Industry Hills Speedway

The Grand Arena
Industry Hills Expo Center
City of Industry, California

Gary Hicks AMA Speedway National Championship Series Qualifier
June 3, 2023 - Industry Hills Speedway
Report and Photos By Howie Zechner

They came for the race and got a Demolition Derby.

A full house packed the Thunderdome for the June 3 " Gary Hicks AMA National Championship Series Qualifier" at Industry. Riders, spectators, sponsors and press, all were excited to kick off the 2023 Speedway season.

The Thunderdome looked amazing. Clean, lots of fresh paint, a new racing surface with lots of decomposed granite on it. Wall and billboards spotless the months of hard work done by promoter Kelly Inman and crew sparkled like a diamond in the night sky.

The evening started like most. The crowd eating, drinking and sharing tales of races gone by. Terry Ike Clanton announcing, a riders parade, National Anthem, followed by several speaking about the late, great, Gary Hicks Sr. Wonderful, awesome, excitement was building, what could possibly go wrong.

The answer soon came as the first race was run. A turn three crash, two riders down, referee Steve Lucero called for a complete restart. No problem it happens, the tapes go up and again a two rider crash on the 1st lap in turn two. No worries, no one got hurt, again the referee lets them all restart. The third times the charm with an exciting race won by the nights eventual winner Austin Novratil.

Well of course the crowd loves it. Crashes = excitement and that’s what they came for. Fair enough but these issues take time and time is not your friend when you strive for a three hour show and have a 10pm curfew.

The nights racing was outstanding. Riders giving it all they have it was close side by side racing at its best. The only real issues was more crashes and bad start delays. In some heat races four of them. No real reason was found as the race surface was good and the track never developed any holes that can cause a rider to lose control. Guess it was the Full Moon cause everything else was in order.

The excitement continued as all in attendance were treated to some spectacular racing and mishaps. Everyone was happy except the clock watchers who saw that there was no way they would conclude by 10pm.

Still it was not an end of the world situation as the Industry Hills Expo Center management likes Speedway and this event was on a Saturday rather than the usual Wednesday night program they ran last year. Also there were only four more races so it should all be over in 15 minutes unless something else happened.

This was however not to be as there was a serious incident in event 37 involving Russell Green and Wilbur Hancock. Crashes are common in Speedway and most are not serious but this one was bad. Russell’s bike straightened out and hit the wall in turn four at full speed after making contact with the rear wheel of Hancock’s bike. Unable to free himself from the machine Russell went through the plywood crashwall and hit the metal tubing fence that lines the outside of the arena. Pinned in the mangled mess the impact was so hard that it took infield works over ten minutes to clear the wreckage so the paramedics could get to him. Once they did the medical team knew it was serious and transported him by ambulance to the hospital.

For those that don’t know Speedway bikes have no brakes and are slowed down by giving it full throttle so the rear tire slides. Powered by methanol fuel these 170 pound, 500 cc machines have 75 + horsepower. This tremendous power to weight ratio means real trouble when they go out of control.

Of course the racer wear all the best safety gear and there is a kill switch that is activated when a rider pulls on a cord that is tethered to his wrist. Very effective the engine immediately stops running when the rider is thrown off the bike and cord gets pulled.

Enough on the machine’s and safety gear, let’s get back to the racing. There was only one more race to run after the event 37 mishap followed by a runoff that would decide who was the nights overall winner.

The runoff was world class as two of Americas best, Austin Novratil and Broc Nicol did battle. Neither giving an inch when the checkered dropped it was Austin Novratil for the win.

No questions the fans got their money worth as the clock said 11 when the victory celebration was held for the nights winner Austin Novratil and the other seven, Broc Nicol, Slater Lightcap, Dillon Ruml, Eddie Castro, Russell Green, Tim Gomez and Brad Sauer that qualified for the AMA Speedway National Championship Series.

Would like to add that the rider that went thru the crashwall will be OK. He is really banged up and has a broken clavicle (collarbone) that takes six to eight weeks to mend. But you can be sure that once it does Russell Green will be back racing and winning. Indeed, Speedway motorcycle riders are a hearty breed of racers.

See all 285 pictures from the Gary Hicks AMA National Championship on Facebook.

See all 39 videos from the Gary Hicks AMA National Championship Series on Facebook.

Industry racing has ten races planed for the 2023 season. Six on Saturday and four on a Wednesday information about them and the track can be found at IndustryHillsSpeedway.com.

Thanks for Listening, See you Where the Wheels go round

Howie Zechner
Press Officer, Industry Speedway

RESULTS
Sidecar Main Event
357 - Ace Kale/Brent Smith
07 - Kevin Kale/Kevin Fiore
7 - Joe Jones/Tom Summers

Mini 150 Main Event
22 - Ryder Schultz
175 - Morgan Myers
15 - Hudson Jones
175x - Maddux Myers
169 - Kayd Fiore (fell)

Support Consolation (awarded)
159 – Kevin Fiore
106 – Isaiah Canales
178 – Eloy Medellin
242 – Bruce Marteney (fell, excluded)

Support Main Event (awarded)
168 - Mark Fillebrown
327 - Tyler Moszer
299 - Rayson Normandin (fell, remounted)
182 - Rudy Laurer (fell, excluded)

Runoff for First Overall
7 – Austin Novratil
98 – Broc Nicol