Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo - Sacramento, California

Week Two
Saturday June 20, 1998 - Cal Expo
By: Gary Roberts

The second weekly meeting at Cal Expo took place on Saturday night. Again, racing was good, and despite an overzealous piece of watering, midway through the meeting, the track held up well enough to provide some superb main events.

It was announced at the riders meeting that the starting tapes were non-functional and that all races would be flag starts. This resulted in a lot of mumbling and disbelief in its success. The result was astonishing. I did not witness one bad start, practically every rider in every race left the gate together. Only once, throughout the evening, did a lower division rider jump the start. I am trying to recall the last time I saw a speedway meeting here with only one tape disqualification. There were certainly better, more even, starts than with tapes. So much for technology.

Scratch Main
1. Tommy Hedden
2. Mike Faria
3. Bart Bast
4. Bobby Hedden
Tommy Hedden had a good weekend. Following his Handicap Main and Scratch Consolation wins the night before, he edged his way past Mike Faria between turn 4 and the finish to win the Scratch Main. These were his first big wins since breaking an arm early last season.

Scratch Consolation
1. Jim Sisemore
2. Matt Becker
3. Chad Felicio
4. Billy Janniro
Jim Sisemore and Billy Janniro were having a great tussle but Billy found traction coming out of turn 2 and lost it. His bike bounced off the wall, narrowly missing next place man Mat Becker.

Handicap Main
1. Mike Faria
2. Jim Sisemore
3. Bob Hicks
4. Tommy Hedden
Ian Ferris and Pat Linn were non finishers, having fallen on turn 1 midway through the race. Tommy Hedden was disappointed that the race was not stopped and after the race explained this to the referee.

Handicap Consolation
1. Bart Bast
2. Bobby Hedden
3. Vance Felicio
4. Rich Marcucci
Tommy Hedden and Robert Curry qualified but were non starters.

Division 2 Main
1. Shawn Eldridge
2. Steve Arena
3. Bill Newby
4. Dave Booth
5. Greg Howell
Tom Adams qualified but was a non starter

Division 2 Consolation
1. John O'Connell
2. Harlan Bast
3. Ted Taylor
4. Bill Thomas
Dennis Cassidy and Rachelle Kerr were also in the race.

Division 3 Main
1. Mike Browne
2. Derek Silva
3. Bobby Chipman
4. Harry Bradwell
Dick Vargas and Ivan Sevart were non finishers. Richard Powell and Donny Powell (father and son) collided and fell on the last corner having led the race since the first lap.

Division 3 Consolation
1. Gary Moranville
2. Bill Warnock
3. Bill Dixon
4. Geno Bellino
Also in the race were Rich Mignano, Les Veal, Kevin Fereira and Rudy Becerra.

Junior Division 1
1. Eric Carillo
2. Bryan Yarrow
3. JJ Martynse

Junior Division 2
1. Mat Browne
2. Josh Newby
3. Scott Hawley
4. Jon Curry

Junior Division 3
1. Ray Linn
2. JT Mabry
3. Alex Marcucci
4. Amanda English

The crowd was a bit bigger than last week, so the word is getting around. It was also supplemented by Speedway Internet Distribution contributor Steve Wright and his 3 thirsty buddies from Wolverhapton. See the web site in a week or two of a picture that I took of them with some N. Cal riders in the pub afterwards.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com