DECEMBER 28, 2013
GRAND ARENA/CITY OF INDUSTRY, CALIFORNIA
SPEEDWAY
P70
MONSTER ENERGY WORLD SPEEDWAY INVITATIONAL
Old guys still rule: Greg Hancock
(left) and Charlie Venegas (right)
both had good nights with 11 points
going into the semi finals.
us it's really fun and enjoyable,
but it's so different to what we are
used to. Like you say, last year
was an all-American final and
they showed their dominance, so
to have me and Darcy [Ward] in
the final I think was great."
And while there wasn't an
American on the top of the box at
the end of the night, you wouldn't
have thought that by watching
the racing heading into the final. The man to beat the entire
night was the reigning Monster
Energy World Speedway Invitational Champion, Janniro as he
headed into the semis with the
most points at 13. Following him
was a three-way tie at 11 points
between Americans Venegas,
Tyson Burmeiste and two-time
World Champion Greg Hancock.
Young Ricky Wells made it an
American top-five at 10 points.
Unfortunately not joining this
group was American speedway
legend Billy Hamill. Hamill's biggest enemy was some sort of flu
bug that he tried to tough his way
through. But he was forced to
withdraw after his third heat because he felt the illness clouded
his focus too much to be able to
compete safely. His withdrawal
allowed for young reserve rider
Austin Novratil to fill in.
So it was three foreigners making it in with a tie at nine points
to complete the eight riders to
advance to semi finals –Nicholls,
Edward Kennett and Ward. And it
would be Nicholls and Ward who
would upset some very strong
American opponents to make
it into the final with Janniro and
Venegas.
While the night was not lacking
great racing for the fans, the final
was a nail biter with no shortage
of drama. With a winner-takes-all
format and no championship on
line, they were going for it.
Janniro took the lead on the
first lap with Ward in hot pursuit.
In fact a little too hot, as he made
contact with Janniro - causing
both of them to crash and Nicholls to follow suit as he tried to
avoid the pair. The melee brought
out the red flag.
Fortunately, no one was injured, but the same couldn't be
said about Janniro's bike or the
section of wall it came in contact
with on the exit of turn three.
The wall was quickly replaced
and during that time a look at the
footage of the incident had officials making the call that Ward
would be excluded from the re-
