Cycleland Speedway
Chico, California

Chico Opening Night
Cycleland Speedway
May 8, 1999

Northern California's second event of the 1999 season was a cold windy affair on the banked quarter mile oval at Chico. Chico's first ever Speedway meeting on this track was one of the last events of last season. Chico is about 80 miles north of Sacramento, basically in the middle of nowhere, but a sizeable crowd showed up from somewhere and enjoyed some good fast racing. Many of us were expecting to see more riders, particularly after the mega turnout at Auburn the night before. The track developed a few grooves, and the uncovered Armco barrier on the corners didn't look too inviting, nevertheless no complaints about the quality of racing.

Division 1 Scratch Main

1. Bobby Hedden
2. Pat Linn
3. Bart Bast
4. Matt Becker

Division 1 Scratch Consolation

1. Dave Faria
2. Robert Curry
3. Ian Ferris
4. Rick Shafer
5. Matt King

Division 1 Handicap Main

1. Bobby Hedden
2. Robert Curry
3. Dave Faria
4. Matt Becker
Ian Ferris and Bart Bast qualified but fell

Division 1 Handicap Consolation

1. Matt King
2. Rick Shafer
3. Pat Linn

Division 2 Main

1. Richard Powell
2. Donny Powell
The Division 2 main was a family affair. Father Richard and Son Donny. In an earlier qualifying heat Gary Moranville fell and despite trying to take avoiding action, Shawn Eldridge hit first the fallen rider, then the Armco. Neither raced again and left early.

Division 3 Main

1. Don Webster
2. Mike Douglas
3. Kevin Fereira
This race was stopped after a couple of riders fell. Unlucky for (Tom Odekirk?) Mike Odekirk, who had moved from 4th up to 2nd, but the results were backed up a lap.

Juniors

1. Jon Curry
2. Bryan Yarrow
3. Ray Linn

Chico is running events in between Cal Expo's events. I will get details to Kim Gregory to update the SpeedwayBikes.Com web page.

Next Friday, as usual is Auburn and Saturday is Cal Expo.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com