Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo
Sacramento, California

Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo - Sacramento, CA
Saturday July 17, 1999

Bobby Hedden wins the Main Event!

A night at Cal Expo that many would prefer to forget! Just about everything seemed to go wrong. The track had been totally torn up and rebuilt since last week but for some reason, it crumbled, developing some wide and deep holes. Most of the riders were unhappy about the track. It seemed very grippy in places, but very slick in others. Several riders, including Ryan Fisher fell victim to unexpected traction. The worst part of the evening was the number of serious accidents. In only the second handicap heat race, Ian Ferris landed uneasily and took a ride to the hospital. He was diagnosed with concussion and released later that night. He is hoping to be fit for the Civil War next Friday. Bart Bast took a heavy fall and went home before the end of the meeting. A number of justified disqualifications were made for unfair riding, which I found disappointing. Having said all this, there were however some good races.

Unofficial results:

Scratch Main

1. Bobby Hedden
2. Billy Janniro
3. Jim SIsemore
4. Charlie Venegas
Charlie Venegas got a too-fast gate, catching the tapes with his visor, so was disqualified. In the rerun, Bobby Hedden made no mistake with the gate and for the first couple of laps Billy Janniro was right on his tail. Janniro, unintimidated with track surface, spent much of his race airborne, flying over the holes. But a couple of mistakes caused him to loose ground and he settled for second.

Scratch Consi

1. Bob Hicks
2. Chad Felicio
3. Ryan Fisher
4. Harlan Bast Jnr.
Harlan Junior broke the tapes and was disqualified. In the rerun Bob Hicks got the gate followed by Ryan Fisher. After a couple of laps Chad Felicio got past Ryan, who did not give up until he found traction and bailed on the front straight. Fortunately he was straight up, unharmed.

Handicap Main

1. Billy Janniro
2. Harlan Bast Jnr.
3. Jim Sisemore
4. Chad Felicio
5. Bobby Hedden
6. Charlie Venegas
Harlan Junior rides infrequently, but certainly has not lost his touch. He lead until Jim Sisemore fell down, forcing Charlie Venegas to lay it down. Charlie's primary chain cover came off and he retired. In the re-start, from the front Harlan Junior lead until the penultimate lap, when Billy Janniro got past.

Handicap Consi

1. Ryan Fisher
2. Tommy Hedden
3. Rich Marcucci
4. Scott McNeil
Bart Bast and Robert Curry qualified for the race, but were non starters.

Division 2 Main

1. Ivan Sevart
2. Mike Browne
3. Rachalle Kerr
4. Shawn Eldridge
5. Tom Adams
6. Richard Powell
Ivan Sevart has moved from the top of the third division and is now winning second division events. It is a frequent event here to see father and son together in a race (Mike and Matt Browne, Richard and Donny Powell) but in his heat race Ivan raced against his grandfather, Harlan Bast.

Division 2 Consi

1. Greg Howell
2. Harlan Bast Snr.
3. Bill Thomas
4. Terry McCurdy
5. Matt Browne
Donny Robinson qualified for the race, but was a non starter.
This race exemplifies a quality of Speedway that is unique to Northern California. Here, the sport spans a broad age range. 43 year old Greg Howell won, ahead of 63 year old Harlan Bast Snr. In third, at 75 years old Bill Thomas is the oldest regular competitor in California and probably the world. Behind Bill was 25 year old Terry McCurdy, and finally 16 year old Matt Browne. I hope these guys are not too unhappy with me for broadcasting their ages!

Division 3 Main

1. Kevin Fereira
2. Ron Woodsford
3. Harry Bradwell
4. Vince Bertolucci
5. Greg Hooten
6. Mike Hooten

Division 3 Consi

1. Brian Leventon
2. Chris Orlandi
3. Rich Mignono
4. Clark Caravella
5. Jamie Hughes
6. Mark Thomas
For the last couple of weeks, there has been a shortage of division 2 riders and a number of third division riders have been getting division 2 rides. Some of these riders have a decision to make whether they want to stay in division 3 and continue adding to their division 3 points standing, or move up to division 2 and fall behind in the division 3 points race, but perhaps score some division 2 points. Last week's division 3 main event winner, Craig Boone, chose to ride division 2 this week, because he put his advancement in racing as a higher priority than winning the division 3 points series. In his heat race he collided with the wall on the first lap, badly lacerating a finger and took no further part in the event.

Division 1 Juniors

1. Bryan Yarrow
2. Eric Carrillo
3. Jon Curry
4. Chris Kerr

Division 2 Juniors

1. Brenton Bast
2. JT Mabry
3. Greg Hooten
4. Alex Marcucci

Division 3 Juniors

1. Danny Easley
2. Chris Olney
3. Mark Carrillo
4. Paul Johnson

The crowd was perhaps a little better this week. It looks like its slowly growing, the last couple of weeks. But with a stadium of over 4000 seats, there's still plenty of room for more.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com