INDUSTRY, Ca — Charlie "the Edge" Venegas regained his winning edge in USA Speedway Cycle racing Wednesday in week 17 of 20 at The Grand arena of the Industry Hills Expo Center. After winning eight of the first nine Industry features this season, Venegas missed the next three mains and fell from the point lead to third place. The 41-year old San Bernardino resident has also promoted Saturday speedway cycle racing this summer at his Vallejo, CA hometown.
Venegas started the Division 1 (experts) feature from lane one with all five riders at the starting gate in the scratch-start event. He made a perfect start off the line, led into the first turn and paced all four laps. He won by ten yards using an older, upright engine instead of his usual horizonal, or laydown engine in his Red Line Oil-sponsored JAWA 500-cc cycle. "I just went back to basics," the winner said. He revealed that he last used the old upright engine to win his 2000 SRA National Championship. He collected more than $600, including his share of the 50/50 raffle.The fan winner again donated all her 50/50 share to the Scott Driggers recovery fund.
Jimmy Fishback, Industry point leader Shawn McConnell, Ricky Wells and Eddie Castro followed Venegas. Wells, 17, had been the hottest rider at Industry in recent weeks with five victories, including four in a row. He and other local youth riders will be racing this Friday at Auburn, CA in the Youth National and Under 21 Championship events. In a five team sidecar feature, Joe Jones and his sidecar "swinger" Jimmy Olsen led all four laps for another feature trophy.
Casey Donholt, from Kirkwood, N.Y. made his first start at Industry and impressed everyone. He came to California to race in the August 29 Under 21 Championship in Auburn at Fast Fridays Speedway. He won the Division 2 feature, leading all four laps, after winning both of his heat races. Danny Baker, of Covina, led all the way in the 500-cc Division 3 main for novice riders. Nicky Reimer, 9 of Seal Beach, won the three-rider 250-cc youth main and led all four laps. He earlier won a "Young vs Old" race against 76-year old, D-3 rider Hugh Randolph. Jacob Wondolowski, a 6-year old first year rider from Placentia, won his first pee-wee main event trophy. He led all four laps on his 50-cc mini cycle in a three-rider field. Venegas and McConnell won the two scratch semi-mains that advanced the first two finishers in each semi to the feature. Castro won the last chance four-lap race to earn the final feature starting slot.
Brad Oxley, the 48-year old two-time US Speedway Cycle National Champion (1987-99) and long-time speedway cycle racing promoter at Costa Mesa Speedway, came out of retirement and raced for the first time since 2002. He said he is too busy to race at his own track. Oxley has watched Wednesday racing from the Industry grandstand and said he wanted to race at Industry for the first time. He borrowed a 500-cc JAWA from Robert Fiesler and used his colorful No. 5 leathers to race D-1 experts. Oxley finished second, fourth and first in his three heat races and scored five points, tying Tim Gomez for eighth position among the 16 D-1 riders. They raced a two-main runoff race to determine which rider would receive the ;final semi-main berth. Oxley led the first two laps, but Gomez passed him on the inside at turn two and led the final two laps, ending Oxley's impressive night.
Vintage racing car collector Tom Molloy brought two of his open-wheel race cars for display inside the front gate for arriving fans to view up close. During intermission before the third round of D-1 heat races, veteran USAC driver Wally Pankratz drove a 1946 Kurtis Kraft Offy Midget (No,. 20) that Eddie Haddad raced at Gilmore Stadium and other area tracks. Sprint car and midget driver Marc Hart drove the famous No. 25 Cheesman Offy sprint car that Bob Pandratz (Wally's father) built in 1952. A partial list of USAC drivers who raced the Cheesman 25 included A. J. Foyt, Eddie Sachs, Jim McWithey and Don Branson. Both Pankratz and Hart turned slow laps to warm-up the Offenhauser engines and then gunned the cars briefly on the short dirt track inside The Grand. Appreciative fans gavre them a round of applause as they drove back to the pits. Pankratz, who was attending Industry Speedway racing for the first time, said he was impressed by the modern facility. He added, "I'd like to bring a couple Ford Focus midgets here for demonstration runs soon."
Only three weeks of Wednesday night speedway cycle racing remain in season five at Industry Speedway. Promoters Jeff Immediato and Bruce Penhall have booked Harley Night for September 10 and the AMA California State Championship for September 17. The finale is expected to attract many riders who do not complete each week at Industry. The track website is www.IndustrySpeedway.com.
