|
RUML IS PERFECT AGAIN @ INDUSTRY SPEEDWAY - By Tim Kennedy
Industry, CA., Jul.. 18 – Dillon Ruml rode his AMA Speedway first division 500cc No. 3 Jawa to his third victory of the season Wednesday in week seven main event action on the eighth mile dirt track in the Grand Arena. Ruml scored a perfect nine points by winning all three of his heat races. He also led every lap in his semi-final and main event rides on his 170 pound, brake-less mount. More than 700 spectators watched 32 races in just over two hours.
Ruml, 19, picked the pole starting position and had June 27 winner Aaron Fox (No. 46) alongside in lane two. June 6 winner Jimmy Fishback III (No. 25) started from the third lane. Prolific feature winner Charlie Venegas (No. 43) returned to Industry competition after an absence of several weeks and started next to the crash-wall.
D-1 MAIN: On the break from the starting gate, Fox was the first to reach the first corner, but Ruml was at his left elbow trying to pass. Ruml wedged between Fox and the infield marker and emerged from the second turn with a narrow lead with Fox to his right at his back wheel. Fishback and Venegas followed in third and fourth. The position order never changed. Ruml edged Fox by one length. Fishback was four lengths behind Fox. Venegas trailed Fishback by three lengths.
D-1 scratch semi-final results: first semi--Ruml, Fishback, Tim Gomez, and Michael Wells on a Jawa Second semi: Fox, Venegas, Jason Ramirez and Bobby Schwartz. Gomez led all the way from pole position in the D-1 scratch consolation race. Schwartz was a close second, with Ramirez and 6' 3” Wells, 17, fourth.
SIDECARS: Three of the 1,000cc sidecar teams competed this week. Dillon Osborne/Ashley Gibbons won two of three heat races. Their second victory followed an outstanding inside pass in the second turn of prior heat winners Chris Jones/Tom Summers. In the feature, the Osborne/Gibbons No. 64 rig started on the pole and led all four laps. The Jones/Summers No. 1 trailed by a length. The father/son Kale No. 357 Suzuki team of driver/father Ace and swing-man/son Kevin trailed by 30-yards after slowing near the finish.
SUPPORT DIVISIONS:
Rudy Laurer, 61, rode his Jawa 897 to his third consecutive and fourth of the season 500cc D-2 victory after starting from the second gate. Runner-up was Bruce Marteney, who placed second in a four rider runoff race that advanced the first two finishers to the main. Third place went to Mike Miller, who was down a lap after falling and remounting. Harold Hartke, the runoff winner, was a non-finisher with a mechanical problem.
The 500cc D-3 for newer riders had a six rider field in the two heats and feature. Surprise winner of both heats and the main event was a first time visitor to Industry. Dakota VanderBroeder, a 17-year old high school senior from Auburn, made her firs t visit to Industry after watching races from the indoor track via the internet. She drove south Wednesday with her grand-uncle as her only crew member.
She dominated veteran D-3 riders and won both heats by a straightaway after starting from the starting gate all night as a newcomer in handicapped 5-lap races. She started her 500cc No. 160 Jawa from the zero yard line again in the main. One other rider started at the gate, one from the ten, and three from the 20-yard line stripe.
VanderBroeder again rode flawlessly all four laps in her stunning half a straightaway triumph that was popular with spectators. She said she loves Industry and wants to return. Past D-3 winner Steve Brown and Dennis Osmer finished second and third. Kevin Fiore and David Newsham followed in P. 4-5 after both fell and remounted. Gate starter Greg Willis dropped out with engine failure.
VanderBroeder started speedway racing in May, 2017 in the 250cc Junior Division at Fast Fridays Speedway in Auburn, north of Sacramento, where her cousin and uncle raced. She became a 500cc D-3 rider in Auburn this season and has raced only in Auburn until her visit to Industry. She has two victories and two second places in her eight 500cc D-3 events this season prior to Industry.
JUNIOR DIVISION:
No pee-wee riders completed this week. The youngest riders were in the 150cc and 250cc junior classes. Both class winners at Industry this week were So Cal riders fresh from winning their respective AMA National Championships Friday in Auburn. There were large fields of 150 and 250 Nor Cal and So Cal juniors.
Travis Horn, 10, came from the 30-yard line in a 5-lap handicapped start in a 150cc field of six. He won his first national title five days earlier. Horn led the final three laps after passing Jose Navarette, a 10-yard line starter and leader of the first two laps. Levi Leutz, 30-yard line starter Owen Williams, Gordon Teufel III, and Justin Almon (engine failure) placed third through sixth.
Sebastian Palmese, 14, won his third consecutive 250cc AMA National crown in Auburn as experts expected. He led all four laps at Industry on his GM 250 this week after all five starters started the four lapper at the gate. Slater Lightcap, Jake Isaac, Luke Whitcomb and Andrew Russell followed.
PIT NOTES:
> The next two Wednesdays at Industry are fan favorite nights. July 25 will be the annual Bruce Flanders Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Contest. Trophies are awarded to the top three Hawaiian shirt wearers based on votes from spectators. Speedway bikes and sidecars will be racing that night. ... August 1 will be the annual Legends and Heroes of Speedway Night with past speedway greats signing autographs at tables in the courtyard of the Grand Arena.
> A season-low of only ten 500cc D-1 riders raced this week. All scored heat race points. D-2 veterans Chet Kohler and Eloy Medellin moved up to D-1 for the night and scored 2 and 1-point respectively, but neither of them advanced to a semi-final.
> D-1 rider count was reduced this week because Austin Novratil and Dave Hancock were having their motors rebuilt. Russell Green took the night off to allow his injured hand to heal properly. It was lacerated last week in a race while he was filling in as a sidecar swing-man for driver Bryan Motis. D-1 entered rider Mike Bloom (No. 22) was missing. Tyler Burmeister is still recovering from an injury suffered at Costa Mesa Speedway earlier this season.
> So Cal Section of SAE International had numerous reps visiting in the pits and grandstand this week. College engineering students from various colleges also attended along with a car they had built for an SAE judging competition.
> The Industry Speedway printed program contained race lineups and color photos as usual. It had an action photo of Bobby “Boogaloo” Schwartz, wearing his distinctive turquoise blue leathers, on the cover aboard his No. 11.
> A report this week from Scotland had Max Ruml, the 2017 Industry track champion, being released by the Edinburgh Monarchs despite scoring double digit points recently. He is trying to be picked up by another British Racing League team. If that does not happen soon Max might return to California speedway racing. Round four of the five round AMA 2018 National Championship at Industry on August 11 and the 43rd California State Speedway Championship on August 25 at Industry are important and lucrative races he could win at home.
|
