The Dirt Track
Kern County Raceway Park
Bakersfield, California
Digger Helm AMA Speedway National Championship Series Round 1
KCRP Bakersfield - 24 June 2023
Photos Mitch Friedman
Story by: Mitch Friedman / Steve Evans
The 2023 AMA Speedway National Championship Series kicked off at Kern County Raceway Park on June 24th. The race was once more in honor of former Bakersfield Speedway Motorcycle promoter and National Flat Track Rider Digger Helm. The 16-rider field competed in five rounds of heats followed by semifinals and final, once again utilizing the Speedway Grand Prix race format.
There were two spots left on the 16-rider main program and the night started off with the wildcard race off between Rees Todd, Justin Almon, Michael Wells and Greg Moore. The two successful riders were Wells who led home Moore, and both would go into the heats as wildcards and the with the reserve riders on the program being the third and fourth placed Almon and Todd.
On paper it looked like there were five favorites who were too close to call based off of recent form at Costa Mesa and City of Industry, where the winners from all events had come from The Ruml brothers Max & Dillon, 11 time and defending National Champion Billy Janniro, Broc Nicol and Austin Novratil.
However, Novratil’s night lasted less than 20 seconds. He was ahead of Janniro in heat 3 but got out of shape in turn 1 of lap 2, getting off the bike and though up almost immediately upon impact, a swollen hand meant calling it a night being the only option. So, the big 5 became the big 4 and to make matters more interesting, the top dogs on paper all met in heat 12, which meant not dropping points in other races would be all the more crucial.
Races often don’t always go to form on paper but tonight they did. The four favorites won 16 of the 20 heats between them. The only rider outside of their ‘inner circle’ to defeat one of them was returnee Rheten Todd who beat Nicol in round 4.
Max Ruml won all five of his heats including the big heat 12, sponsored by SpeedwayBikes.com, from brother Dillon, this being the only points dropped from the younger sibling. Janniro, third in heat 12, won all of his other heats.
Behind the lead pack was a scramble for points and places for the other four semi final positions. Blake Borello, always a contender at KCRP, netted ten points and a win including an aggressive race with mentor Chris Kerr in heat 16, relegating the former Wolves rider to last during the battle where Borello made a fantastic pass on Kerr. Last year’s third place finisher Louie Mersaroli was Mr. Consistent with second place in all five of his heats, also scoring ten. Kerr with next with 9 whilst rising star Slater Lightcap, though not in his best form, scored 7 points for the last spot. Behind the qualifiers was a tight and close pack of riders with Rheten Todd and the much-improved Wilbur Hancock on six & Alex Martin, Eddie Castro, and Michael Wells on five.
Semi 1 saw Nicol grab the lead from the gate and run whilst Max Ruml had to make a pass on Chris Kerr to make the final. The first defeat of the night for the 2021 National Champ meant he had slipped from first to third gate choice in the final and that may have been crucial given the closeness in competition. Louie Mersaroli rounded out the field with a fourth-place finish.
Semi 2 was an epic with Dillon Ruml once more making a statement that his recent win in the Connor Penhall Cup was no one off, making an audacious outside pass on Janniro for the win. Borello kept close in third but not quite near enough to make a move for a place for a final spot whilst Lightcap slowed early on.
The Main event was next and the packed-out standing room only crowd saw Dillon Ruml grab the lead from gate 4 and never look back going into turn on with Janniro down low and Max a bit higher and Nicol even higher to get traction and try to get around them. Max got a drive out of turn two and pulled from Janniro as Nicol also got by. Dillon pulled away with Max trying to catch him with Nicol hot on his rear wheel. Janniro just could not get a drive to catch the riders in front of him. At the checkers it was Dillon followed by Max then Broc and Billy.
A small Support program ran races between the rounds. Local favorite Isaiah Canales had a clean sweep in Division Two and another KCRP home rider Dylan McNulty gave a dominant display in Division 3. Levi Leutz took both Junior Heats with returnee Nick Hohlbein, who is representing the USA at the 2023 SGP3 250cc World Championship in Sweden next month returning to form to win the Main.
Given the intense summer weather in Bakersfield, the track is now out of season until mid-September, but the hugely popular venue will run monthly events all the way to June 2024 including another appearance for Team USA in the early part of next year and the AMA FIM North America Final on December 2nd.
Digger Helm AMA Speedway National Championship Round 1 - Kern County Raceway 24 June 2023
Final
1. 3-Dillon Ruml
2. 5-Max Ruml
3. 98-Broc Nicol
4. 1-Billy Janniro
Semi 1
1. 98-Broc Nicol
2. 5-Max Ruml
3. 27k Chris Kerr
4. 1-Billy Janniro
Semi 2
1. 3-Dillon Ruml
2. 1-Billy Janniro
3. 27-Blake Borello
4. 28-Slater Lightcap
Point Standings after 1 round of 3 for the Championship.
1st Dillon Ruml 20
2nd Max Ruml 19
3rd Broc Nicol 15
4th Billy Janniro 15
5th Blake Borello 11
6th Chris Kerr 10
7th Louie Mersaroli 10
8th Slater Lightcap 7
9h Rheten Todd 6
10th Wilbur Hancock 6
11th Alex Martin 5
12th Eddie Castro 5
13th Michael Wells 5
14th Brad Sauer 2
15th Gregory Moore 1
16th Justin Almon 1
17th Rees Todd 0
18th Austin Novratil 0
Division 2 Main
106 Isaiah Canales
240 Dan Waller
137 Justin Almon (not scored)
173 Rees Todd (not scored, retired)
Division 3 Main
115 Dylan McNulty
113 Tony Rutledge
146 Antonio Coffman
123 Catherine Moore
250cc Youth Main
29 Nick Hohlbein
13 Jameson Hutchinson
226 Levi Leutz engine failure
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