Fairgrounds Raceway
Santa Maria, California

April 19 1997 - Fairgrounds Raceway
From: Gary Roberts

The second meeting of the season took place at Fairgrounds Raceway, Santa Maria on Saturday, on a warmer than expected evening, on an absolutely perfect track. No bumps, no patches, and very very smooth. Lots of close racing, a very slick program with 20 heats, 4 finals and 4 Junior Speedway rider races, a 10 minute intermission, we started at 7 and finished just after 9.

Results:
Brad Sauer         14
Robbie Sauer       14
Terry McCurdy      13
Billy Lyons        10
Charlie Powell      9
Marvin Sonnier      9
Mark Maynard        8
Rudy Maresca        8
Gerry Dutweiler     7
Tim Appel           6
David Enloe         5
Jeff Smith          5
Paul Baldwin        4
Jimmy Collins       4
Jason Chabot        2
Jason Montgomery    0

A final
Robbie Sauer, Brad Sauer, McCurdy, Sonnier, Lyons
B final
Sonnier, Powell, Maresca, Dutweiler, Maynard
C final
Dutweiler, Smith, Enloe, Baldwin, Appel
D final
Baldwin, Chabot, Montgomery

Junior Speedway
1. Ryan Fisher
2. Donny Robinson
3. Tim Gomez 

As last week, the Bakersfield contingent dominated the first few places. On his second meeting ever, Charlie Powell didn't make the A final, but he was credited as being the only rider to take a qualifying point from A final winner, Robbie Sauer.

There was a lot of overtaking, and a lot of close racing. Although many of these riders only started last season, they have made significant progress because of the amount of race experience they have received. This was pointed out to me later by a rider who had been competing at Costa Mesa for 2 years, but getting only one ride a week. This excellent training ground has provided these new riders with 6 rides a meeting.

Three Junior speedway riders competed in 4 races. There was a wide gap in experience between the three, so a handicap start system was used, to provide closer racing. Ryan Fisher has been competing for at least 4 years and really is potential World Final material. Donny Robinson started riding about 18 months ago and competed most of last season. He has improved a lot. Young Mr. Gomez (forgot his first name) is younger than the other two, a lot smaller, and rides a Honda (?) engined machine. I believe the other two ride 250 Jawas.

Ryan also had two two-lap races against top scorer Brad Sauer, beating him both times. Photographs of Junior speedway riders to follow on the www.

Again, this week the number of spectators was VERY disappointing. Next week is the Santa Maria Fairgrounds Strawberry Festival and there will be racing in the afternoon and evening. It is hoped that a few strawberry fanatics will broaden their interests and get sufficiently addicted to come back regularly.

If there is anyone on this distribution who comes to Santa Maria on a regular basis, we are short of infield staff. Would perspective volunteers please Email me for details.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com