JANNIRO WINS 9
TH
AMA SPEEDWAY TITLE
B
illy Janniro won his ninth
AMA National Speedway
Championship, September 29,
at Gold Country Fairgrounds in
Auburn, California, becoming
the first American speedway
rider to reach that number. Until
Saturday night Janniro was tied
with former Speedway World
Champion Greg Hancock with
eight AMA Championships, but
Janniro is now the sole leader.
Coming into the fifth round
and Grand Final, Janniro led
the series with 78 points and it
was really his to lose. He was
closely chased all season long
in the championship series
by rising speedway star Luke
Becker, who, like Hancock, is
also currently racing in Europe,
but made four of the champion-
ship rounds, gathering 67 points
overall after four rounds and
leading Janniro in points after
round one. Racing commitments
in Europe kept Becker from at-
tending the fifth round Saturday
night giving Janniro a little more
breathing room.
In third place coming into the
Grand Final, Austin Novratil, who
brought 65 points into the final,
could've been Janniro's spoiler
but needed a great night com-
bined with a bad night for Janniro.
Janniro, was not perfect in
round five, the only series round
he did not win. He began the
evening immediately dropping
a point with a second-place
finish to Max Ruml in heat one.
In heat 20, he also dropped
another point to Dillon Ruml and
in the grand final race, he again
dropped a point and the final
round win to Dillon Ruml with a
second-place finish. Aaron Fox
was third and Max Ruml was
fourth in the Grand Final race.
"It was a tough season but
things worked out, everything
was in place and ready to go,"
said Janniro. "When I started
racing I never thought this would
happen to me, I was just a kid,
having fun, got good here, went
to Europe and got better and
here we are."
Michael Kirby
IN
THE
WIND
P48
Billy Janniro
wrapped up his ninth
AMA Speedway
title, breaking Greg
Hancock's record.
