Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo - Sacramento, CA

Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo - Sacramento, CA
Saturday July 22, 2000

Bart Bast wins the Main Event!

Click HERE to see the video of the Main Event!!!!

From Gary Roberts

Sideways Saturdays put on another good show. The track was in good shape apart from a dip in the middle of turns 1 and 2, which caught a few riders off guard, straightening them up, and sending them straight to the wall. The worst casualty was Chad Felicio, who bailed before hitting the wall, but collected an ankle injury, that he hoped was a sprain, but it was feared he might have broken it. His bike was a mess too.

The program is not supported as well as Fast Fridays, by riders. The division one field looked very thin, even with Southern California Civil War leftovers, Dukie Ermolenko and Charlie Venegas, plus first time visitor, Mark Adams.

Missing from the event, but intending to ride was Bob Hicks, who was a victim of a motocross accident earlier in the day.

The first division was topped up with promising second division rider, Eric Carrillo. Eric moved up from the Junior program a month or so ago and has been very successful in the second division. Tonight he competed in both first and second division events and won the main in both. As far as I recall, this is the first time this has ever been done.

Scratch Main
1. Bart Bast
2. Dukie Ermolenko
3. Charlie Venegas
4. Robert Curry

Bart got yet another Cal Expo scratch win. Early challenger Venegas lost ground only to lose his second place to Dukie.

Scratch Consi
1. Bobby Hedden

Ryan Fisher was in third place behind Billy Janniro and on the last bend he ran into the back of him, taking both of them down. Trailing a long way back was Scott Olney.

Handicap Main
1. Eric Carrillo
2. Charlie Venegas
3. Bart Bast
4. Billy Janniro
5. Ryan Fisher
6. Mark Adams

Eric rode well. But to my mind his greatest achievement of the evening was in his semifinal. Starting from the zero yard line he made a good start and established a good lead. But mid way through the race, Steve Martynse went down and Bobby Hedden laid it down to miss him. The race was restarted with a staggered start. So Eric's 50 yard lead was reduced to a bike length and behind him were Billy Janniro, Bart Bast and Bobby Hedden. Even the announcer commented that Eric Carrillo looked all set to win it till that happened. But Eric made a great start in the rerun and held them at bay for three laps. It makes me wonder how long it will be before he will compete with these top names on equal terms. By tonight's performance, not long.

Handicap Consi
1. Dukie Ermolenko
2. Bobby Hedden
3. Robert Curry
4. Ian Essary
5. Scott Olney
6. Steve Martynse

Division 2 Main
1. Eric Carrillo
2. Chris Kerr
3. Ivan Sevart
4. Robert Mellor
5. Greg Hooten Snr.
6. Harlan Bast Snr.

This will most likely be Eric Carrillo's last Second Division ride at Cal Expo. I would expect him to quickly move to Divisioni one at Auburn too.

Division 2 Consi
1. Mark Thomas
2. Dave Booth
3. Vince Bertolucci
4. Terry McCurdy
5. Devon DeFreece
6. Derek Silva

Division 3 Main
1. Eric Ryan
2. Geno Bellino
3. Bruce Baker
4. Gary Hubbert
5. Dave Baker
6. Luke Rogers

Division 3 Consi
1. Dave Quick
2. Mike Hooten
3. Les Veale
4. Brian Leventon
5. Bill Warnock
6. John Frank

Junior Division 1
1. JJ Martynse
2. Bryan Yarrow
3. Greg Hooten Jnr.
4. JT Mabry

Junior Division 2.
1. Danny Easley
2. TJ Fowler
3. Brenton Bast
4. Mark Carrillo
5. Chris Olney

Junior Division 3
1. Tom Fehrman
2. Bruce Bast
3. Chris Smith
4. Jeff Butler
5. Pete King
6. Michael Wade

In case anyone has really been asleep for the last couple of months, Charlie Venegas and Dukie Ermolenko are putting on a Speedway meeting this Thursday at the old San Bernardino downtown Speedway track. Details on speedwaybikes.com.

Gary Roberts - groberts@iee.org