRD NATIONAL PAIRS TITLE
Brothers Max Ruml and Dillon Ruml roared to six of six maximum heat wins to land the AMA National Pairs title for the third time at Kern County Raceway, Bakersfield on November 4th. The Ruml’s won the title in 2018 and 2019 before a three-year streak from Luke Becker and Broc Nicol from 2020 to 2022.
The event saw ten teams entered and split into two round robin groups. After four heats for each pairing, the top two in points from each group would transfer to sudden death semifinals and finals.
Group A saw the Ruml’s in a league of their own with four 5-1 heat wins. The brothers started fast in each race and Max in particular showed his penchant for team racing by constantly knowing where brother Dillon was on the track as the two rode in perfect symmetry. In the battle for other qualifying places, heat 5 saw Blake Borello and Russell Green come up against Austin Novratil and newly crowned Under 21 Champion Sebastian Palmese. The Novratil / Palmese team got away and ahead and the crucial 5-1 advantage left their opponents with a mountain too steep to climb. The minor places saw Michael Wells / Greg Moore team score 9 with Timmy Dion and late replacement teammate Sara Cords on 7. Both Wells and Dion saw race wins.
Group B a tense and controversial battle. Broc Nicol with new teammate Slater Lightcap started with a strong 5-1 which Alex Martin and Wilbur Hancock followed in the next race. The powerhouse team of Billy Janniro and Chris Kerr could only manage a 4-2 first time out as veteran Eddie Castro spoiled the party with second place. The Nicol / Lightcap team got split by Alex Martin in heat 9, and with a 5-1 advantage in heat 10, Janniro and Kerr leveled the score up top. After each team got 5-1 wins in round 3, Martin and Hancock were too far behind to catch up so the heat 19 showdown between the other two top teams would determine who won the group. The first staging of heat 19 saw a very uneven start due to a start light malfunction which saw a rerun ordered after the race had ended but before results were declared, much to the anger of Janniro and Kerr who had just gotten the heat advantage. After Janniro / Kerr initially refused to partake in the rerun, both teams eventually came back to the line. Whilst Janniro roared to his third win of the night, Kerr’s unfortunate engine failure on the line saw Nicol and Lightcap win the group on the tie breaker of 2nd and 3rd place outscoring 1st and 4th per the tie break system.
Frustrations were still boiling over from heat 19 with the Ruml’s winning Semi Final 1 after Janniro and Kerr did not come out within the 2 minutes time allowance. Semi final two saw a great start for Nicol and Lightcap who scored maximum points over Palmese and Novratil, the latter sliding off in spectacular fashion while trying to make up ground.
So, the grand final saw The Ruml brothers pitched against defending champion Nicol and new partner, the fast rising and highly rated Lightcap. The Ruml’s each made fast starts whilst Nicol immediately went high and wide to try the outside line. Both Nicol and Lightcap had speed and the Kelvin Tatum cliché of “You could throw a blanket over all four riders” truly applied throughout. Nicol and Lightcap threw the kitchen sink and more to get by, but the Ruml’s were perfectly positioned in line like a brick wall and there was simply no way through. It was a classic finale to the meeting and a great advertisement for team racing. It now means the Ruml’s and Nicol/Becker each have three wins in the six modern staging's of the championship.
In support were five divisions of racing. Jordan Vanderham took a clean sweep in Division 2, though he made hard work for himself with wheeling off the line in the final and having to come from last for the win. Division Three was healthy with 8 entrants. Antonio Coffman was the maximum man winning both of his heats and the Main Event. Other heat wins went to Jim Sanders and Troy McQueen. The Consolation race was won by Catherine Moore. The junior Divisions were thin in numbers after late withdrawals. Kensei Matsudaira won all 250cc races whilst Zaal Farhand was the lone 150cc rider but had the added bonus of a winner’s trophy to go with three valuable solo runs. Sidecar heats went one each to Emil / Theodore Ovrid and Ace Kale / Brent Smith with the Ovrid brothers taking the final.
2023 racing in the USA has one more event to go and it is the big one domestically. On December 2nd KCRP will stage the AMA FIM North America final for the first time. This event runs on the traditional 20 heat no finals individual race format with the top finishers earning invites to the 2024 Grand Prix Qualifying Rounds in Europe. With worldwide streaming for the event on the British Speedway Network the race will start at 1pm California time.
Results
AMA Pairs Grand Final
3 Dillon Ruml
5 Max Ruml
98 Broc Nicol
28 Slater Lightcap
(7-2 win to Ruml's)
Semi Final 1: Dillon Ruml, Max Ruml, Janniro (2 minutes exclusion), Kerr (2 minutes exclusion) (7-0 win to Ruml’s)
Semi Final 2: Nicol, Lightcap, Palmese, Novratil. 7-2 win to Nicol/ Lightcap
Group A Points: Max Ruml 9+3, Dillon Ruml 11+1 = 20+4; Sebastian Palmese 7+1, Austin Novratil 6+1 = 13+2; Blake Borello 6, Russell Green 5+1 = 11+1; Michael Wells 6, Greg Moore 3+1 = 9+1; Timmy Dion 7, Sara Cords 0 = 0.
Group B Points: Broc Nicol 11, Slater Lightcap 6+3 = 17+3; Billy Janniro 12, Chris Kerr 5+2 = 17+2; Alex Martin 9, Wilbur Hancock 4+2 = 13+2, Eddie Castro 7, Justin Almon 2+1 = 9+1; Robbie Sauer 2, Brad Sauer 2 = 4.
Division 2 Main Event
123 Jordan Vanderham
123N Catherine Moore
250 Jacob Wondolowski
222 Antonio Coffman fell, remounted.
Division 3 Main Event
222 Antonio Coffman
138 Jim Sanders
369 Troy McQueen
125 Jason Wood
Division 3 Consolation
123N Catherine Moore
400 Avant LeGarde
100 Brandon Howard
280 Kerry Sorensen
250 Junior
74 Kensei Matsudaira
113 Caden Cavrikas
150 Mini
98 Zaal Farhand
Sidecar
13 Emil Ovrid / Theodore Ovrid
07 Ace Kale / Brent Smith
357 Kevin Kale / Jennifer Hernandez
2023 AMA Speedway National Pairs Bakersfield results by Mateusz Kozanecki
Speedway. The brothers did it for the third time. Controversy during the finale.
Max and Dillon Ruml won the USA Pairs Championships for the third time. The brothers turned out to be undefeated during Saturday's final at the track in Bakersfield. A controversial situation occurred during the competition.
The favorites to win, apart from the Ruml brothers, were also Billy Janniro and Chris Kerr . They were probably heading for victory in the regular round.
In the last series of starts, they faced the second best pair in their group. That's when a controversial situation arose. It seemed that after problems with the starting procedure, the race would be repeated.
This indeed happened, but only Broc Nicol and Slater Lightcap appeared on the track . After a long break, another replay was played, this time with the full cast. In it, Kerr suffered a failure at the start, and Janniro, alone, scored three points.
This result dropped Janniro and Kerr to second place, which meant they had to ride against the Ruml brothers in the semi-finals. However, experienced competitors did not make it to the semi-finals. They also resigned from the race for third place.
Max and Dillon Ruml won the title with full points . They repeated the success of 2018 and 2019. In the final race they defeated Broc Nicol and Slater Lightcap. The bronze medal went to the duo Austin Novratil - Sebastian Palmese.
Results:
Group A:
I Pair 3 - 20:
1. Max Ruml - 9 (3,2,2,2)
3. Dillon Ruml - 11 (2,3,3,3)
II Pair 5 - 13:
7. Austin Novratil - 5 (2,3,ns,0)
16. Sebastian Palmese - 8 (3,2,2,1)
III Pair 1 - 11:
27. Blake Borello - 4 (2,0,1,1)
321. Russell Green - 7 (3,1,0,3)
IV Pair 2 - 9:
214. Michael Wells - 5 (0,1,3,1)
251. Greg Moore - 4 (1,0,1,2)
V Pair 4 - 7:
23. Timmy Dion - 7 (1,1,2,3)
144. Sara Cords - 0 (0,0,0,0)
Group B:
I Para 8 - 17:
28. Slater Lightcap - 6 (2,1,2,1)
98. Broc Nicol - 11 (3,3,3,2)
II Para 10 - 17:
14n. Billy Janniro - 12 (3,3,3,3)
27k. Chris Kerr - 5 (1,2,2,d)
III Pair 7 - 13:
30. Alex Martin - 9 (3,2,1,3)
117. Wilbur Hancock - 4 (2,0,0,2)
IV Pair 6 - 9:
14. Eddie Castro - 7 (1,2,1,3)
137. Justin Almon - 2 (0,u,0,2)
V Pair 9 - 4:
17. Robbie Sauer - 1 (0,1,0,d)
21. Brad Sauer - 3 (1,u,1,1)
Run by run:
1. Green, Borello, Moore, Wells
2. M. Ruml, D. Ruml, Dion, Cords
3. Martin, Hancock, Castro, Almon
4. Nicol, Lightcap, B. Sauer, R. Sauer
5. Palmese, Novratil, Green, Borello
6. Janniro, Castro, Kerr, Almon (u3)
7. D. Ruml, M. Ruml, Wells, Moore
8. Novratil, Palmese, Dion, Cords
9. Nicol, Martin, Lightcap, Hancock
10. Janniro, Kerr, R. Sauer, B. Sauer (u3)
11. D. Ruml, M. Ruml, Borello, Green
12. Wells, Palmese, Moore, Novratil (ns)
13. Nicol, Lightcap, Castro, Almon
14. Janniro, Kerr, Martin, Hancock
15. Green, Dion, Borello, Cords
16. Castro, Almon, B. Sauer, R. Sauer
17. D. Ruml, M. Ruml, Palmese, Novratil
18. Dion, Moore, Wells, Cords
19. Janniro, Nicol, Lightcap, Kerr (d/st)
20. Martin, Hancock, B. Sauer, R. Sauer (d4)
Semi-finals:
21. D. Ruml, M. Ruml, Janniro (w/2min), Kerr (w/2min)
22. Nicol, Lightcap, Palmese, Novratil
Final:
23. D. Ruml, M. Ruml, Nicol, Lightcap
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