Industry, CA., Jul. 17 – Charlie “the Edge” Venegas maintained his edge over other Division One 500cc speedway cycle rivals Wednesday at Industry Speedway in front of an estimated 1,300 speedway cycle fans. He again used the Italian GM (Giuseppe Marzotto) cycle on which he rode to his first Industry 2013 feature victory a week ago. That night he earned $800 that his backers matched for a lucrative $1,600 payday. Venegas had borrowed the GM from injured Kenny Ingalls and won with it at Fast Fridays Motorcycle Speedway in Auburn. He has since bought the GM cycle and uses his Jawa (manufactured by Jawa Motors in the Czech Republic) as his backup.

No rider scored as perfect nine points by winning all three heat races. Venegas, Aaron Fox, and Austin Novratil tied with eight points by winning two heats and placing second once. Venegas and Buck Blair won the pair of semi-finals. Fox and Novratil finished second in the semis to complete the four rider feature lineup. Shawn McConnell won the consolation race over Jason Ramirez.

With first lane choice Venegas opted for lane one. Blair picked lane two. Novratil selected the outside lane, leaving the third lane for Fox. When the starting tapes lifted at 9:53 pm Venegas shot into the lead quickly and maintained it all four laps despite pressure. Fox took second from Novratil on lap 3 and finished two lengths in back of Venegas. Novratil and Blair followed.

Many usual D-1 riders at Industry were absent this week for various reasons. Three (Hamill, Manzares and Max Ruml) are competing in Europe. Burmeister totaled his cycle at the OC Fair Derby in Costa Mesa Saturday. Larsen and Talkington were en-route to Auburn early for the annual North vs. South Civil War race Friday. Fishback is concentrating on his off-road truck for upcoming races. The D-1 field had 11 riders. A D-2 rider was added to the third round of heats to replace unavailable D-1 riders. .

In round two, Tim Gomez crashed through the backstretch plywood crash-wall and shortened the front of his cycle without serious injury to himself. Michael Raines was not as fortunate after he won his second heat. He fell hard in turn one on the final lap of his third heat. He landed hard on his left shoulder and was unable to ride in his semi-final because he was icing his left shoulder. Raines remained at the track, but he had his left arm in a sling and the diagnosis was a probable broken collarbone.

Carl Gazafy, from Lakewood, won his first 500cc D-2 Industry main event of the season on his No. 176 JRM. Brad Moreau, Kevin Fife and Chris Jones followed. The six rider 500cc D-3 feature was memorable. Wade “the Rev” Whitcomb, from Anaheim, won his first-ever main event. The father of frequent pee-wee feature winner “Lightning” Luke Whitcomb, 7, started as one of four riders at the starting gate, with a rider 10-yards back and another 20-yards back. The Baptist minister in Garden Grove led all five laps. During infield trophy presentation his wife and four admiring sons glowed with pride and took photos. Whitcomb said he just bought his winning ride from Dave (No. 210) Troutt and it was much better than his other No. 227 Jawa.

The second place rider was Pam “Pinky” Bennett, clad in white and pink leathers. The mother of six and grandmother of five grandsons had two of her daughters and several grandsons present in the grandstand to watch her first race this year. The Lake Elsinore resident raced once at Industry last August and finished third on legends night. She was a speedway cycle racer from 1975-82 and on her No. 153 rose to Division 2 (intermediate level). Motherhood made racing take a backseat until now. Her riding Wednesday showed she still possesses racing skill and is competitive. Bennett brought her No. 351 Weslake cycle but it was smoking and had a mechanical problem. D-2 winner Carl Gazafy, 60, stepped up and generously loaned her his only cycle so she could race. In her heat race she passed leader Rick Howard on the outside entering the first turn on lap 3 and won easily in a six-rider field. In the D-3 feature Bennett was third on lap 1, took second on lap 2 and chased Whitcomb all five laps. She withstood a last lap passing attempt on the final lap by recent D-3 feature winner Steve “Beachball” Brown, who settled for third.

Broc Nicol, 15, led every lap in his Junior Division 250cc heat and main event. Dalton Leedy placed second in a four-rider field. The mini-150cc Junior Division had eight riders divided into two groups for heats and mains. Tristan Britt led every lap in the second division 150cc for his initial feature win. Jake Isaac was second. The first division 150cc main again went to Sebastian “Big Daddy” Palmese over Courtney Crone. July 10 feature winner Maverick Molloy raced all night on Crone's backup cycle and finished third.

The 50cc pee-wee division had eight youngsters, age 5 up, race five laps. Luke Whitcomb was the only rider starting from the “boonies”, 50-yards from the gate. Carson Calvo led two laps and fell. The Andrew Russell led the final three laps for his first main event triumph. Whitcomb was charging through the field as usual and was third on lap 2 when he fell lightly in turn four. He remounted and worked his way back to fourth place at the checkers.

NOTES: Prior to the second track preparation two Ford Focus powered full midgets, owned by Wally Pankratz, ran warmup laps on the indoor one-eighth mile smooth dirt track in the Grand Arena. Wally drove his blue No. 37, in which he won the Ventura FF main four nights earlier. Speedway cycle rider Courtney Crone, 12, drove the orange No. 32 in which she finished fourth in the five-car Ventura feature. They ran ten hot laps and Wally stayed half a lap ahead of his pupil, but he did not lap her. Wally ran higher and powered through the turns, while Courtney ran the inside at a more conservative pace and stayed half a lap behind Wally.

The annual Bruce Flanders Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Night had many potential winners. Judges narrowed the field to three finalists. During another track re-grooming by a tractor, fans' applause determined the winners of P. 1-2-3 plaques. A woman with a blue shirt received third. Two men in orange Hawaiian shirts went to re-voting before one of them prevailed. Chris Jones won the rider division handily because he donned a full-body Hawaiian motif light-blue cotton pajama-type outfit over his racing leathers.

The 50/50 drawing this week collected $953. Riders received half of that total and the lucky fan winning ticket holder also received $476.50. Motorcycle racing hall of fame rider Sammy “the Flying Flea” Tanner held the winning ticket. He raced the AMA No. 7 cycle on flat tracks and also raced speedway cycles. He is now the distributor in Southern California for Arai Helmets. Sammy donated $400 back to the D-1 final race. The catch was all four feature riders would have to return to the infield after the feature and draw the golf balls numbered 1-2-3-4. Low number would win all $400. Riders pull the balls from a bucket to determine their lane for each heat race. Venegas pulled ball 4 first. Then Novratil drew 3. Next Blair pulled the 2 ball. Fox elected to let the others draw and he would take whatever remained. That was the winning 1 ball. He went home $400 richer thanks to the generosity of Tanner. It proves the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

The Monster Energy Speedway World Team Cup Round 2 was held Monday, July 15 at Kings Lynn, England. Team USA advanced to the next round. That “Race Off” on July 18 in Prague, Czech Republic is a must win for Team USA for it to transfer on to the final round on July 20, also in the Czech Republic.

The tenth of 34 races at Industry Wednesday was a special, unique heat race for the winner takes all $100 from Jimmy Fishback. Four D-1 riders—Ramirez, Gomez, Raines and Fox—occupied the inside to outside lanes in that order. The twist was that they raced four laps in the opposite direction, or clockwise the way sidecar teams race. It was tricky riding on two wheels. Raines led all four laps with Fox jostling him elbow to elbow at times. On the final lap Fox fell in the second turn (or usual third turn for the two-wheelers). The finish was Raines, Gomez, and Ramirez with Fox a non-finisher.