|
Speedway Championship of Argentinaz
THE 44th INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CHAMPIONSHIP OF ARGENTINA - Round Two
Sunday December 27, 1998
From: Chris Hesmer (Canadian Chris Hesmer competes and reports the Championship)
* * Round 1 - Round 2 - Round 3 - Round 4 * *
Ola, there from Argentina. First off, I would like to send my deepest
thanks for all of you who took the time to respond to my last report by
dropping me an e-mail to read for Christmas (and you all know who you are).
I received so many e-mails that it would have been a full time job responding
to them, not that I have a full time job right now, but that's why I'm riding
speedway! I received e-mails from my home country of Canada, but also
numerous from sunny California, Oregon, and Arizona in the United States,
Scotland, England, and even Italy. Once again, my thanks go out to those who
sent them and I look forward to seeing lots more.
On with the races. From now on, until the rest of the season the races are
held on Sunday nights, as the Midget Sprint cars are running on the Saturday
night. This is a sight to see. In the last two weeks I have seen over ten
good accidents where cars have flipped and been totaled in the nature of
open wheel racing.
Sunday was cooler than the rest of the week which saw temperatures rise to 39
degrees Celsius on Christmas day in Bahia Blanca. It always seems to be
nice here come race time.
The race track seem to suffer the consistency it had the previous week with
some really grippy spots entering the corners and then suddenly hard
slippery. You had to be very careful when racing close to another rider when
the sudden change occurred. They say it all depends on how the midgets the
night before affect the track and how well the track maintenance crew can
repair it. As long as there becomes no sudden big holes like a fault line,
I'm happy, as it is the same for everyone. The program was full once again
with 32, yes I said thirty-two throttle happy speedway riders in the 500cc
class. The other classes showed strong showings of 25 in the 200cc class
and over 20 in the 50cc class. Needless to say, the pits are very busy.
With qualification heats and repercharges, there was three semi-finals. The
top two riders in the semi-finals went to the six man Grande Finale. The
promoters of the event are careful in selection of how they stack the
semi-finals so that not all the top riders are in one together and thus only
two make it to the Grande Finale. The following is the results of the
Grande Finale:
Pos. # Rider Location
1 38 Armando Castagna Italy
2 40 Poty Sanchez Cap. Federal
3 1 Luis Vallejos Bahia Blanca
4 13 Gustavo Curzio Bahia Blanca
5 39 Simone Terenzani Italy
6 6 Fernando Donay Carlos Casares
So far it looks like the series is very close, as the top three riders above
have taken a commanding lead in the points race over the rest of the field,
yet are all within 5 points of each other.
So how did the Canadian make out? Things could be better in Bagdad right
now. My $700 three day FEDEX journey for my engine somehow got
lengthened. Till when? Whoever knows, please send me an e-mail and tell me.
With telephones stuck to my ears with the customs office on the other end,
it was difficult to fit my helmet on. Oh yeah, what helmet? It seems you
have to keep a tether line on your equipment here. Somehow I came home
last week without my helmet. No worries, a local motorcycle shop that is
sponsoring me a new Honda XR200R four stroke for my two month stay so I can
get around town came through with a perfect fitting Shoei (plug: MOTO
FERNANDEZ). The other good news is that someone accidentally? picked up my
helmet and took it home with them because they thought it was theirs without
looking in the helmet bag first. Well with that out of the way, I was
lent an engine for my bike. It was assembled and ready to go, but it just
needed the front exhaust pipe to fit the head trunk. With one supposedly on
the way, I began to sweat. My luck, FEDEX must have got a hold of it too,
and it was a no show. From orbit, I began my descend into earth. At the
last minute I jumped on an unprepared upright, to feel it out for two laps
of practice. While testing the clutch on a practice start, it stripped the
inside nut off and the whole clutch assembly suddenly became a disassembly.
Then all #%$$ broke lose, 25 jacks of all trades and masters of none, began
to fix the beast in preparation of the first qualifier. How I worked with
25 people and a hammer who spoke a different language than I, in a mad
craze to my first qualifier a still make it, boggles my imagination till
this day. In all the rush, one piece of equipment I forgot to put on (my
brain) proved to be needed, as without, I continued to take close dirt
samples in the first corner. No worries, I got a repercharge to make it to
the semi-finals. Somehow, I managed to wrestled that machine around four
laps for a victory, like a marathon runner that is running with a pair of
shoes that don't fit. In the semi- finals these shoes brought me in third
position, and out of the Grande Finale. Out of the top six, I tightened the
laces a little more, and pulled up a second in the Consolation Final. This
gave me enough money to eat at McDonalds for the week if I wish, but I'll
probably spend it elsewhere.
Ah, things will be better next week. Until then, I'll put some Castrol R
under my pillow and wait for the engine fairy to come a deliver my own
shoes.
I look forward to all your e-mails, and hope you had fun reading the smiles
I'm keeping duct taped to my face. Remember there is still eight more weeks
to come so, don't change the channel and more reports will come.
Until then, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S. - these reports won't be sent FEDEX! E-mail in Argentina in care of: gsahagun@impsat1.com.ar
Until then, Felices Fiesta,
that means Merry Christmas. You can send me an e-mail for a Christmas gift!
Adios Amigos
Chris Hesmer - 1998 Canadian National Speedway Champion.
|