Costa Mesa Speedway

Costa Mesa Speedway Press Conference
September 26, 1996

From: Gary Roberts
also see: Speedway National Championship Heats and Predictions, Press Conference Photos and the race! - Speedway National Championship

I attended the US National practice session today and had the opportunity of talking to a couple of riders. Picked up some interesting snippets of news. Both Mike Faria and Greg Hancock seemed uncertain of plans for 97. Mike has a job here for the winter and depending on what happens to the Scottish Monarchs may not go back next year, in which case he would be back at Costa Mesa every Friday. Good news for us here. Greg didn't know what was going to happen to his team, or whether he and Billy Hamill would be separated, but definitely plans to return to the UK next year.

John Aden is going over to stay with Chris Manchester on October 1 for 2 weeks and is looking for an opportunity to hook up with a team. If anyone on this distribution can pass this information on to the relevant authority, John would be most grateful. One new rule this year. No laydowns are to be used in the National. My personal view is this is a right move to maintain an even playing field, not that on Costa Mesa's 180 yard track any additional power is of much use. Most riders had 898 Jawas, GMs, and I saw a couple of Goddens.

Steve Lucero was one of the no-shows. There's confidence! After all the practice he has had at winning races at Costa Mesa this season, I guess it doesn't matter.

I stopped asking riders who was going to win on Saturday after the third answer of me. My personal prediction, which is almost always wrong is Lucero, Schwartz, Hancock in that order.