Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126421
II OOOOCCCCCCCDDDOOCCOOCccccccoacccoaccccccCCCCCCCCCC CCCl:ll:ll:ll:ll:lCCl:lCCl:ll:l ··~caeecaaaaaaooccaccacaaacaa. .l:ll:ll:ll:laal:laaaaaaaaaaaa II SPEEDWAY WEEK ~ t 0') r-- 0') (Above) From the Inside. Jim Fishback. Alan Chrilltilln. Mike Bast end Gene Woods go for It In the Sen Berdoo Scretch Mein. Bast won. (Balow) Joey Donaldson end.Cllnt Strommer tangle at Sen Bernardino. friends and family, a large. good. working team, About the only poor pan of the group are the same old officials who have hung out at that track since time immemorial. A run·down of this night'S main events produced a new winner in Division Three, Mark Stahovich. Kevin Weeda made his sponsors at Fantasy Records happy as he added one more victory to his own record in Division Two. The big guns were out in force in the First Division, with Milte Bast holding off Alan Christian in the Scratch .Main Event, Alan Christian won the Handicap Main Event, staning way back on the 60·yard line. An outstanding race and it should be pointed out that Alan is the only rider at Ventura staning on the 60 and that's a lot of ground to makeup'. Moran masters San Berdoo By Dennis Greene SAN BERNARDINO, CA,JULY 18 Bast, Christian split Ventura By Dennis Greene VENTURA, CA, JULY 17 Now in their sixth week of promoting speedway at Ventura, the new owners are working very hard at putting on a first·class show. 26 The much·enlarged track they put in at the old facility proposes a whole new set of problems. The straight· aways are very long, while: the turns are very tight. Everyone goes fast, but less than half know how to get through the turns without cutting way down on their speed or going.on their heads. One Division Two rider tried to copy the winning style of Alan Christian and backed it into the turns with the throttle full on. Why not? Alan's won just about every Handicap Main up there, but Bobby Hill, the Division Two rider, only managed to go through the crash wall, ending up in the pits and taking three eight·foot movable panels of crash wall with him. He was not hun, in fact he came hack out for the restart and might have been in the race until it was pointed out to the acting referee that by the rules, if a race is stopped because of an accident, the rider causing the stop will not restan for safety. One other race was stopped by the improper use of the flags and should have been rerun. The black flag, by the rule book, is used to exclude one rider. It is to.be pointed at 'that rider only, not waved. The problem came up when John Cook spun out at both ends of the track and again on the back straightaway. He was about to be ovenaken by the rest of the pack when the official waved the black flag in front of everyone, trying to get Jolin to move over and let the race go by. There is no "move over" flag or rule in speedway. This was pointed out to the official by the riders in that event, who were hopping mad. Nothing was done - no restan - and the blame was laid at John's feet when the official said that John was just playing around and showing off, making it dangerous to race. By the time the main events rolled around, I must admit that I was very impressed with the new promoters and how much help they were getting from Quite often, just before the night's racing gets underway, the referee will call a riders' meeting to let them know of some special upcoming event, a rule change, request of the fans or promoters, or just anything in general . that wiD help out the spon a little, This past Wednesday night at San Bernardino the meeting was hosted by Costa Mesa promoter Harry Oxley, who has been under fire to be a little more consistent on several levels with the other three tracks in the southland. His good news was for all riders; most of all those riders who have pointed out that they only get to ride at Costa Mesa two or three times a year. That problem has now been laid right ba~k on them. In the past, all you had to do was sign up to race and your name would be carried along for weeks until you got to ride. but all too often, because of the weeks that went by, that rider might be.out of town c;m vacation or working ovenime and not make it to the rac~ (a no· show). Not being there when you're on the printed program without at least a phone call to the promoter will set you back for weeks at any of the tracks. But now it's up to the riders to sign up one week in advance, every week. No list will be held over. A. rider may have a friend sign him up or he can call the promoter and let him know that he can ride on that given night if there is space for him. T.here's still a small problem with this whole thing there's at least three times as many riders as there are openings. . Several other things were pointed out in this meeting, both by Joho Lattisier, the owner of the Inland Motorcycle Speedway and by Harry, No rider will be left off any program for speaking out; they want to know where there are any probletns. The door is always open, but let's do it in an orderly way in the office without a lot of yelling, screaming and four· letter words. This is a business and will be run as such. It was itlso pointed out that if necessary to stop any BS rumors, they could have a riders' meeting every race night to get unity back in the spon (a big step in the right direction). It seems like every week somewhere in my race repon, I write that it was the best night of racing I've seen in speedway, so I'll stan out that way. Wednesday night was outstanding, will all of the 24 events going right down to the wire to pick a winner, except for one. The Division Two Main Event could not be questioned about the winner;-because Dave MiDer was the only rider left to Ct'OI5 the finish line. The other five were scattered all over the track, with Milte Balanger stiD on his bike with his left leg stuck under the fender of Jim Lawson's bike. Several of the fmishes were so close that it took some time for the official scorers, line marshall and referee to call the winner, The referee has the only vote that counts, so why all the comparing of notes is a mystery to most. About the only mystery in the Handicap Main Event is how little Shawn "The .Miracleworker" Moran can go so fast and hang on to all that power? The power comes from Collins Automotive and tuner George Wenn, but the talent is all Shawn's. Like his older brother, Kelly, Shawn will be going overseas next season to race, and wouldn't it be something to see the Moran brothers win the Best Pairs title? But for right now, Shawn keeps on winning the Handicap Mains like he did Wednesday night, pleasing the crowds and waiting for his call to Europe. Shawn has won six Handicap Mains for the season, twice as many as any other rider this year. For the second night in a row, Mike Bast won the Scratch Main Event, backing up his defeat of Alan Christian, who fmished a distant founh. Gene Woods got the second