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/127653
;',WoPCuplceW Y:"/,':,, Round 3: San Diego Sports Arena SridE DSpeedwaysemis ' E A (Left) Mike Faria, Rick Webb, Charlie Venegas (left to right) started the main event from the front row . Venegas and Faria collided In tum three, causing a restart. (Below) The defending Ice World Champion, Venegas scored his second main event win In as many rounds, moving him to second on the alltime main event winners list with nine victories. the cause of his own cras h, ending his evening. Venegas rebounded from his roundtwo setback to post another convincing win in heat 17 over Robert Cuny. As the night progressed, former twotime u.s. Nati onal Speedway Champion Mike Faria, Cu rry and Team Colorado's Rick Webb turned out to be the biggest threats to Venegas. It was a real tu rnabout for Faria , who had p roblems in Sacramento and failed to make a main ev en t. A confident Fari a scored eight po ints in th e th ree round s to tie with Venegas for th e lead and earn a direct seed into the main. "My tires we re all wrong (Sacramento). I had an 'A' stu d pattern so that the tire w ould clean itself which is totally wrong," Faria said, "After watching Pat VENEGAS SHOOTS, SCORES! By Scott Rousseau Photos by DennlsVolI and Rousseau SAN DIEGO, CA, JAN, 28 peedway racer Charlie Venegas was spectacular as he once again topped the 16-rider field in front of an estimated 4500 spectators at round three of the Budweiser Ice Draft-sponsored International Championship Events World Cup Ice Sp eedway Series at the San Diego Sports Arena, horne of the IHL San Diego Gulls, Venegas looked to be the man to beat by virtue of his victory at the previous race in Sacramento, but the 19 91 and ' 93 Ice Wo rld Champ ion' s chan ce for a p erfect evenin g was d erailed in heat 12 when he fell victim to controversy. The trouble began when Gary Akroyd developed a fuel leak on th e starting line while staging with round one winners Venegas and Pat Litt. Officia ls shut Akroyd down and backed him off the line while Ak ro yd ' s mechanic ra n out and tried to help him fix the leak. Referee Dave Joiner determined that Akroyd had exceeded the two-minute hold, wa ved _ the heat to the line and called fo r a start. _ Venegas took control and appeared to have the race well in hand, but in all the confusion, no reserve was called to replace Akroyd. The race was stopped, with Venegas leading, to correct the situation. In the meantime, Akroyd was still on the ice, had gotten started again, and attempted to stage at the gate. It took over five minutes for officials I to get a fuming Akroyd to pull off the ice so that the heat could be restarted. When the race was restarted, Litt took control from his pole starting po sition and scored the win over a disappointed Venegas . ' " We'r e still in it, " Vene g as sai d, "There was a lot chaos out there, but I'm (Left) Faria scored eight points In the qualifying heats and transferred directly to the main event. Despite a last-place finish, the two-time U.S. National Speedway Champion gave a good account of himself. (Below) Rick Wabb, Venegas and Robert Curry (left to right) took to the winner's rostrum after the malnevenL having a tough time making it hook up . It seems to be going pretty good, but the ice is changing." Litt's night went bad shortly thereafter when he was disqualified for causing a resart in his third round ride and was forced to ride in the Last Chance Qualifier. Litt would far e no better in the LCQ as he was invo lved in first tum bunching w ith John Grant and wen t down in tum one. Litt was again ruled