Cycleland Speedway
Chico, California

Chico
Cycleland Speedway
May 29, 1999

Cal Expo was not running this week, so Cycleland Speedway, located just south of Chico took their place. The riders who made the long drive up there were rewarded with AMA championship points that they would have probably have had to work harder for at Cal Expo, or certainly Auburn, because the rider field was on the low side. But the lack of quantity did not detract from the quality of the racing.
The track is bigger that Auburn and a fairly heavy banking makes it very fast. The surface is clay, but at the start of the evening it was covered with about an inch of sand. This quickly got pushed to the outside during the practice session, so the outside was loose and by the end of the evening the inside part of the track had a good wide blue groove. The entrance to the corner was still quite slick. There were ruts in the corners and the lighting was less than ideal, which caused some riders some serious cornering problems. They started their turn easily then found too much traction, accompanied with unexpected bumps and with an Armco barrier out on the wall caused more than a couple of riders some worrying moments.

Despite the shortage of riders, the racing somehow went on until 11.30. It was an enjoyable evening. This was the third Speedway event at Chico, and every time the organization of the event improves. Dave Joiner, the Auburn promoter did a great job as announcer.

Scratch Main
1. Bobby Hedden
2. Jim Sisemore
Bart Bast and Ryan Fisher also qualified. What was expected to be a great finale kind of fizzled out. First Bart Bast fell on the first turn and the race was stopped. Since Bart was the cause of the restart, he was disqualified. While circling round for the rerun, Ryan Fisher's primary chain jumped the sprocket and there was no time to retrieve it, so it was down to a 2 man race. Jimmy Sisemore was not happy with the track and clearly not wishing to take any chances that would jeopardize his June 13 Overseas Final appearance, so Bobby Hedden had a relatively easy win.

Scratch Consolation
1. Robert Curry
2. Chad Felicio
3. Rick Shafer
4. Pat Linn

Handicap Main
1. Robert Curry
2. Ryan Fisher
3. Bobby Hedden
4. Bart Bast
5. Chad Felicio
6. Ian Ferris

Handicap Consolation
1. Billy Janniro
2. Jim Sisemore
3. Rick Shafer
4. Pat Linn
5. Dave Faria
6. Paul Orlandi
The Handicap Consolation topped off a great weekend for Rick Shafer, with three third places in Handicap events. Paul Orlandi made a great return to Speedway after an 8 year break to go road racing. Paul will ride to Auburn next Friday before making the decision whether this is a one week trial or a comeback. He looked very comfortable despite the duration away.

Division 2 Main
1. George Snodgrass
2. Derek Silva
3. Richard Powell
4. Shawn Eldridge
5. Harlan Bast Snr.
Derek Silva was promoted from Division 3 last week at Cal Expo> He won at Auburn the night before and lead until the last lap, when local man George Snodgrass took over.

Division 3 Main
1. Don Webster
2. Brian Leventon
3. Mike Douglass
4. Craig Boone
5. Bill Warnock
6. Kevin Fereira
Flat tracker, Don Webster forced his way through to win the Division 3 main. It should be stated that throughout the evening there were a number of flat track events between Speedway races and Don competed in these too.

Division 3 Consolation
1. Ivan Sevart
2. Geno Bellino
3. Ron Woodsford
4. Kimi Valentine
5. Mark Thomas

Junior Speedway races were as follows:

Division 1 Juniors
1. Eric Carrillo
2. Bryan Yarrow
3. Jon Curry
4. AJ Jones

Division 2 and 3 Juniors
1. Ray Linn
2. Mark Carrillo
3. Tim Gomez

Next weekend there will be no Speedway on Saturday since both Cal Expo and Cycleland will be closed. Cal Expo reopens on June 12 when they host the Bob Peters Memorial. July 3 is the next Speedway event at Cycleland.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com