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/128402
AMA National Speedway Championship reg Hancock held off the determined charges of three-time AMA National Speedway Champion Billy "The Bullet" Hamill to win a second consecutive AMA Speedway Championship and sixth overall before a packed house at Fast Fridays Speedway in Auburn, California. "I knew coming in here tonight that Billy was fired up and really wanted to win this thing," Hancock said between photo opportunities after the race. "I knew I had to bring my best to beat him." In the opening round of the three-race series in Auburn on September 2, Hancock led from start to finish in every race, including the A final, where he earned 20 championship points, plus the one bonus point for finishing with the most heat-race points. Hamill finished behind no one all night, aside from his former British Elite League teammate, and came away with 18 second-place points. The following night, in round two at "The Grand" in the City of Industry, Hancock repeated his maximum and increased his lead over Hamill to 42-36. Charlie "The Edge" Venegas was the only American domestic rider to make both A finals, and he trailed the two former World Champions in third place, with 30 total series points. At round three, Hancock and Hamill were not scheduled to meet up until the fifth round, and, as usual, both riders swept through the first four rounds unscathed, although Hancock had a bit of G a scare from three-time Junior Speedway National Champion Ryan Fisher in their second-round match-up. Fisher managed to work his way into the A final with four consecutive second-place finishes to Faria, Hancock, Hamill and then Venegas before winning his final heat ahead of Tommy Hedden, Chris Kerr and the suddenly "unretired" John Cook. Venegas fought his way to the A final by only dropping points to Hamill, Hancock and former SRA U.S. National Champion Bart Bast. Three-time AMA National Speedway Champion "Flyin' Mike" Faria, who won both B finals in the series and was tied for fourth place with Fisher at 24 points, won his first two heats but fell off the points map by finishing last in two of his threefinal rides. In contrast to Faria's woes, Bast started slowly with a very uncharacteristic fall and fourth place in his opening heat, only to come back to win two of his last three heats and move directly into the B final. Bast won that race, beating Nate Perkins, Tommy Hedden and "Fast Eddie" Castro. The win added 12 points to Bast's series total and vaulted him into fifth place overall in the 2005 series standings. Despite dropping his first heat race of the three-race, Grand Prix-style series to Hamill in the fifth round, Hancock dipped into his prodigious bag of tricks and pulled out another spot-on perfect gate from his outside lane-four starting spot in the main event. "I lost that heat to Billy from lane two when he was on the pole, and I didn't want him pushing me out in tum one, so I decided to try to sweep around from the outside,