Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo
Sacramento, California

Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo - Sacramento, CA
Saturday June 19, 1999

Bart Bast wins the Main Event!

A hot night of racing at Cal Expo Speedway. Although the temperature in Sacramento had been around 90 all day the track was in great shape, reasonably smooth and by the end of the evening there was a fairly wide blue groove on which to race.

Returning warriors from the Overseas Final Bart Bast and Jim Sisemore took first and second in the scratch main ahead of Billy Janniro.

I talked with Bart and Jimmy about the Overseas Final. Both look back at it as a positive experience.

Bart had not been back to Europe since 1989 when he rode for Swindon. He put his Overseas Final result down to lack of familiarity and practice on British tracks. To fix that, he felt the opportunity to race competitively for a couple of weeks before the event was the solution. But with the limited license that was issued to him for the event, this is clearly out of the question. Charlie Venegas proved a couple of years ago how quickly he was able to adapt from a 0 scorer to maximum points scorer, with just the right amount of practice. Bart put no blame for his performance on his equipment. He used Ronnie Correy's machine, which he found very competitive. While there he spent some time touring London. I asked whether he would try again next year and he said he wouldn't count it out. He said it really depended on his work load. Remember these riders all have full time jobs here, which in most cases helps to pay for their Speedway.

Jim Sisemore had never been to Europe before. He said pretty much the same as Bart in that he felt he was missing experience actually racing with other riders on British tracks. Jim had practice rides on a couple of other tracks after meetings during the week before the event and looked very fast. So much so, that he was approached by two Elite League promoters and asked if he was interested in joining their teams. Jim has a successful trucking business in California, but admitted that 10 years ago, he would have been interested. He used a rented bike and like Bart, had no complaint about it until his third race, when the machine lost power, which effectively put him out of contention for the rest of the event. It was later found that the rod had bent. His lesson learned was to have a back up machine next time. While there he hit the London and Birmingham night life and developed a taste for English beer. Would he go back next year? Yes, definitely.

Unofficial results:

Scratch Main
1. Bart Bast
2. Jim Sisemore
3. Billy Janniro
4. Chad Felicio

Scratch Consi
1. Bobby Hedden
2. Pat Linn
3. Robert Curry
4. Steve Martynse

Handicap Main
1. Bobby Hedden
2. Dave Faria
3. Robert Curry
4. Scott McNeil
5. Ian Ferris
6. Jim Sisemore

Mike Faria's older brother Dave came very close to winning the Handicap Main. He lead until the final corner when he drifted wide, letting Hedden through.

Handicap Consi
1. Billy Janniro
2. Bart Bast
3. Chad Felicio
4. Glenn Moore
5. Scott Olney
6. Pat Linn
Glenn Moore has been riding a laydown most of this season and came out this week with his upright. He held off Billy Janniro for a couple of laps and looked like a different rider.

Division 2 Main
1. Jay Heidt
2. John O'Connell
3. Dave Booth
4. Shawn Eldridge
5. Mike Browne
6. Rachalle Kerr

Division 2 Consi
1. Derek Silva
2. Harlan Bast
3. Tom Adams
4. Matt Browne
5. Greg Howell
6. George Snodgrass

Division 3 Main
1. Ivan Sevart
2. Vince Bertolucci
3. Greg Hooten Snr.
4. Mark Thomas
5. Kevin Fereira
6. Craig Boone
Ivan Sevart rode with his head, staying close to the pole until he took the lead, then using the whole track to pull away. He looks destined for Division 2.

Division 3 Consi
1. Mark Blassey
2. Ron Woodsford
3. Les Veale
4. Geno Bellino
5. Tom Castagnola
6. Luke Rogers

Division 1 Juniors
1. Bryan Yarrow
2. JJ Martynse
3. Eric Carrillo
4. Jon Curry
5. Chris Kerr
6. AJ Jones

Division 2 Juniors
1. Ray Linn
2. Tim Gomez
3. JT Mabry
4. Greg Hooten Jnr.

Division 3 Juniors
1. Mark Carrillo
2. Chris Smith
3. Chris Olney
4. Amanda English
5. TJ Fowler

Again the crowd looked small until I looked at the beer line during the intermission. This crowd is actually a lot bigger than it looks. The thing that makes it look small is the number of empty seats. This is a much higher seating capacity at this track than if first appears. The challenge to fill those empty seats continues.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com