|
Costa Mesa Speedway Orange County Fairgrounds Costa Mesa, CA
1998 SRA National Championship
October 3, 1998 Costa Mesa Speedway
From Ryan Evans
(Also see reports from Linda Love, and Gary Roberts for more details!)
Bart Bast walked away victorious in the U.S. National Championship
Saturday night at Costa Mesa. It was Bast's first national championship, but the tenth
won by a member of the Bast family as cousins Mike (1971, 73, 75-79) and
Steve (1969, 74) have also won titles. Bast won in spectacular style by leading the main event wire-to-wire and
holding off Brad Oxley all four laps and beating him by less than a bike
length at the line. Mike Faria finished third, Bobby Hedden fourth, and Josh Larsen fifth.
The championship was competed under a new format, with 20 riders as opposed
to 16, and four rounds of qualifying heats, and five heats in each round.
The top 10 qualifiers were then placed in two five-rider semi-finals with
the top two going into the Final and third and fourth transferring to the Last
Chance.
The winner of the Last Chance transferred into the Final.
The qualifying heats provided some pretty exciting racing with quite a bit
of passing. The lowlight being in event 17 when Chris Manchester, who up to
that point was undefeated, was taken down by Tommy Hedden in turn four while
running second behind Bast. Manchester was taken to Hoag Hospital in Costa
Mesa with possible knee damage.
More excitement was created in race six when Bast, after making a great move
to pass Larsen, got a little anxious and took out Venegas in turn 3.
Clearly Bast's fault, but the way he passed Larsen and reeled in Venegas proved
that he was definitely the fastest guy on the track and it was just a matter
of making the start. Top qualifier for the semis was Larsen on 11 points
(out of 12), with Gary Hicks and Bobby Hedden on 10, Faria and Bast had 9.
An interesting scenario was created with Manchester not being able to
compete in the semis. He had earned enough points to qualify for the semis, but
was obviously unable to compete. I believed that his semi would then become
a four-rider race since his position was an earned position and on an ordinary
night a reserve DOES NOT take an earned position. This was not the case
though, as Oxley then became the 10th and last qualifier for the semis.
Qualifyling Scores and Race Order:
1-Mike Faria 2 3 1 3 9
3-Gary Hicks 2 3 3 2 10
3N-Robin Nicolaides 0 0 0 0 0
4-Josh Larsen 3 3 2 3 11
4E-Warren Diem (did not show)
5-Brad Oxley 2 1 2 1 6
6-Shawn McConnell 0 1 2 1 5
7-John Aden 0 0 T N 0
8-Gary Ackroyd 1 1 T F 2
10-Chris Manchester 3 3 3 N 9
11-Bobby Schwartz 2 2 1 3 8
14-Eddie Castro 1 0 1 2 5
15-Charles Ermolenko 1 3 0 1 5
40N-Tommy Hedden 0 0 2 X 2
43-Charlie Venegas 3 2 3 E 8
63N-Bobby Hedden 3 2 2 3 10
72-Randy DiFrancesco E 2 0 1 3
81N-Jim Sisemore 2 2 1 2 7
87N-Bart Bast 3 X 3 3 9
166-Andy Northrup 1 1 3 2 7
38-David Taylor 1 0 0 0 1
(Replaced Warren Diem in the program)
225-Kon Baur (R) 1 1 0 2
165-Charlie Cooley (R) 0 1 1 2
1: Bast, Faria, Ermolenko, Aden (fell, remounted)
2: Venegas, Sisemore, Castro, McConnell (fell, remounted)
3: Larsen, Schwartz, Ackroyd, T.Hedden
4: Manchester, Oxley, Taylor, Nicolaides (fell, remounted)
5: B.Hedden, Hicks, Northrup, DiFrancesco (lost a chain)
6: (restarted) Larsen, Venegas, Baur, Taylor, Bast (excluded)
7: (restarted) Faria, Sisemore, Northrup, T.Hedden (fell, remounted)
8: Ermolenko, B.Hedden, Oxley, Castro
9: Manchester, DiFrancesco, Ackroyd, Aden (fell, remounted)
10: Hicks, Schwartz, McConnell, Nicolaides (fell, remounted)
11: Manchester, Larsen, Sisemore, Ermolenko
12: Bast, Oxley, Schwartz, DiFrancesco
13: Venegas, B.Hedden, Faria, Nicolaides
14: Hicks, T.Hedden, Castro, Cooley, Aden (tapes exclusion)
15: Northrup, McConnell, Baur, Taylor, Ackroyd (tapes exclusion)
16: Larsen, Castro, DiFrancesco, Nicolaides
17: (restarted) Bast, McConnell, Cooley, Baur, (Manchester, ns), T.Hedden (excluded)
18: Faria, Hicks, Oxley, Ackroyd (fell)
19: Schwartz, Northrup, Ermolenko, Venegas (engine failure--box??)
20: B.Hedden, Sisemore, Cooley, Taylor
21-Semi #1: B.Hedden, Oxley, Venegas (ef), Schwartz (fell, remounted) Hicks (fell)
The first corner was wild with lots of bumping and Hicks and Schwartz going
down. Suprisingly, there was no red flag. Hedden and Oxley became the
benefactors as they qualified for the final and Venegas suffering his second
consecutive engine failure but going far enough to get third. The referee
awarded fourth to Schwartz even though Hicks came over to protest just prior
to the Last Chance starting.
22-Semi #2: Larsen, Bast, Northrup, Faria, Sisemore
Larsen got a beautiful start off the pole with Bast in tow. Contact between
Faria and Sisemore left Sisemore on the ground and Faria with too much ground
to gain so off to the Last Chance for he and Northrup.
23-Last Chance: Faria, Schwartz, Northrup, Venegas
Faria made an absolutely spectacular first lap as he blew around Schwartz
in turn 4 after riding the outside all the way. He then pulled away for an
easy victory and a lot of momentum going into the final. It looked as though
Venegas was again down on horsepower as he was left behind by Faria and
Schwartz and then passen by Northrup.
24-Championship Final: BAST, Oxley, Faria, Hedden, Larsen
Tension was high and then made even higher as Hedden (from my vantage point)
got into the tapes, but was not excluded when the referee said that the green
staging light had been turned off. (It didn't look off to me) After
restaging, Bast (gate 3) came off the line first and was followed by Oxley
(gate 4) and Hedden (gate 2). Larsen missed the start from the pole and then
drifted very wide into turn two and seemed to block Faria who also missed
the start. The first two laps were VERY tight as Bast was trying his best to
hold off Oxley but was insisting on riding a wide line. Faria made his way by
Hedden but was never close enough to Oxley and Bast. Oxley seemed to gain
ground on Bast with each lap and seemed in position as they entered turn 3
the final time. But it was Bast hanging on in what had to be the closest finish
in a National-deciding race that I have ever witnessed. Side-by-side for 4
laps on the tiny oval was absolutely breathtaking!! Bast brings the
championship back to American speedway's most storied family after a long
19 years. Congratulations Bart!!!!
This is the first time that a Northern California-based rider has lifted the
championship. (Faria was based in SoCal last year even though he competed
up north in 1998)
Comments:
The racing was as spectacular as ever, but I still wonder about the format.
Under the system, Bast was the best rider. As I said two weeks ago, I felt
that he was the fastest rider at the end of the season. I really wonder about
the use of the semis, though. If there must be a one-race final, then I
think that the system used in the AMA National was more fair. (top 4 seeded
into final, 5-8 in last chance). (Bast would still have had a chance under
that system). Also, with 10 riders in the semis, as I said a couple of weeks
ago, a rider could not win a race all night, and still be in position to win
the championship. (As was the case with Brad Oxley) If Oxley had won,
would that have really been considered fair? Rehashing the dual-championship
problem.
What an irony. A SoCal rider (Greg Hancock) wins the championship up north
and a NorCal rider wins the championship here. Will Auburn (AMA) allow Bart
to wear #1? The AMA is very strict about things like this, after all they
didn't even want Greg riding in the Costa Mesa non-AMA National. We know
Bart will be #1 here, but what about Greg? Once again, absolutely NO mention
of Greg winning the AMA National was made at Costa Mesa. MY OPINION----BOTH
wear #1!! If the AMA doesn't like Bart wearing #1, well tough s--t!! He's
too popular up north for those tracks not to recognize him as being a
national champion. Something to think about over these long winter months. I
would love to hear other opinions, comments, etc. about this situation and the
Nationals in general.
By the way, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Gary Roberts and it
was very nice just to finally speak to him after all our chatter about
speedway via e-mail. I'm sure that he will have results/opinions about these
issues.
I'll be waiting Gary!!
The Nationals are always great, but they are also bittersweet because it means
the end of speedway here until March. Suggestion--Have a race involving
international riders while they are flying to Australia. My guess would be
that it may be less expensive since they are going that way anyway. Or do
they fly the other way from Europe?? Anyway, that's all for now!!
Ryan Evans
|