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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128344
and Lazor in that order. With five top riders all going for it into turn o ne, the main event was bound to have something interesting happ en - and it did! Manchester came out of the gate-one position with a two-wheel lead on Legault, who was off gate three . As Manchester pitched it Sideways, Legault never backed off, and Manches ter's rear wheel collecte d Legault's fro nt, caus ing the Canadian to go down. By this time, Sephton had gotten clear across the front of everyone into the lead. The referee made the correct decision to allow the race to continue, but unfortunately Schwartz had to steer clear of Legault and was forced to the back of the pack . Sephton held the inside of Manchester for four laps to win the first night's finale. Manchester bagged valuable second-place points, with Parsons third, Schwartz fourt h and Legault credited with fifth . jessie "jet" Diem won the junio r port ion of the program w hile Katalin Davis took the Support B w in. Hideaki "Grassho pper " O ta was the Support A top dog. Round two of the series was held at the legendary Champion Speedway, the birthplace of the U.S. Open. The Sunday format had riders taking place in four more heats each. At the end of those four rounds, the racers' scores fro m those races and allof Saturday's races w o uld be calculated , with t he top five overall weekend scorers starting in four main events, with each rider starting on ze ro points . The top four riders wou ld each get a chan ce at every starting position in a rotation, while the fifth rider wou ld be stuck with gate five in all fo ur finals. Points 0 for the Mains would be awa rded 4,3,2, 1, . The first hou r of the eve ning gave the yo ungsters and Support riders a chance to shine in fro nt of the enthusiastic crowd . Several you ng hotshoes have deve loped in New York speedway this season , and they ke pt the crowd on its feet. Crowd favorite , Katalin Davis, won the ju nior Main, but based on overall se ries points , jessie Diem became the U.S. O pen junio r Champ. First-year rider james Langland won the Support B final and the overall t itle in the class. Another new rider showing lots of potential, Stefan Laessig, stormed to the Support A gold, but the overall points winner was Mikey "Mad Dog" Buman, who ro de all season o n a 250 laydown against SOOcc machines. When the divisio n o ne stars ro lled o ut for intro duct ions and the anthem, t he atmosphere was electric. The points we re all very close at the start of Sunday night, and fans were anxious to see w ho the final five woul d be . In heat one , Sephto n made a statement by upsetting Mancheste r. Legault, Lazor, Schwartz and McCon nell also wo n their heats in round one . The second roun d of heats prod uce d Sephton, Adam Mitt l, Manchester, Lazor and Schwartz as top guys. Roun d three had Manchester, Sephton, McConnell, Legault and Lazor all taking top po ints. Round four, the final heat roun d, started with Schwartz defeating Legault; Seph ton won the second heat of t hat bracket. Lo ngtime East Coast superstar Lazor ro lled back the years and won his fourth straight heat of the night, capping off a great weekend w here he finished on ly one point shy of the top five. Manchester won his last heat co nvincingly over Parsons. McConnell produced his third win of the night from his last o uting and would surely have been a partic ipant in the top five had it not been for bike tro uble on Saturday eve ning. After two nights of racing and e ight hea t roun ds, semis and one final, the to p five U.S. Ope n finalists were Sephton , Manchester, Schwartz, Parsons and Legault, with Legault stuck in gate five for the fo ur mains . Sephton had the gate -one po sition for t he firs t ma in, and he used it t o his advantage by getti ng to turn one first and staying there, thus taking t he w in with Manchest er, Legault, Parsons and Schwartz finishing in tha t order. Main event number two worked to Sephton's liking as we ll. Coming off gate two he again got to the corner first and rode a perfect line to hold off Parso ns, who gra bbed second. Manchester tried the outside but found no dirt and settled for third . Legault was fourth ahead of Schwartz, who was having tro uble making a new edge grip the slick track. Th e third main saw a confident Manchester sto rm into the lead fro m gate one, and he was never seriously challenged. Sephto n looked to have third off the start but slowe d to a stop down the back straight as a result of no fue l. Schwartz was in seco nd for a bit until his motor blew up, dro pping him to last. Legau lt moved up into second, and Parsons got third -place points . As the riders walked out for the final race, it was an nounced that Manchester and Sephton were t ied on 12 points , and wh oever finished higher in the final w ou ld be t he U.S. O pen Cham pion . Manchester loo ked like the favo rite, as he had gate two . Se phto n was gated ou tside Manchester, w ith t he t rac k condi tion s favori ng the inside gate, but it loo ked like www.cyclenews.com Parsons crowded him from gate one and disturbed his start. As the tapes went up, Sephton made o ne of his famous fast starts and cho pped into t he lead in turn one. Each lap seemed like foreve r for the hometown fans as Manchester was rubbing Sephton's leg for the entire track lengt h. Legault had gotten himself into th ird ahead of Parsons, and Schwartz pulled off in last looking uncom fortable on a bor rowed bike. Sephton kept his coo l making no mistakes and to the roar of t he crowd scored the biggest U.S. O pe n victory for the East Coast since "Sto rm in" eN No rman in '78. AMA u.s. OPEN SPEEDWAY C HA M PIO NSHIPS RESULTS: SEPTEMBER 4 -5, 2004 OVERALL: I. Tom Sephton; 2. Chris Manchester; 3. Kyle Legault; 4. Jeremy Parsons; 5. Bobby Schwartz; 6. George Lazor; 7. Sha wn McConnell; B. (TIE) Tom Burge/Casey Donhol t; 10. Shaun Harmatiuk; II . (TIE) Kelly Moran/Adam Mittl; 13. (TIE) Chris Strong/Jo Pa el rsons; I S. (TIE) Russ Corne ll/Keith Hawkins 17. Lee Bailey; 18. Cam Rafferty; 19. (TIE) JoshCarr/Hideaki Ora: 21. Shawn Engel. JR: I . Jessie Diem. SU PPO RT D: I. James Langland. SU PPO RT A : I. Mikey Buman CYCLE NEWS • OCTO BER 6 , 2004 41