VOL. 51 ISSUE 22 JUNE 3, 2014 P31
READY, SET, GO: IT'S SPEEDWAY
CHAMPIONSHIP TIME
T
he best American speedway
motorcycle racers will put it
all on the line in the AMA Speed-
way National Championship Se-
ries starting Saturday night, June
7 at Costa Mesa Speedway in
Orange County, California.
The national series will fea-
ture 14 permanent riders with
two wild card and two additional
reserve spots set to be deter-
mined through qualifying at each
round. The permanent riders
are defending series champion
Billy Janniro, Max Ruml, Charlie
Venegas, Eddie Castro, Tommy
Hedden, Buck Blair, Bart Bast,
Bryce Starks, Mike Faria, Tyson
Burmeister, Jason Ramirez, Aus-
tin Novratil, Broc Nicol and Rus-
sell Green.
Following the June 7 Costa
Mesa opener, the AMA Speed-
way National Championship Se-
ries heads to Ventura Raceway
in Ventura, California, on June
28; Industry Racing in City of In-
dustry, California, on August 9;
and Fast Fridays in Auburn, Cali-
fornia, on September 19.
Charlie Venegas will be one of the 14 permanent riders in the AMA
Speedway National Championship that starts Saturday night at Costa
Mesa Speedway in Southern California.
DUNLOP GETS HIS 8TH
M
ichael Dunlop won the
eighth Isle of Man TT of his
career on Saturday, May 31, the
BMW Motorrad rider taking vic-
tory in the six-lap Superbike TT
in record-breaking style.
Dunlop took control from early
race leader James Hillier at Bal-
laugh on the opening lap and,
aided by two laps inside the old
outright lap record, he surged
clear and was able to control
the race in the closing stages
to take the win by 20.5 seconds
over Tyco Suzuki's Guy Martin.
Rounding out the podium was
Honda Racing's Conor Cum-
mins.
Twenty-time TT win-
ner John McGuiness
made a valiant effort for
seventh with his wrist in-
jury, but he was unable
to run the pace for six
entire laps. Australian
Josh Brookes complet-
ing the top 10.
Next to Dunlop's im-
pressive victory was also New
Zealander Bruce Anstey's re-
cord breaking pace, lapping the
course at more than 132 mph
with a final lap of 132.298 mph
(some six seconds quicker than
McGuinness' lap set in the same
race last year) on the Valvoline
Racing/Padgetts Honda. In spite
of making history, an opening
lap error still had Anstey finishing
outside of the top 10.
Michael Dunlop celebrates his win in Satur-
day's Superbike TT. He's joined on the podium
by Guy Martin (left) and Conor Cummins (right).