Victorville Speedway
San Bernardino County Fairgrounds
Victorville, California

2010 Pit Stop Challenge
July 17,2010 - Victorville
By: Steve Evans

Buck Blair was the winner of his second Victorville Main Event in a row and also won the pit stop contest with Steve Golden for the 2nd year. In the Main event Blair was locked in a very tight three way battle for the lead with Austin Novratil and Michael Hull either side of him. Blair pulled clear on the back straight but Novratil and Hull had an excellent battle behind, trading places several times before Novratil went ahead. Russell Green, who fell on lap two, claimed an excellent fourth.

The heats saw Novratil unbeaten on 9 points, with Eddie Castro, Buck Blair and Michael Hull all dropping just 1 point to qualify on 8. In the first semi Hull pulled off a stunning outside pass of the unbeaten Novratil to transfer. In the second Green gated and held second behind Blair with track favorite Castro eliminated to the Consi.

Tyson Talkington won the special Rookie of the Year Last Man Out. Tim McGrath, drafted in for Aaron Fox and Dylan Black, who bent bikes at Costa Mesa the night before came second with Michael Raines third and Brandon Leedy fourth.

Blair and Steve Golden won a closely fought pit stop contest for the second year in a row. Tyson & Scott Talkington were second, Brandon & Ken Leedy fourth. All there bikes were on the track at the same time on the final lap after the mandatory stop to remove and flip the back wheel.

Hayley Perrault won three of the four races including the Main Event to take the Inaugural California Open Junior Championship. Max Ruml, riding with the support class riders, was awarded the 250 title. Jim Robinson and Paul Thornton, in the same class, were awarded Division Two and Three trophies respectively. Local Pee Wee Brandon Rhea won another Main, Dylan Beard and Edwin Soto won all three Sidecar races, whilst Jim Rosa was the winner in a healthy numbered flat track class.

The race once more brought a very healthy crowd and provided some excellent opportunities for some of the sports rising stars to get some valuable track time. Some of these riders noticeably improved race by race and several put themselves at the head of the line for future UK race tours. It was very positive end to a date where a scheduling conflict created by another track meant that speedway fans had to choose between two local events and neither track had its usual field of riders.

The next Victorville race is the 25th anniversary Speedway USA Track Championships on 31st July.

Results:

Pee Wee
  9 Brandon Rhea
 26 Jason Andrews
  0 Pedro Conception Jnr
 34 Dakota Shockley

Sidecar
5150 Dylan Beard / Edwin Soto
 66 Gerard Jackson / Dave German
 00 Joseph Petralovoic / Mike Moreno (non starters)

Junior California Open Championship
  0 Hayley Perrault
999 Major Davis
111 Dylan Ruml

Support Class
308 Max Ruml
152 Jim Robinson
124 Paul Thornton
220x JJ Talkington

Rookie of the Year Last Man Out
220 Tyson Talkington
186 Tim McGrath
 63 Michael Raines
151 Brandon Leedy

Pit Stop Contest
 39 Buck Blair / Steve Golden
220 Tyson Talkington / Scott Talkington
151 Brandon Leedy / Ken Leedy

Speedway Bikes
Heat Scores - Austin Novratil 9, Michael Hull 8, Eddie Castro 8, Buck Blair 8,
Josh Abbott 6, Tyson Talkington 5, Russell Green 3, Tim McGrath 3, Michael
Raines 2, Brandon Leedy 2, Dylan Black / Aaron Fox withdrawn.

B Main
 14 Eddie Castro
141 Josh Abbott
220 Tyson Talkington
151 Brandon Leedy	(replaces Tim McGrath)

A Main
 39 Buck Blair
181 Austin Novratil
320 Michael Hull
321 Russell Green