Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Ninth annual North vs. Sou thSpeedway Spectacular By M. Sober Photo by Gen Mo ore AUBURN, CA. JULY 23 nee a tru ce was finall y called in the ninth annual North vs . South . Speedway Spectacular, the orthem team had once again d isplayed its dominance in America's finest Speedwa y team racin g eve nt with a resounding sco re of 82-53. On an unseasonably chilly Auburn evening at the Fas t Fridays Go ld Country Fairgrounds oval, the Northern team either tied or won 15 of th e firs t 16 fo u r- m a n heat r a ces , building up a 60-36 score go ing into the tw o main ev ent s . N o rth ern ers Mike Faria, Billy [annir o and Bart Bast had worked throu gh the ir fou r heat rides withou t drop pi ng a sing le point. Wit h 12 points apiece, Faria, Bast and [a nniro matched the Sou th's 36 points after the 16 heats. Cha rlie "The Edge" Ven egas led the So u th with ei ght tota l p oi n ts, while Bobby "Boogaloo " Schwartz and Du kie Ermolenko chimed in with seven po ints apiece. In rou nd one, Bast opened up the scoring in the meetin g's opening ride with a good start and an even better second-lap move to work inside Venega s and capture the first three points. Venegas stayed in second , gaining two points, and Rand y DiFrancesco held off Ian Ferris to take the third-place point. After one ride, the overall score was tied at three apiece. In heat two, Schwartz jumped ou t to the ea rly lead, only to fall pre y to th e inside d a sh of Bobby Hed den in th e fou rth turn on lap one. Schwartz held o ff Tommy H edd en fo r seco nd , bu t Chris Manchester fell, giving the North a 4-2 heat wi n. Scotty Brant took th e early lead in heat three but couldn' t hold th e fro nt running positi o n w hen Bill y Janniro moved underneath him in tum three of th e initial lap. Brant fou ght his wa y to se con d bu t Andy Northrup cou ldn 't keep pace off the pole, and ga ve third p lace awa y to Jimmy Sisemore. The No rth had another 4-2 victory . In th e final heat o f th e first round , Fa r ia a n d 15-y e a r-old ve te ra n Ry a n Fisher dom in ated the race fro m sta rt to finish . Faria took the wi n, w it h Fis her close be hi n d , as Gary Hicks a n d Er mo le n ko flo un d e red in th ird an d fou rth . Th e North p icked up the pace and had doubled the South's score after on e round for a 16-8 lead . In round two, The South got a bit of a break in the first heat when pole sitter Ryan Fisher looped his Jawa at the start a nd was disqualified. Oddly, reserve rider Chad Felicio was not allowed to replace him, and the race was restarted with one N orthern rider and two from th e South. Unda u nted , Faria matched the three-point score of Ve nega s and DiFrancesco , thus keeping the South from gaining any ground on the overall score, which now stood at 19-11. Manchester was the first away in the next heat, but he couldn't make it cleanly thr ou gh the first tum, which allow ed Sisemore to take the lead . [anniro duplica te d hi s first-r ound heroi cs, g o ing d own on the insid e line to take ov er the lead. Sisem or e followed , and the N orth had their seco nd 5-1 point sweep. The third heat of the round saw the first bit of controve rsy, when No rthrup got together with Tommy Hed den and wen t down on the back straight. A full rerun wa s called w it h no rider exclus io n s, w hi ch appea red to upset Northru p. When th e h eat re s u med , Bobby Hedden took the front, followed by Brant and Northrup. Tommy Hed den r od e in last, a n d the Sou th had an other tie at 3-3. (fJl Bast closed ou t th e round in grand style. Ermolenko ran second but could barely ho ld off Ferris to salvage the secon d- p lace p oints. At the conclusio n of two rounds, the North was ahea d , 31-17. Venegas opened the third round wi th the South ' s first win of the m eetin g when he outgated Bobby Hedden . However, Tommy H edden outdu el ed DiFrancesco and the heat wa s a wash at three po ints apiece. Schwa rtz tried to follow suit in the next rid e, getting a good start fro m the po le, only to see Bast pu ll off one of his nifty inside passes on the second lap to take the win . Ferris he ld on to th ird , a he a d o f Manches ter, and th e N orth added an other tw o points to their lead. Faria was looking to keep his perfect score alive, bu t found he had his han d s full tryi ng to hold off Brant throughout the third heat. Brant was driving it int o th e co rners fas te r th an Fa ri a, bu t h e cou ldn' t ge t around an d ended up taking hims elf ou t rather than dusting the lead er. Faria had the lead , Nort hru p pu t in a stro ng rid e for second , and third wen t to Fisher. In the fin al h eat o f r ound three , Ermo len ko gra bbe d th e ea rly lead but could onl y watch as [anniro once again brought th e crowd to it s fee t w ith a stu n ni ng insid e move to take ov er th e fro n t- ru nning p osition as th e qu arte t m ad e its way th rou gh th e first lap. Erm olenko ma int ain ed second, ahead of Sise mo re, an d Southern reserve rider Rick Shafer (rep lacing Hicks) fell. After three rou nds, the No rt h's lea d s tood at 46-26. The South's final chances to recov er we re dealt a serious blow when [anniro opened the final rou nd wi th ano ther of his crowd- p leasi ng in sid e-line moves. Th e quick stu dy took th e three-p oint win, ahea d of Venegas, wh o had the initi al lead b ut even tua lly fell to third when Sisemore followed th rou gh to the fro nt. For the third tim e in four hea t races, Schwa rtz led the pack into the firs t tum, but this time it was his longtime nem esis Faria who passed the Speedwa y vetera n on the outside, on his way to his fourth consecu tive win . Schwartz held on to the tw o second-place po ints. In h eat three o f the fo u rt h round, Bran t got ou t in front wi th a good s tart, only to ha ve his bike give up 20 ya rd s shy of the checkered flag, givin g Bast a ch ance to co m p lete his p erfect n igh t. Nort hru p was again second, and Ferri s finished third for the third cons ecu tive heat. In the final regular heat of the meeting, the Southern team fina lly showed so me of their u sual brilliance w hen Ermolen ko and Hicks took the two to p spots, ahead of Bobby and Tommy Hedden . But it was too littl e, too la te. The N o rth' s lead ha d grown to an u nru ly 60-36. . In the "B" Main, a determi ned -loo king Schwartz shot to th e fro n t off th e po le, only to have [a nni ro sneak inside h im a nd take over th e lea d m id w ay th ro u gh th e seco n d lap . H o w e v er , Schwartz worked his way back up next to the kid in lap thr ee. [anniro conti nued to s t a y in fron t as Bobby H edden worked the ou tside and found himself conten di ng wi th Schwartz as the white flag waved . The tig ht thr ee-man group ma de its w ay to th e last turn, where Schwartz th ought he ha d th e momen tum to overta ke [anniro . But th e kid fro m Beni cia t hrew a wrench int o Schwartz's plan by slowing d own, cutti ng o ff h is im p e tu s, whi ch all ow ed Bobby Hedden to sli p around the ou tside an d take second. [anniro sustained en oug h mome n tu m to ho ld on to th e w in , as tea m ma te Bobby Hedden finis he d s e co n d, com p le ting a no t her orthem swee p. With the team win a foregone conclusion, the only rema ining qu esti on would be which rid er wou ld wi n the A Mai n event. On th e p ol e for th e So u th was Venegas. v th team mate H icks in lan e wi th ree rid ing Chris Manch es ter' s GM . Ba st a n d Faria w ould rep r es e nt th e No rth from lan es two and four. Venegas go t off the line firs t and too k the early lead. Faria was next off, but he couldn' t m ake u p a n y g rou n d on th e fl eeing "Ed ge." On the other hand, Bast d id n't ge t a grea t ga te bu t m o ved rig ht u p b eh ind Venegas, u s in g t he ex tre m e insid e line that he and [anniro had ut ilized so well all nig ht. After three laps, flagman Mark Joiner inadve rten tly p ro- Charlie " The Edge" Venegas (1) leads teamm ate Randy DIFrancesco In the opening heat race of the North vs . South Speedway Specta cu lar in Auburn, Californ ia. Bart Bast (not shown) won t he heat, Venegas went on to win the battle In the main even t, and the North won the war. d u ced the chec kered banner instead of the w hite flag, causing a ripple in the Force. "I was a bit su rp rised by the checkered flag," said Venegas after the even t. UI don 't coun t laps, but it see med a bit early for the checkers . I kept on the gas but went a little wide in tum two, looking at the cro wd , then I heard Bart and got back on the thro ttle, bu t it was too late. He got me at the line." Bast had his ow n op inion of the early flag. "I knew it couldn't be over it wasn' t enou gh laps , and Cha rlie kept racin g," Bast said. "I think I wo n it at the line." Once Joi ne r saw that he had t h e wrong flag, he quickly tried to hid e it, but it was too late . All the riders except Faria saw it. "I was ou tsid e, cha sing the di rt line, and didn't see it at all," Faria sai d . " It had no effect on me. If they waved the check ers at Charlie, the n he sho uld ge t the win; if no t, then Bart won it." The re was a halfhearted a tte m p t to reru n th e m a in , b u t in th e e n d the res ul ts were revert ed to the chec kered fl a g lap, and Ve n egas h ad t he win. Venegas' wi n was only the third time all nig ht tha t a Southe rn rider crossed the line at the front of the pack. Despite the sketchy main-event finis h, the Northern team had its fourt h Civil War win in a row, and bragg ing righ ts for an other yea r. _ J Gold Cou nt ry Fairgrounds Auburn, Califo rn ia Results : July 23,1999 I 1/1 Ii! III S ~ Q en en en M AIN : 1. Ch ar lie Ven ega s (Jaw ). 0 1A: No rt h (82): Bar t Bast (Jaw) 20; Billy ja nrurc .(Jaw) 18; Mike Faria (GM) 16; Bobby Hedden (Jaw) 1~; Jimmy Sisemo re (G M) 6; Ryan Fisher (Jaw) 4; Ian Ferri s '" (Jaw) 3; Tomm y Hed d en (Jaw ) 2."Sou th (53): Charl~ e ~ Ve ne ga s (Ja w ) 20; Bobb y Sc hw a rtz (G M) 9; Du kie ~ Ermolenko (GM) 8; Gary Hicks (Jaw) 5; Andy No rthrup . (Jaw) 5; Scott Brant (Jaw) 4; Randy DiFran cesco (Ja w) 2; Chris Ma nchest er (GM) O. = ~ « 39

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