Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA National Championship Speedway Series Round 1 : Arrowhead Motor Speedway A look at the points tally after three completed rounds of racing showed Hamill on a perfect nine to lead the scoring. Fisher looked good with eight. Then there was a logjam of riders in the six- to seven-point range, including Manchester and Hancock on seven, and Faria, Brant, Janniro and Castro on six. Faria's chances for an A main berth were sunk when he got a terrible start from gate three and then broke on the white-flag lap, coasting into the infield on the back straightaway and carding fourth, behind winner Janniro, Larsen and Bobby Hedden. Hamill got another perfect start from gate two in heat 14 and took down Brant, Bast and Carillo to remain undefeated. Hancock duplicated the feat from the same gate position in heat 15, while Manchester struggled and dropped to third, behind Hicks. Tommy Hedden was fourth. Castro closed the round with his second win of the night - this one from gate three. The 43-year-old was clearly flying, and this win, combined with the misfortunes of Manchester, Faria and Brant, suddenly gave him a serious shot at making the A Final. After coming together with Hicks to necessitate a restart in heat 17, Janniro assured his place in the A Final with a win off the pole, which put him on 12 points. Larsen grabbed his first win of the meeting - too little, too late - in heat 18, leaving him in a run-off for a spot in either the B or C finals. Hamill came from gate three and capped his perfect drive to the A Final with a win over Hancock in heat 19. Hancock also clinched a spot in the A by finishing with 12 points. That left a critical final points race of the night, heat 20. Manchester had eight points, and Castro nine. Manchester needed to win and hope that Castro finished no better than third in order to clinch the last A Final berth. If he won and Castro was second, then the two would have a run-off for the spot. Brant or Faria could also step up and make life tough for either of them. But Castro simply avoided all the would-be scenarios by getting a great start out of gate four and putting in a world-class ride to smoke Manchester, Faria and Brant, and secure his place in the marquis race of the night. The partisan crowd went wild when Castro sped across the finish line. "I wanted to get in that A Final so bad," an excited Castro said. "We changed our combination around a little bit tonight, and it seems to be working out. Hopefully, we can be in the hunt in the A Final." With the A Final field filled, a series of run-offs were completed to fill out the undercard finals. Russell Racing/Harley-Davidson of Westm i nster /Qu i ks i I ver- ba c ked Schwartz cut his best gate of the night from gate three and held off a determined Carrillo - the youngster some 28 years younger than him - to win the D Final. DiFrancesco finished 42 AUGUST 28, 2002' cue • Pre-race favorites Chris Manchester (5) and Josh Larsen (7) struggled at San Bernardino. Manchester finished second In the B Final, while Larsen finished second in the C Final. third, with Bobby Hedden dropping to fourth after he tangled with Carrillo in the first turn and spun a 360 before getting going again. Both Schwartz and Carrillo secured spots in the program for the next round of the series at Auburn, while DiFrancesco and Bobby Hedden will have to qualify. "I wasn't even sure if I was going to go up to Auburn if I had to qualify," the 46-year-old Schwartz said. 'Til tell you what - I'm having a hard time in my heart continuing to do this. It's really a demanding thing. You've just really got to go for it in a competition like this, and I'm finding that harder to do after 29 seasons. I'm just not the same." Like Schwartz, Progressive Sus. pension/Terrycable/Mission Yamaha's Hicks saved his best start for last, coming off the pole to take the lead in the C Final. Larsen was all over him immediately, but even a last-ditch effort up the outside at the finish line failed to get him past Hicks. Bast and Tommy Hedden were third and fourth, respectively. "We're down on horsepower a little bit," Hicks said. "With the things that have been going on in my personal life, we really haven't had a lot of time to work on the engines. We started out kind of slow and got a little better as the night went on, but it was just too late. Billy Hamill has got a fire-breathing GM, and he's really moving fast. We're just not quite as sharp as we want to be, but we're just going to keep plugging away at it." In what may have been the best race of the night, Brant and Manchester went at it hard in the B Final. Manchester came from gate two to pull the holeshot while Brant worked the outside. After two laps of side-by-side racing, Brant was finally able to get the better drive off turn two and then pull it down to close the door on Manchester in turn three. Brant took the win, followed by Manchester and Fisher. "It was good to end the night on a good note," Brant said. "We couldn't be in the A Final, so the next-best thing was winning the B Final. I know that Manny is a good rider, and I • n e ... s knew that he wasn't going to do anything dirty to me while I was outside there. He raced me hard, and he made me earn the spot. I'm grateful to come out on top in that one. We'll just set our goals to make the next two A finals and hopefuJJy mix it up a little bit." Faria touched the tapes before the race even started and was excluded, dropping him to eighth overall on the night. Hamill carefully surveyed the starting line before picking the second gate for the A Final. Hancock drew next, choosing gate three. Janniro then chose the pole, leaving Castro BRIEFLY••• How it works: The 16-rider format includes with gate four. When the tapes went up, it appeared as though Hamill had picked wisely. His motor appeared to do the rest, and four laps later he was the first winner of an AMA National Speedway round. "It's always such a gamble when you're up there trying to figure out what gate to come out of, but everything just went great," Hamill said. "The bike was working. We're looking good. I'm really excited and very supportive of this championship series. Maybe in three or four years' time, it will have grown to the point where that can take it all across the United States for, like, 15 or 16 rounds. That would be fantastic." • eN Arrowhead Motor Speedway San Bernardino, California Results: August 14, 2002 (Round 1 of 3J A FINAL: I. Billy Hamill; 2. Billy Janniro; 3. Greg Hancock: 4. Eddie Cestro. B FINAL: 1. Scott Brant; 2. Chris Manchester; 3. Ryan Fisher; 4. Mike Fan". C FINAL: I. Gary Hicks: 2. Josh Larsen; 3. Bart Bast: 4. Tommy Hedden. o FINAL: I. Bobby SchwlIrtz; 2. Eric Carrillo; 3. Randy DiFrancesco; 4. Bobby Hedden. AMA NATIONAL C'SHIP SPEEDWAY SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After 1 of 3 rounds): I. Billy Hamill (21/1 win); 2. Billy JlInniro (18); 3. Greg Hencock (16); 4. Eddie Castro (4); S. Scott Brant (2); 6. Chris Manchester (11); 1. Ryan Fisher (10); 8. Mike Faria (9); 9. Gary Hicks (8); 10. Josh Larsen (7): 1I. Bart east (6): 12. Tommy Hedden (5): 13. Bobby Schwartz (4); 14. Eric Carrillo (3); 15. ~andy DiFrancesco (2); 16. Bobby Hedden (1). Upcoming Rounds: Round 2 - Auburn, California, August 16 Round 3 - Auburn, California, September 20 that." Yarrow was excluded. but he came back in a subsequent qualifier and eamed a reserve spot. Uke fellow reserve rider Bobby Krlps, Yarrow got one ride on the night. in round three, and scored zero points. preliminary qualifying races to add two riders to the 14 already seeded into the program. The 16 riders will then compete in five pointspaying rounds (three to the winner. two for second. etc.J to determine the seeding to the four finals at the end of the night. In the case of ties. run-offs will only be used if there are more tied riders than available slots in a given final. Otherwise, the better finisher in points events will get the tiebreaker. The top 14 finishers of each round will be seeded through to the next round. with the 15th- and 16th-place finishers (third and fourth in the D Final) being dropped back into the qualifier races that begin the race program at each round. Nightmare National I: Peterich CyclelBill WamockfTroy Lee Designs' Bobby Hedden had high hopes of scoring well in the first round of the AMA National Championship Speedway Series at San Bernardino and then using the result as a springboard when the series visits his home track in Auburn for rounds two and three. Instead. Hedden will be forced to run in the preliminary qualifiers at round two just to get the chance at a spot in the regular program. "How lame am I?" Hedden said. "It just wasn't my night. We'll have to step it up at Aubum in the next two rounds. just try to make 1985 National Speedway Champion Alan MCrazy" Christian made his return to active Josh Larsen said after falling to a disap- competition for the first time in nine years at the first round of the new AMA Series. As a former National Champion. Christian was invited to take part in the series, though he would be required to qualify for a spot in the pro· gram. He was well on his way to doing just that until a rookie mistake cost him dearly in his quaiifier, while he was running second. "I shut off on the white flag, thinking that it was the checkered flag. so that shows you how long I've been gone," Christian said. "It has been nine years since I raced regularly. I won't make that mistake at Auburn." Christian retumed in the run-off to determine the night's two reserve riders, but a third place there ended his run. Seco/Tux 'n' TailslOxtar Boots' Bryan Yarrow had a scare in the preliminary qualifiers at San Bernardino. when he came into tum one and slammed into Alan Christian while the pair was battling for a spot in the regular program, In what was the worst crash of the some money and see how it goes... Nightmare National II: "At least it isn't over." pointing second-place finish in the C Final. "I'll rectify my problems before Friday. " The referee for the San Bernardino National was none other than former speedway racer Steve Lucero. himseif a two-time U.S. National Speedway Champion. Ever the character. Lucero summed up his refereeing philosophy quite succinctly. "At 8 p.m.. I hate 'em all." Lucero said. "If they want to be friends again after 10 p.m.. that's just fine with me." Former two-time U.S. National Champion (1980, '8ll and two-lime World Speedway Champion (J 98 1. '82) Bruce Penhall was on hand at San Bernardino to take in the action with sons Ryan and Connor. Penhall offered hiS take on the action: "Nothing will ever replace the pressure of a one-night final. but as far as exposure [goes]. this will help, If they really want more exposure for speedway, they also need to get together and get the Junior program going again." night. the contact threw Yarrow into a vicious high-side, causing the race to be red-flagged. "' just tried to run it on him," the 17-year-old Yarrow said. "I had to go for it - you've got to do what you've got to do to get into a National. It was just too much drive, and Alan is too big of a guy to try and take out of the way like Mike Faria admitted that he'd have to go back and think about it when asked how many National appearances he had made during his career. "I think the first one was back around 1978," Faria said. "But I did win three National titles. and ~II three of them were AMA-sanclioned. "

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