Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo - Sacramento, CA

Sideways Saturdays Speedway
Cal Expo - Sacramento, CA
Saturday July 29, 2000

Bobby Hedden wins the Scratch Main, and Bob Hicks takes the Handicap!

Sideways Saturdays' penultimate week of the season at Cal Expo went quite smoothly. Since last week the track had been completely ploughed over, which got rid of the large month old hole in the middle of turn 1. Generally the track was very good throughout the evening, but lost its dirt and dried out towards the end, making overtaking an option only for the very brave. For some reason, there was a high number of accidents and restarts during the evening, with nobody seriously hurt. The crowd continued to grow, and everyone agreed that the racing went well.

Scratch Main
1. Bobby Hedden 
2. Ryan Fisher
3. Bart Bast
4. Billy Janniro

Showing the same form that earned him the double last night at Auburn, Bobby Hedden got the gate and stayed there. Billy Janniro’s engine gave out stopping him from completing a single lap. The race was really between Ryan Fisher and Bart Bast. Ryan got the edge on Bart coming out of the gate and kept the lead throughout the race, but was unable to pull away from him.

Scratch Consi
1. Robert Curry
2. Eric Carrillo
3. Bob Hicks
4. Steve Martynse

Eric Carrillo is solidly in Division one now. He qualified from his scratch heat, fell in the semifinal, putting him in the Scratch Consi. He gated well, but not as well as Robert Curry. With a bit more practice riding against division one competition I am sure Eric is just a few weeks from being a top division one rider.

Handicap Main
1. Bob Hicks
2. Bart Bast
3. Billy Janniro
4. Bobby Hedden
5. Scott Olney
6. Scott McNeil

Handicap Consi
1. Eric Carrillo
2. Robert Curry
3. Steve Martynse

Eric Carrillo won his handicap heat, had machine failure in the semifinal and easily won the consi. I suspect he will soon get further handicapped. Ryan Fisher, Ian Ferris and Brad Sauer also qualified and competed in this event. For some reason, other riders were allowed into it and some fell down, taking out Ryan Fisher. The race was not stopped, so other places meant little.

Division 2 Main
1. Chris Kerr 
2. Robert Mellor
3. Matt Browne
4. Vince Bertolucci
5. Ron Woodsford
6. Craig Boone

Chris Kerr made easy work of his Division 2 heat. The main was a bit tougher. Robert Mellor took the lead from the zero yard line at the gate. Kerr worked his way quickly, around the outside, from his 10 yard handicap up to second place. It took him another three laps before he was able to get passed Mellor. I will be very surprised if Chris doesn’t soon get a crack at Division one.

Division 2 Consi
1. Harlan Bast Snr.
2. Derek Silva
3. Mike Browne
4. Greg Hooten  Snr.
5. Richard Powell
6. Rachalle Kerr

Rachalle Kerr and Greg Hooten got into a battle which went wide coming out of turn 4. Rachalle was on the outside and hit the wall hard. She eventually got up but did not ride in the rerun. In the re-run first Powell went down, then leader Hooten fell in the middle of the front straight, leaving the win to veteran Harlan Bast Snr.

Division 3 Main
1. Bruce Baker
2. Billy Hiles
3. Mike Hooten
4. David Quick
5. Kelly McBane

Division 3 Consi
1. David Lee
2. Gary Hubbert
3. Les Veale

Junior Division 1
1. JJ Martynse
2. Greg Hooten  Jnr.
3. JT Mabry
4. Justin Boyle

Bryan Yarrow sprained his ankle last night at Auburn so was not able to ride. Brian attended as a spectator, on crutches, and hopes to be mobile again next week.

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

Junior Division 3
1. Bruce Bast
2. Tom Fehrman
3. Paul Johnson
4. Chris Smith
5. Jeff Butler

Next Saturday is the final event of the season for Sideways Saturdays and features the Cal Expo Track Championship. Where did the season go?

Gary Roberts - groberts@iee.org