Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo - Sacramento, CA

Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo - Sacramento, CA
Saturday June 10, 2000

Billy Janniro wins the Main Event!

From Gary Roberts

Sideways Saturdays Season Opener pulled in a reasonably good crowd, for this facility. In comparison with Auburn, the crowd was very small, and despite being in the middle of a large city has a history of poor levels of crowd size. The racing was interesting. Half an hour before the first race the track was deep in water. It was dragged several times so the water was not as visible, but the first half dozen races were very slushy. As the evening went on the track got grippy, but bumpy. At one stage it looked so bad, I told the person standing next to me that it looked bad enough for Billy Janniro to be able to win there. Billy seems to have no fear of rough tracks and goes just as well airborne as he does on a smooth track. Sure enough, he won both the scratch and handicap events. It is doubtful whether even Mike Faria would have been up to competing with him, had he been there.

Thankfully the accidents were in the main part injury free. Ryan Fisher injured his hand in his Scratch Semi Final and took no further part in the event. It was not a good weekend for Ryan, who was riding with a separated shoulder from the previous night.

Unofficial Results

Scratch Main
1. Billy Janniro
2. Bobby Hedden
3. Robert Curry
4. Chad Felicio

Robert Curry and Bobby Hedden gated best, but were not prepared to compete at the speed Billy Janniro wanted to travel, so they settled for following him, at a same distance.

Scratch Consi Qualifiers for this race were Bob Hicks, Tommy Hedden, Ryan Fisher and Paul Orlandi. Ryan was not up to competing after his fall, Paul Orlandi fell in his semifinal and retired. So the Scratch Consi was a match race between Bob Hicks and Tommy Hedden. They took the opportunity to make the race entertaining rather than competitive.

Handicap Main
1. Billy Janniro
2. Bobby Hedden
3. Tommy Hedden
4. Chad Felicio
5. Bart Bast
6. Bob Hicks

Tommy Hedden from the 30 yard line was the early leader and Bobby Hedden tried to keep Janniro back as long as possible, but there was no stopping him.

Handicap Consi
1. Robert Curry
2. Marvin Sonnier
3. Scott Olney
4. Rick Shafer
5. Steve Martynse

Ryan Fisher qualified for this race, but did not compete.
The event was somewhat light in Division 1, so this heat included a couple of riders who normally ride Division 2.

Division 2 Main
1. Jon Curry
2. Vince Bertolucci
3. Richard Powell
4. George Snodgrass
5. Shawn Eldridge
6. Richard Mellor
7. Ivan Sevart
8. Donny Powell

Once again Jon Curry made easy work of his Division 2 heat, then the main. Jon is riding fast and building up quite a lead. Even in his latter years as a junior Jon was always a front yardage rider so it will be interesting to see if he is able to fight his way through from a higher handicap. It also will be interesting to see how Eric Carrillo gets on when he starts riding a 500, later this month, since his abilities of moving up from a high handicap have been tested extensively.

Division 2 Consi
1. Greg Hooten Snr.
2. Tom Adams
3. Harlan Bast Snr.
4. Dave Booth
5. Ron Woodsford
6. Matt Browne
7. Bill Thomas
8. Derek Silva

Division 3 Main
1. Mike Achilles
2. Dave Baker
3. David Quick
4. Les Veale
5. Gary Hubbert
6. Geno Bellino

Division 3 Consi
1. Dennis Chandler
2. Mike Hooten
3. Scott McGane
4. Rich Mignano
5. Brian Leventon
6. Bill Warnock

Junior Division 1
1. Eric Carrillo
2. Chris Kerr
3. Bryan Yarrow
4. Greg Hooten Jnr.
5. JJ Martynse
6. JT Mabry

Junior Division 2
1. Mark Carrillo
2. Chris Olney
3. Josh Newby
4. Brenton Bast
5. Danny Easley

Junior Division 3
1. TJ Fowler
2. Jeff Butler
3. Tom Fehrman
4. Mitchell Johnson

It was encouraging that a larger than normal crowd showed up. Let's hope that Y2K will be a year where Speedway at Cal Expo can break even financially, rather than depend on the philanthropic promoter.

Gary Roberts - groberts@iee.org