Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ICERACE ~ Venegas unstoppable in Phoenix ~ By Michael Ross PHOENIX, AZ, FEB. 5-6 fter winning his second International Championship Events (I.C.E.) Ice Speedway World Championship last week in Tucson, 25-year-old Charlie "the Edge" Venegas added his name to the latest chapter of the ice racing record books by claiming the sport's first-ever National Championship at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the heart of Phoenix. After winning the qualifier Friday night, Venegas calmly took on all comers and won Saturday's main event, leading wire-to-wire, to collect the $3000 bonus money offered to any rider who could win two of the three rounds in the I.CE. tripleheader. Venegas now has a shot at winning an additional $7000 if he can score at the final round to be held on March 14 in Anchorage, Alaska. "This is the biggest payday in my entire ice racing career," beamed the 25year-old speedway racer from Costa Mesa, California. In sharp contrast to the ease with which Venegas won on Friday and Saturday night was the difficulties encountered by the rest of the field. After a spate of crashes on Friday which claimed several of the top seeded riders, the second overall finisher, Rick Webb, felt lucky to even finish, let alone be on the podium. "It's been a tough weekend", said the 28-year-old Morrison, Colorado resident. "I had lots of trouble last night and it's been a rough road trying to get sorted out. I just managed to get my tire and my bike working in time for the main." Even more surprised was Robert Curry who carried the third place trophy back home to Rancho Cordova, California. " Hey, not bad for an old man," said the 31-year-old racer with a 1augh. "But I think I'm getting too old for this stuff." Undoubtedly there were a lot of racers who were starting to feel too old for this stuff. The qualifier on Friday night was especially tough for many of the riders as they struggled to adjust to the unusually soft ice in the Coliseum which developed much more bite than they were used to. Curry's tuner and mentor Scotty Ormiston was not in attendance and Curry was having problems getting his bike set up properly in addition to having to do all the maintenance himself. Pat Litt suffered a bad crash in the runoff race before the main on Friday and helped by his father barely made it to the final. Webb described Friday's racing as a "nightmare". He folded up .the front end of his Weslake in an altercation with Venegas and had to use his backup bike which later lunched its motor and had' to be replaced with the one in his original bike. Rookie Robert Froom was desperate to get his carb dialed in and with the help of teammate and sponsor Ron Kemp fixed the broken fork on his Weslake sustained in a heat race crash. Crowd favorite John Griffiths contin- A (Left to right) Third place finisher Robert Curry, LCE. World Champion Charles Venegas and runner-up Rick Webb. Charles Venegas pitches it sideways on'his way to a heat race win in Phoenix. ued to struggle with his aging HarleyDavidson-powered speedway bike that he started running in 1972. The bike refused to run at anything less than full throttle and even then made little power. The bike finally gave up the ghost altogether but Griffiths vowed to return next year with a competitive Harley motor and win some races. After the heat race points were taIIied it was Venegas taking the pole on the front row of Friday's main with two heat race wins and one third place in heat two when he confused the white flag for the checkered while leading. Joined by arch rival Litt and Curry on the front row, and Ronnie Kemp, Marcus Bisson, and John Gregg on the back row, Venegas put it all together and sprinted off to the win. Curry took second with Litt, nursing a severely bruised leg, bruised lung and a bent bike, soldiered home for third. By Saturday night the pits were full of the walking wounded and things would not get much better as the night progressed. There were three rounds of heat races scheduled and many opined that the poorly patched ice on the Coliseum floor would not last the night. In the first heat, Bisson, Webb and Gregg all went down in the third turn bringing out the red flag and a restart but Gregg's bike broke and he was out of the action. Litt won easily ahead of Webb and Bisson. The second round of heats saw Curry and Litt tangle with Litt throwing a chain off his bent sprocket which brought out the red flag. Gary Akroyd lost fire again because of a recalcitrant magneto and looked like he was out for the night but he ran back to the pits during the red flag period and reentered the race on Venega's bike. Curry was upset about the starting order and refused to come to the line. Curry thought Akroyd should be excluded for spending too much time fixing his bike (there is a two-minute restart rule) as should Litt for causing the red flag, but the referee would hear nothing of it and demanded Curry take his position. Litt went on to win with Akroyd taking second and Grant claimed third. Curry just motored around till the finish, still smarting from the red flag incident. Later in the program, Robert Froom crashed very hard and had a difficult time getting up. After losing so many points, Froom decided to pack it up for the night and left in disgust saying, "This whole thing is too disorganized and poorly planned:' In the last heat race, Hermant, Kemp and Grant got into each other with Grant's bike receiving the most damage. The front rim was so bent and the forks so twisted even with the help of three other people they could not remove the wheel from the forks. Kemp seemed to pull a hamstring as he struggled to get up. Grant borrowed a bike, Gregg borrowed a bike and they lined up but this time the referee decided to exclude Kemp for rough riding at which point the crowd booed loudly. Kemp decided to call it a night and packed up. Grant won, followed home by Hermant. A runoff race was run to decide the outside pole position for the front row of the main event among Rick Webb, Venegas and Curry in which Venegas pulled off the pass of the night taking the lead on first lap with a daring outside move over Webb. Webb went on to win the last chance qualifier, followed by Curry and the remarkable 14-yearold Mark Blair who was advancing to his first-ever main event. Litt held the pole position for the main as comer workers moved the track boundaries in to accommodate a new racing line since the quad main that had just been run chewed up the ice off the floor in turns three and four. Venegas took his position next to Litt with John Grant taking the outside pole. On the back row it was Webb, Curry and Blair lining up for a shot at the I.CE. National Championship. When the tape went up, Litt jumped off the line with Venegas right beside him, but Grant went down bringing out the red flag. Grant's bike was bent but he made repairs as best he could and took his position for the restart. At the restart it was Venegas taking the slirnmest of leads, followed closely by Litt, but Litt went down trying to put a pass on Venegas as did John Grant. TIle race continued since Litt and Grant had fallen on either ends of the track. With the checkered flag waving it was Venegas scoring the win ahead of Webb and Curry. Grant was more than upset, blaming Webb for the incident and shooting him the infamous one-finger salute. After the race Grant was in no mood for talking. An obviously pleased Venegas took the victory podium and celebrated his second championship in as many races. "1 knew 1 could do it." said Venegas. "1 knew I could win this and now I'm set to go to England in October and race the British League. ar Results N.lioaa~ 1. Cl\adcs Venegas (Gdn) 2. Rick Webb (W..) 3. Robert Curry (W..). 25

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