Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

hol eshot and th en running aw ay with the win. In his seco nd heat , Diem led a t the sta rt once mor e, bu t co uldn' t hold o ff the dete rm ined , last-lap cha llenge o f 22-year-old Charlie Venegas of Wa lnut Cr eek, Ca li fornia . Diem finished seco nd . Diem wo n hi s third hea t race with a no ther strong showing over Mark H annah. Rob ert Cu rry o f Rancho Co rdo va, Ca liforn ia, scored th e win o ver Diem in the fin al heat race o f the evening, b u t Di em ' s second-place fini sh ea rne d him a total of 10 points. which moved h im directl y to th e front ro w o f the main event. H ow ever, the co m pe ti tio n was so dose for the two remaining front-row starting positio ns that a heat race tie-breaker was run to decid e those posit ions. Venegas won the race to garner the seco nd front ro w position. Scott Ormiston fill ed out the fina l front ro w spo t in th e six-ma n final by virt ue of hi s seco nd in the tie-brea ker. Robert Curry, Ren e Mort en sen , Kevin Hawkins, George Lazor, Pat Lilt and J ohn Gran i g~idded for the Last Chance Qualifier. The topth ree finishers from the LCQ wou ld make up the ba ck row in th e fin al. Curry led the start with Lazor and H awkins dicing for po sition a nd Pat Lilt desperate to move up a fter a poo r start. Curry held off Lilt to win th e rac e. while Lilt forced hi s way past Hawkins. La zor , who had run in second , fell with two laps remaining to set the fini shing order: Curry, Litt, Hawkins. It was interesting to no te th at th e highly-experien ced a nd successfu l Europeans far ed poorly during th e heat races. Both Stand a nd Piech used a different style than th e North America n rid ers - th ey held the bike doser in a nd stood much more upright while th e o ther riders kept th e rear wh eel h un g way o u t and held th e bik e mu ch low er - thi s may have been a resp onse to th e la ck o f tra ction. Neither Stand nor PIech's bik es would hook u p. ins tea d th ey wou ld just slide to th e ou tside of th e co rne r. " I don 't kn ow wh at' s wrong ." sai d Stand duri ng in termission. " I ca n' t mak e it co rner. This ice is not hard. I wilI try and tune th e screws." An other exce lle nt rider having tro uble was Mark Bor gman of Littl eton , Col orado. Borgman is a former I.C. E. Nati onal cham p a nd th e winni ngest ac tive speedway ice racer. "T h is is the worst ni ght ever," Bor gm an sa id. " I' ve had a ll bad luck. I go t dipped; I laid it down and stalled th e mot or. This is probably m y last year raci ng and I wo uld liked to ha ve d one better , but th at ' s raci ng ." After a demonstration by Orrn iston and Rob Ball aboard a Kawasaki KZIOOO-powered sideca r racer that had fan s o n their feet ch eerin g , th e riders took th eir pl ace o n' th e grid for th e six-lap fin al. With ceme n t showing th rough th e ice in turns th ree a nd four, Canadi an Ice Sp eedw ay cha m p Diem nai led th e holesh ot and led Ormiston. Ven egas a nd Curry into th e first turn. Passing was extremely difficult within th e co nfines o f th e hockey rin k-tu rnedice speedway track, a nd Ven egas felI while trying to pass. Cu rry mov ed up to third, but look ed tired a nd had his hands hill holding off H awkins. Up front. 'O rm iston tri ed to get underneath Diem o n th e last lap. but got in too hot a nd ran wide. a lmost losing hi s position . to Curry. H e pulIed back down in time to salvage second , but Diem wa s o u t of rea ch . After th e race. Diem was ecstatic. "Next to having a bab y, th is is th e best thing that's ever happened," said the 28-year-old Diem. " It was W ith his w in in Tucson. Canadian Ice Speedway Champion D iem (3 ) added a World title to his resume , Runner- up Orm iston (left) looks on as D iem (center) is congratulated by third -place finisher Robert Curry . a lot of work. I had to restud m y t ires a fte r th e qualifier because everybody th ought m y studs were illega l. After th at. everythi ng was going my way, My tire worked and I got a ll the po les." Ormiston was obvio us ly hap p y wi th hi s runner-up position. " I was waiting for Warren. to catch that concre te," Ormiston exp lained, "so wh en he didn 't I dove inside , but got in too ha l." . Curry was not as happy with hi s th ird pl a ce, ' "I couldn't hang o n." Curry sa id. " I had to .rid e th ree races in a row a nd had no ch ance to rest. • I had no conc entra tio n." The entry list featured riders from eight countries. includ ing speedway legends Zenon Piech of Poland (left) and Jiri Stancl of Czechoslovakia, Results HETRICK MEMO RIAL: 1. Pat Utt (Wes); 2. John Lewis (Wes); 3. Ed Castro (Wes); 4 . Jo hn Grant (Was); 5. Cha rlie Ve negas (Gdn); 6. Scott Orm iston (Wes). WORLD ICE SPDWY C'SHIP; 1. Warren Diem (Gdn); 2. Scott Or miston (Wes); 3. Robert Curry (Wes); 4 . Kevin Hawkins (Wes); 5. Pat Litt (Wes); 6. Charlie Venega s (Gdn). 15

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