Slide, crash and slide from
Bakersfield to Costa Mesa
(and points of interest between)
By Denn is Greene
Ventura, Ca liforn ia
Tuesday, August 27 , 1974
At Ventura, several riders newly
moved from Division Two up into
Division One an d have won their
first Handicap Mains as top division riders . Mike Muntean, Bill
Manly, Phil Moon, Bob Schwartz,
Bob'Roos, Kelson Forita have
done it in the past. and the newest
rider to put his name in that record
book is desert ace Jim Fishback.
Jim beat Muntean, Schwartz, current
California State and United States
Speedway Champion Mike Bast, Mike
Curoso and Mike KonJe for a great ride.
Vandals had attacked the track over
the weekend, flooding the track with
water, cutting down the starting gates.
and other little tricks . But bv the time
the first race came to the starting line,
the last ribbon was rep laced in time for
a fine night of racin g."
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With 10 of 16 ava ila ble spots already
filled fo r t he Septembe r 11 Ca lifo rnia
Sta te Sp eedway Cham p ionship (dete rmine d by total season poi n ts earned at
Bake rs field), there were sti ll six spots to
Showdown brewing? Mike Bast leads
Rick Woods in a Costa Mesa Match
Race that was restarted after the two
tangled in the first turn. Look for more
of this as the Championsh ip Final
draws closer.
be earned in to night's qualifying round.
Larry Shaw was the top m an in this
Qualifying ro und. taking 14 poi nts to
m o ve into the eleven th spot for the title
Ronald Ramirez does the look-around-one-step-reverse-getoff ballet.
spot. Fo ur riders t ied at 10 points ,
filling the next fo ur spots .
Th e final spot, n u m be r 16 . wen t to
Bruce Pe nh all with nine points. Five
riders raced it out for the two reserve
spots with Mark Cherf an d Norm Denny
earning the rides.
T wo m on ths ago Bruce Penhall was
in vo lved in a m ino r crash a nd ca me out
of it with a broken fo ot. T his past
Dave Sims tells Brad Newell "If you don't get out of
my way. I'll throw my bike at you!"
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