DECEMBER 28, 2013
GRAND ARENA/CITY OF INDUSTRY, CALIFORNIA
SPEEDWAY
P72
MONSTER ENERGY WORLD SPEEDWAY INVITATIONAL
(Above) Young Australian Darcy
Ward (right) battles with Gino
Manzares (5) in one of the fourthround heats.
(Below right) One more go… (from
left to right) Scott Nicholls, Charlie
Venegas, and Billy Janniro ready
for the restart after the red flag in
the final.
perhaps it was more disappointing for Ward to not take home
the win or make the podium. The
young Australian was exciting to
watch the entire night as he was
going for it every race.
"Obviously, I'm not here to
get second. So I tried going for
the win, but I pushed a bit hard
there," Ward said about the incident with Janniro in the final. "But
that's racing. I didn't mean it. Billy's [Janniro] okay. We're all okay.
So that's the main thing."
Being that it was his first time at
the track, it seemed like he made
himself quite at home."Yeah, it's
only a little track, but if you can
ride a spare bike it's a good bit
to get used to," Ward explained.
"But in the end, I got the hang of
it. I enjoyed it."
Whatever gate position he
had, Ward seemed comfortable
and had success despite his first
time at the track.
"To be honest it's a bit of luck if
you're going to win a race or not,"
said Ward. "It's very hard to pass.
If someone just jumps out in front
of you, not often you can pass
'em. But there were some good
battles tonight. It's close racing,
so it's intense. Which is very different from what we are used to."
For Venegas, the Grand Arena
was something that he was very
much used to. While not as dominant as Janniro, his results were
good over the course of the night
and in the end his experience secured him second place.
"It was just awesome," Venegas said. "We had a good season here all year. Coming into
a big meeting like this, you just
kind of concentrate on what you
know. And, again, the machine
was awesome. A lot of effort, a
lot of time, hard, hard time the
last 24 hours… I'm sure all of my
boys are glad to be done with me
by now.
Again… good crew, a good
surrounding of people, and again
just riding smart."
Besides its size, the big complaint from the visitors last year
was the track's condition. That
was not the case this year as the
track was much better, according
to the riders.
"This time last year it was the
