Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SPEEDWAY AMA u.s. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP (Above) Chris "The Kid" Manchester (left) wound up with the AMA U.S. Open Championship Speedway title by default after rain was hed away the five-man cha mpionship final. Here, Manchester runs outside Tom Sephton in heat-race action (right). (Left) The beast from the East: Warren "The Warrior" Diem (center) sc ored 13 points on Sunday's champ ionship night and claimed second place after the rainout. Diem was bullet-fast on his "boxstock" lay-down Jawa . By Scott Rousseau OWEGO, NY, AUG. 29-30 he n Chris "Th e Kid" Manchester w on the 1998 AMA Ll.S. Open Championship at New Champion Speed wa y without ever ra cing for it , the title br ought with it so me big ifs. - If the rain hadn't come , would Ma nchester have been able to beat the stars tu d ded field that includ ed a fo rm er five-time U.s . Open Champio n, the original Op en tit le wi nn er and a two-time World Cham pio n, a top-ranked British Lea gue' rid er and former World ti tle con tende r, and a sa lty 12-time Ca nadian Na tional Speed way Champio n? - If New Yor k' s Wa rren "The Warrior " Diem had go tten a seco nd cha nce a t Ma n ches te r, co uld the 37-yea r-ol d Eas t Coast speedway vete ran h a ve knocked off the kid ? - If Bobby "Boogaloo" Schwartz had gotten one of h is patented ro ck etlike gates in the crucial cham pio nshi p finalr might he now possess book-ended Open C ham pions hip cr owns th at .sp a n 20 years? - If josh Larsen or Len Dillon had ~o t ten things to fall their way off the start, might one of them be the ow ner the Ll.S. Open loving cup? Un fortu na tely, th ose qu estions cannot be a nswered th is year, as th e ra in did come to New Champion Speedway and wi pe away all the wo rk that these W 16 and the rest of the 16-rider field put in to what wa s shaping up to be a stellar speedwa y m e etin g that pitt ed ea s t against west for the first tim e since 1992 for the 2000 fans who sho wed up over the course of two even ings. A nd it w o uld be h ard to argue agains t th e fac t th at Mancheste r, th e 1992 Ll.S. a tio nal Cha m pion, d id n ' t ea rn it, as he was p ractica lly flawless over the tw o-d ay format that featu red a 32-rider qualifier on Sat urd ay and the 16-rider championship format on Sunda y. Du ring tho se two d ays, Manchester dropped only one race. In fact, on Sunda y, whe n the title was on the line, he carded a IS-point max imum to lead all sco re rs in to the two semis a nd la stcha nce qua lifier that wo uld wh it tle the fiel d d own to five rid er s for the U.S . Open fina l. But in the en d, rider safety wo n ou t over finis hing the meeting, and it was unanimou sly agreed upon by the riders and even t promot er jason .Bo nsig no re that "Ma nny" sho uld carry the title. "I would have liked to have won it straigh t ou t," Ma nchester sa id . "W e (riders) really wanted to d o it for jason, for the fans, and I wanted to win it for Team JBR. But we all got toge ther and made this decision in the in terest of our own safe ty. I'll be mor e than happy to co me back nex t yea r for the re ma tch I'm sure all of us w ill. It would ha ve bee n a really good fina l." Cred ited with second, based upon the reversion back to the riders' accumulated poi n ts in the regu lar heats only after he had qualified through to the fina l, was popular eastern rider Warren 'The Warrior" Diem. The 37-year-old ew Yorker from Conklin was mor e than a worthy contender for the invading California ns, and he proved it as he eventua lly beat all of the m exce pt Man ch ester over th e course of the two days. The Southern Tier Insu lation /Diem's Cycles / Bennett Used Auto Sa les- backed Diem sco re d th ree heat wins an d racked up 13 points on Sunday, showing that he still has what it takes to race with some of the best. "Aw, ma ybe I'll ride speedway for one more year," Diem said . "Really, it was such a trem end ou s honor to race aga ins t these guys. I'm jus t an 01' flat tracker , and they are some of the be st speedway rider s'in the wo rld on a long or a short track. Wh at I'd really like to do is go bac k to California wi th 'em so that I can race'em some more." A wa rd ed third , ba sed on 1I h ea t po ints a fte r winnin g the las t-cha n ce qualifier, was none other than ageless speedway ve teran Bob by "Booga loo" Schwa rtz, w ho somehow to this d a y ma nages to fin d himself co m pe ting in speedway mot or cycle races aro u nd the planet. The tw o-time Ll.S. National and two-time Wo rld Best Pai rs cha m pion came to Owego to win but , in the end, was sa tis fie d wit h h is o wn p er formance - and with th e decision of the group. "I was ve r y h app y to mak e th e mai n," th e H-D of Westminster /Russell/S'I'P / Q uicksilver-backed Schwartz said. "I think that we made a wis e decision, because someo ne was only going to ge t hurt. It was just go ing to bea oneline, follow-the-lead er d eal , and if one g uy fa lls d o w n , th en he s ta n ds the chance of getting run OVer by the rest... It jus t would n' t hav e bee n a good show for the fans. They'd see n the best racing already." SAT URDAY On a warm Saturday ev e ni ng, long before there wa s ever a hint of moistu re, the 32-rider Open field w as s pli t into two groups or "pools" for the qua lifying ro unds, fro m which only the top eigh t on points in each pool would make the cut fo r Su nday's 16-rider Open Fina l compe tition . Saturda y eveni n g al so marked th e fina l go -a ro u n d for New Champion Speedway's Support A and B divisions, and a full field of journeyman rid ers sh owed up to battl e it ou t for bragging rights . Th e openi ng ra ce of the qu ali fiers also mark ed th e firs t cha nce th at josh Larsen woul d get to ta ke to the ra ce track, as he had not been able to get in a ny pra cti ce on Frid a y even ing, a n d Larsen wo u ld b e force d int o ba tt le against multi-tim e Canad ian Nationa l speedway cha m p io n "Ligh tning" Len Dillon as well as tou gh-running Ca nadian racer Patrick Ahlund. But Larsen wa s up to it, as he swep t aro und bot h Ca nad ians a nd j erem ia h Sm it h to tak e th e lea d off turn tw o bef or e th e race was res tarted when Ah lund and Dillon collided and crashed. On the restart, it was mo re of the sa me, however, with Larsen pick ing up the w in ahead o f Dillon, Ahlu nd and Smith to claim thr ee points. Race tw o provided the first upset of the night, as reigning New Ch ampion Sp eedway tr a ck champi on Lenn y McBride wen t down a t the hand s of Ca na da's N ick Fa fard , w ho made a ro ck et of a ga te and th en rod e low enough to keep the an xiou s McBride, Howie Oakden and Tom Burg e behi nd him and claim a hu ge win . Rac e three w a s acti on -packed , as Bobb y Schwartz came from gate three to tai l T om s ephton off th e sta rt , but Schwa rtz stayed on the gas an d swep t around the outside of Sep hton down the back straight. Sep hton pulled low and attem p ted to di ve u nde rneath Schwa rtz severa l times, to no avail. Schwa rtz took the win ahead of Sephto n, Mike Cortese and Tim Matthew son. Manchester took his first turn at the track in race number four, and the former u.s. National Champion took full advantage , as he blas ted fro m ga te four and ran the di rt line to perfection, scoring thr ee points for the win, whil e Greg Hancock-Iookalike Dave Oakd en ran seco nd, ah ead of Chris Hesm er and Ken Pieper. "It's not that bad ," Man chest er said of the race track . "The d irt is there, but you rea lly have to hunt for it ." Five-time Ll.S, Open champion War-

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