As the afternoon progressed, it was a
battle with some serious surprises on both
sides. Eleven-time National Champ Billy
Janniro, generally considered a force at any
event, was left behind in his first heat, fin-
ishing last behind Sweden's Jacob Thorsall.
As the afternoon progressed, it was a
back-and-forth battle, with American riders
who are normally dominant here at home,
often taking a back seat to the visitors. It
took until the fifth heat before Team USA
pulled into a small 16-14-point lead. But
consistency wins the day. World Team Cap
-
tain Dan Bewley finished first, last, third and
second over four heats, while Team USA
won some but scored more consistently
and almost never in last place.
In the end, it ended up a near tie at 44-41
for Team USA with Team Captain Luke
Becker and Gino Manzares tying at nine
points apiece to lead Team USA to a nar
-
row victory over The World.
The second half of the program was a
four-race set of qualifiers—followed by two
semi-finals and four Last Man Out single
lap shoot-offs to set the four-man finale to
the afternoon. Riders had to finish in sec-
ond in at least one heat to qualify for the
individual championship heats. Surprisingly
enough, none of the victorious members of
Team USA made the Finale!
After all was said and done, the Finale
ended up with four of The World Team
having all the fun. Well, not all fun, as
World Team Captain Den Bewley leapt out
to a huge lead, for exactly 2/3 of a lap. As
Bewley entered the third turn, he went high,
slid out, but had to watch as his bike did a
quadruple pirouette down the track. That
earned him an exclusion for the restart, so
he had to watch as Adam Ellis used the
same wide line to run away with the three-
man final. The all-Europe final ended up
with Adam Ellis of the Sheffield Tigers first
with Rasmus Jensen second and Sweden's
Jacob Thorsell in third.
Richard Haight
VOLUME ISSUE FEBRUARY , P37
(Above) Team
USA put it all
together for
the win.
PHOTO:
RICHARD HAIGHT
(Right) Adam
Ellis won the all-
European Finale.
PHOTO: MITCH
FRIEDMAN
