INDUSTRY, California — Billy Janniro, a 28-year old speedway motorcycle racing star from Vallejo, CA with eight years of speedway cycle racing in Europe, made his second ever visit to Industry Speedway pay off Wednesday on fan appreciation night. He collected first place money and trophy on his No. 1 JAWA cycle. The past Coventry, England team professional speedway cycle team member started from the inside lane of the five-wide First Division 500cc feature and led all four laps.
Janniro slid to the dirt track on lap 3 while running third in the main event on his first trip to The Grand at Industry Hills Expo Center last week. This week Janniro beat outside position starter Charlie Venegas to the first turn and held off pressing Venegas to the third turn on lap 2 when Venegas slipped high and lost two positions. Jimmy Fishback trailed Janniro by 20-yards at the end. Third place Shawn McConnell trailed Fishback by two lengths. Eddie Castro finished fourth after Venegas dropped out from fourth place on lap 3.
After winning two of his three heat races and finishing second to Fishback in round two, Janniro earned eight points out of a possible nine. He led all the way in his semi-final and beat Venegas. Fishback took the first semi over Castro. The first two finishers in each semi advanced to the feature. McConnell won the last chance race for third and fourth place semi-final riders and earned the last main event starting berth.
Dave Alexander, of Thousand Oaks, and his sidecar “swing-man” 'Matt Davis, of Riverside, led all four laps of the three-team. 1,000cc sidecar race. Their second career victory at Industry followed their initial triumph last year. Alexander/Davis became the third different sidecar winning team after five races at Industry this season. Junior Division rider Gino Manzares, a-15 year old from Corona, stepped up in class. He took the lead five feet from the finish line on the last lap for his initial D-2 victory. Josh Abbott led the first three laps, but then he drifted high on lap 4 exiting turn four, hit the wall and continued across the finish line in second place. Joey Holt, 14, was third in a six-rider field.
Banda Alexander started ten yards from the starting gate and led the final three lapslfor his first D-3 500cc feature trophy. Rod Requejo started from the starting gate tape, led lap 1 and finished second in a five rider field. Brad Wilson, a 14-year old first-time visitor from New Zealand to the track, rode his 125cc cycle to victory in a heat race and led all four laps in a six-rider Youth Division feature. Jacob Wondolowski, a 7-year old from Placentia, won the pee wee main over 8-year old Michael Wells with about 700 spectators vocally supporting the 50cc mini cycle riders. Sprint car drivers Rip Williams, Steve Howard and Mike English, plus racing historian Harold Osmer and his daughter were among the grandstand crowd this week.
In other speedway cycle D-1 features last week, Josh Larsen won the season opener at San Bernardino Friday night over Castro, Buck Blair, Mike Faria and teen D-1 rookie Jason Ramirez. A large crowd of about 1,000 witnessed the action at the Orange Show site. On Saturday at Costa Mesa Blair won his first main at the track this year. Speedway cycle racing from 7:00 to about 10:00 pm will continue every Wednesday at Industry Speedway through September. Next week is “kids free night”.
