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| SHAUN HARMATIUK RETURNS FROM RACING IN EUROPE, WINS FIRST SPEEDWAY CYCLE MAIN AT INDUSTRY SPEEDWAY - By Tim Kennedy |
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INDUSTRY, CA., Jul. 16 - Shaun Harmatiuk made his first USA Speedway Cycle racing appearance of the season at Industry Speedway Wednesday a winning one in front of about 800 spectators. The 25-year old Garden Grove resident and veteran Division 1 expert rider returned from from four months of racing speedway cycles in Europe. He said tracks at Glascow, Scotland and many tracks in England.were much larger than the 160-yard Industry Speedway dirt oval located inside "The Grand" arena. He earned more than $700, including the 50/50 drawing $266 and $50 from the appreciative 50/50 spectator winner. Harmatiuk, the 2002 speedway cycle rookie of the year, started from gate one and led all the way on his JAWA 500-cc motorcycle.Shawn McConnell, a 49-year old movie stuntman, started and finished second, one length back after challenging Harmatiuk all four laps. Ricky Wells, 16 finished third, two lengths back after winning last Wednesday. Eddie Castro and Jimmy Fishback finished fourth and fifth. Harmatiuk became ;the fourth different winner in 11-weeks of weekly action. What made this week unusual was the absence of 2007 track champion and eight-time feature winner Charlie Venegas and June 4 D-1 main event winner Buck Blair. Both riders did not qualify for the five-rider feature field this week in a 14 rider D-1 field. Venegas finished third in his semi-final and Blair was fourth in his semi-final. Only the first two finishers advanced to the feature out of each race. Venegas and Blair met in the 4-lap last chance race that advanced only the winner to the five rider main. McConnell got the jump at the start and led all four laps. Past winners Venegas and Blair placed third and fourth and had to watch the feature from the pits. Allen Doss, of Riverside, led all four laps of the 500-cc Division 2 main for his second consecutive victory. Blake Bowen, an 18-year old second generation rider from Moreno Valley, led all four laps of the 500-cc Division 3 (rookies) race. It was his first ever racing appearance at the track. Rocco Scopellite, a 12-year old from Huntington Beach, won the 250-cc youth race for riders under age 16. Two main events for pee-wee riders went to Nicholas Varner, 8, of Corona, and Matthew Duffy, 7, from Seal Beach, in green-to-checker rides out front. It was Varner's second win in three races this year to go along with a second place. Duffy eanred his first career victory and promised to sleep with his trophy. For the first time Industry Speedway used five rider D-1 qualifying heat races instead of the customary four rider heats for all three rounds. Heats two and three still used handicapped starting positions as usual. Points were awarded on a 4-3-2-1-0 based upon finishing positions instead of 3-2-1-0. McConnell was the high point rider for the night with 10-points (4-2-4 in his heats). Four riders, including Harmatiuk, tied at 9-points.The top ten riders (instead of the top eight) advanced to the two semi-final races. Venegas and Brad Sauer, from Bakersfield, tied for tenth place at 6-points each. They ran a runoff race to determine who continued and Venegas led all four laps. There were 38 races run during the 7:00 to 9:34 pm racing program. For the first time in five years of racing at Industry Speedway, Trophy Karts driven by youngsters ages 10-14, raced on a traffic cone marked, six-turn course. It used the speedway cycle first two turns, backstretch and third turn. It then went to the infield over a rough track section, followed by a small jump,another turn back to the speedway cycle fourth turn, and the run to the finish line. The same six roofed karts that usually compete with about 20 cars at CORR off-road racing dirt tracks and at Lake Elsinore, raced in a pair of 4-lap heat races won by Sheldon Creed, 10, and Connor Hart. Both drivers led all the way in cars powered by 250-cc motorcycle engines that were capable of 80-mph. The six karts lined up two abreast for a rolling start and ran their 8-lap main event in a rapid four minutes. Trenton Briley, 11, started second and led all the way in his Kal-Gard Lubricants-sponsored No. 507. His four-stroke 450-cc Suzuki carried a weight handicap to make it competitive with the lighter 250-cc Honda and Kawasaki-powered karts. Austin Reed, 14, Blake Lenk, 11, Jack Frederiksen, Creed and Hart followed. All finishers ran eight laps. Hart dropped out at mid-race with a flat left rear tire. Spectators enjoyed the trophy kart racing and voiced their approval for having them return. The unusual, expanded competition evening also had two of NASCAR Cup driver Robby Gordon's Dakar Rrally Hummer support, or chase vehicles,present for parade laps. Three off-road racing trucks gave a demo of their jumping ability off a dirt ramp built beyond the second turn. Once the second turn crashwall was moved out of the way the trucks made several jumps from outside the building onto the backstretch. The three off-road trucks then staged a demonstration "race" around the speedway cycle oval track. |
