Speedway Championship of Argentinaz

THE 44th INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CHAMPIONSHIP OF ARGENTINA - Round Two
Sunday December 27, 1998
From: Chris Hesmer (Canadian Chris Hesmer competes and reports the Championship)

* * Round 1 - Round 2 - Round 3 - Round 4 * *

Ola, there from Argentina. First off, I would like to send my deepest thanks for all of you who took the time to respond to my last report by dropping me an e-mail to read for Christmas (and you all know who you are). I received so many e-mails that it would have been a full time job responding to them, not that I have a full time job right now, but that's why I'm riding speedway! I received e-mails from my home country of Canada, but also numerous from sunny California, Oregon, and Arizona in the United States, Scotland, England, and even Italy. Once again, my thanks go out to those who sent them and I look forward to seeing lots more.

On with the races. From now on, until the rest of the season the races are held on Sunday nights, as the Midget Sprint cars are running on the Saturday night. This is a sight to see. In the last two weeks I have seen over ten good accidents where cars have flipped and been totaled in the nature of open wheel racing. Sunday was cooler than the rest of the week which saw temperatures rise to 39 degrees Celsius on Christmas day in Bahia Blanca. It always seems to be nice here come race time.

The race track seem to suffer the consistency it had the previous week with some really grippy spots entering the corners and then suddenly hard slippery. You had to be very careful when racing close to another rider when the sudden change occurred. They say it all depends on how the midgets the night before affect the track and how well the track maintenance crew can repair it. As long as there becomes no sudden big holes like a fault line, I'm happy, as it is the same for everyone. The program was full once again with 32, yes I said thirty-two throttle happy speedway riders in the 500cc class. The other classes showed strong showings of 25 in the 200cc class and over 20 in the 50cc class. Needless to say, the pits are very busy. With qualification heats and repercharges, there was three semi-finals. The top two riders in the semi-finals went to the six man Grande Finale. The promoters of the event are careful in selection of how they stack the semi-finals so that not all the top riders are in one together and thus only two make it to the Grande Finale. The following is the results of the

Grande Finale:

Pos.   # Rider         Location

1 38 Armando Castagna  Italy
2 40 Poty Sanchez      Cap. Federal
3  1 Luis Vallejos     Bahia Blanca
4 13 Gustavo Curzio    Bahia Blanca
5 39 Simone Terenzani  Italy
6  6 Fernando Donay    Carlos Casares

So far it looks like the series is very close, as the top three riders above have taken a commanding lead in the points race over the rest of the field, yet are all within 5 points of each other.

So how did the Canadian make out? Things could be better in Bagdad right now. My $700 three day FEDEX journey for my engine somehow got lengthened. Till when? Whoever knows, please send me an e-mail and tell me. With telephones stuck to my ears with the customs office on the other end, it was difficult to fit my helmet on. Oh yeah, what helmet? It seems you have to keep a tether line on your equipment here. Somehow I came home last week without my helmet. No worries, a local motorcycle shop that is sponsoring me a new Honda XR200R four stroke for my two month stay so I can get around town came through with a perfect fitting Shoei (plug: MOTO FERNANDEZ). The other good news is that someone accidentally? picked up my helmet and took it home with them because they thought it was theirs without looking in the helmet bag first. Well with that out of the way, I was lent an engine for my bike. It was assembled and ready to go, but it just needed the front exhaust pipe to fit the head trunk. With one supposedly on the way, I began to sweat. My luck, FEDEX must have got a hold of it too, and it was a no show. From orbit, I began my descend into earth. At the last minute I jumped on an unprepared upright, to feel it out for two laps of practice. While testing the clutch on a practice start, it stripped the inside nut off and the whole clutch assembly suddenly became a disassembly. Then all #%$$ broke lose, 25 jacks of all trades and masters of none, began to fix the beast in preparation of the first qualifier. How I worked with 25 people and a hammer who spoke a different language than I, in a mad craze to my first qualifier a still make it, boggles my imagination till this day. In all the rush, one piece of equipment I forgot to put on (my brain) proved to be needed, as without, I continued to take close dirt samples in the first corner. No worries, I got a repercharge to make it to the semi-finals. Somehow, I managed to wrestled that machine around four laps for a victory, like a marathon runner that is running with a pair of shoes that don't fit. In the semi- finals these shoes brought me in third position, and out of the Grande Finale. Out of the top six, I tightened the laces a little more, and pulled up a second in the Consolation Final. This gave me enough money to eat at McDonalds for the week if I wish, but I'll probably spend it elsewhere.

Ah, things will be better next week. Until then, I'll put some Castrol R under my pillow and wait for the engine fairy to come a deliver my own shoes.

I look forward to all your e-mails, and hope you had fun reading the smiles I'm keeping duct taped to my face. Remember there is still eight more weeks to come so, don't change the channel and more reports will come.

Until then, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. - these reports won't be sent FEDEX! E-mail in Argentina in care of: gsahagun@impsat1.com.ar

Until then, Felices Fiesta, that means Merry Christmas. You can send me an e-mail for a Christmas gift! Adios Amigos

Chris Hesmer - 1998 Canadian National Speedway Champion.