Costa Mesa Speedway September 11, 1999
Brad Oxley wins his second National Championship!
Unofficial Results of
Costa Mesa, California
Qualifying Rounds:
1: Faria, Schwartz, Northrup, Castro
2: Hicks, Cooley, Marr, Estes (fell, remounted)
3: Bast, Janniro, DiFrancesco, Ermolenko
4: Venegas, Sisemore, Manchester, Ackroyd (fell)
5: Oxley, McConnell, Hedden, Aden
6: (restart) Sisemore, Ermolenko, Cooley, Sauer, Castro (fell, excluded)
7: (restart) Bast, Northrup, Aden, Hicks (engine failure)
8: Venegas, Faria, Hedden, Marr
9: Schwartz, Oxley, Ackroyd, Janniro
10: Manchester, McConnell, DiFrancesco, Estes (fell, remounted)
11: Faria, Hicks, Ermolenko, Ackroyd
12: Venegas, Oxley, Castro, DiFrancesco (fell)
13: Hedden, Manchester, Cooley, Northrup (engine failure)
14: (restart) McConnell, Bast, Schwartz, Marr
15: (restarted twice) Estes, Aden, Janniro, Walker, Sisemore (fell, excluded)
16: Oxley, Manchester, Ermolenko, Marr
17: (restart) Bast, Estes, Ackroyd, Sauer, Castro (tapes exclusion)
18: Venegas, McConnell, Janniro, Northrup (engine failure)
19: Faria, DiFrancesco, Aden, Cooley
20: Hicks, Schwartz, Hedden, Sisemore (fell, remounted)
QUALIFYING SCORES:
1 - Bart Bast 3-3-2-3=11
3 - Gary Hicks 3-E-2-3=8
4n - Bobby Hedden 1-1-3-1=6
5 - Brad Oxley 3-2-2-3=10
6 - Shawn McConnell 2-2-3-2=9
7 - John Aden 0-1-2-1=4
8 - Gary Ackroyd F-1-0-1=2
9 - Mike Faria 3-2-3-3=11
11 - Bobby Schwartz 2-3-1-2=8
12 - Randy DiFrancesco 1-1-F-2=4 (changed number from #72 to #12)
14 - Eddie Castro 0-Fx-1-T=1
15 - Dukie Ermolenko 0-2-1-1=4
16 - Charlie Cooley 2-1-1-0=4
43 - Charlie Venegas 3-3-3-3=12
47 - Johnny Walker (R) 0-/-/-/=0
56 - Jim Estes 0-0-3-2=5
81n - Jimmy Sisemore 2-3-Fx-0=5
94 - John Cook (SCRATCH) (listed as #99, but former number was #94)
117 - Robbie Sauer (R) 0-0-/-/=0
130 - Chris Manchester 1-3-2-2=8
138 - Michael Marr 1-0-0-0=1
166 - Andy Northrup 1-2-E-E=3
Runoff for 10th place:
Sisemore, Estes
Semi-Final #1
Hicks, Faria, Sisemore, Bast, Schwartz (engine failure)
Semi-Final #2
Oxley, Manchester, McConnell, Hedden, Venegas
Last Chance
Bast, Hedden, Sisemore, McConnell
U.S. National Championship Final
(restart) Oxley, Hicks, Bast, Faria, Manchester
Faria began the evening with a beautiful trap from gate four and held off
Schwartz to take the first three points of the evening. Hicks copied Faria's
efforts with a gate four trap of his own. Oregon qualifier Mike Marr took
down Jim Estes, but the red flag never came out. Bast began his title
defense with an easy victory in race three. Venegas trapped from the outside
and ran away with race four. Oxley closed out the first round with a
victory, but not without effort. McConnell made the start, but Oxley passed
him in turn three. Hedden pressured McConnell all four laps. As Oxley was
in the final bend, he straightened and McConnell tried valiantly to steal the
victory, but it was Oxley by about two feet.
The second round began with Dukie Ermolenko taking the gate. As Sisemore was
passing Ermolenko, Eddie Castro and Charlie Cooley went down in turn four.
The referee excluded Castro and Robbie Sauer replaced him on the restart.
Sisemore then made a great start and took the victory. Race seven had a
nasty pileup involving Hicks, John Aden, and Andy Northrup that forced a full
restart. Bast and Hicks gated together and were side-by-side, but at the
close of lap one Hicks slowed with engine problems and Bast took the win.
The eighth race pitted Venegas against Faria. They gated together, but
Venegas found the grip in turn two and ran away with the victory. Faria was
passed on the inside by Hedden on lap two, but returned the favor and held
off "The Blaze" for second. Schwartz was an easy victor in race ten, but
Oxley had to come from last place to take second. Manchester came to life in
race ten as he passed McConnell and Randy DiFrancesco on the outside on the
back straight of lap one. He and McConnell waged a battle that had
Manchester winning by about a wheel.
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First Brad Oxley
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Second - Gary Hicks
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Third - Bart Bast
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Fourth - Mike Faria
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Fifth - Chris Manchester
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Faria got back on the winning track by beating Hicks to open round three.
Venegas took his third victory after a battle with Oxley in race 12. Race 13
wasn't unlucky for the fans as Manchester and Hedden battled side-by-side for
four laps. On the last lap it looked as if Manchester would take the
victory, but Hedden closed the gap and beat Manny by a spoke at the finish.
Race 14 was filled with controversy. A restart was ordered when Bast was
taken down in turn one. After Bast did some work on his bike he took his
place at the line. Pit steward Robin Mairs then approached the gate and
ordered Bast off the track for exceeding two minutes. Referee Bryan Galvin
then overruled the pit steward and sent her back to the pits much to the
crowd's delight. The restart provided an exciting three-rider battle between
McConnell, Schwartz, and Bast. McConnell took the lead with Schwartz trying
him high and Bast down low. They remained that way for three laps when
McConnell stretched his lead and Bast was able to secure second from
Schwartz. Sisemore and Billy Janniro both went down in turn two on the
original start of race 15, but Sisemore was excluded on a bad call by the
referee. Janniro was forced to use his backup bike after his muffler came
off his original machine. Jim Estes made a great start and took an
impressive victory to end round three.
After three rounds Venegas was perfect with 9 points; Bast and Faria each had
8; Oxley and McConnell had 7; Schwartz and McConnell had 6.
Manchester got his third straight good start and was riding the wide line for
over two laps, but Oxley used the inside to pass him and pulled away. Race
17 was restarted after Castro was excluded for touching the tapes. Bast took
the easy victory on the restart and was followed by a great race-long battle
between Estes and Gary Ackroyd with Estes taking second by a slim margin over
Ackroyd. Venegas continued his perfect night by winning race 18 and was
putting on a dominating performance as he entered the semi-finals. Faria
held off a brief challenge from Aden to take the penultimate qualifying heat.
Hicks took the final qualifying heat and secured his spot in the
semi-finals.
After the four qualifying rounds, the top ten riders qualified for one of two
five-rider semi-finals. The qualifiers were Venegas with 12 points, Bast and
Faria with 11 points, Oxley with 10 points, McConnell with 9 points, Hicks,
Schwartz, and Manchester each with 8 points, and Hedden with 6 points. Estes
and Sisemore tied for the tenth and final qualifying spot and competed in a
runoff.
In the runoff, Estes made the start from the outsided and held the lead down
the back straight. Sisemore then shot underneath in turn four and took a
lead he would never relinguish.
Here's a list of the United States National Champions:
1932: Miny Wain
1933: Ray Grant
1934: Cordy Milne
1935: Cordy Milne
1936: Jack Milne
1937: Benny Kaufman
1946: Wilbur Lamoureaux
1947: Cordy Milne
1948: Cordy Milne
1969 (SRA): Steve Bast
1970 (SRA): Rick Woods
1971 (SRA): Mike Bast
1972 (SRA): Rick Woods
1973 (SRA): Mike Bast
1974 (SRA): Steve Bast
1975 (SRA): Mike Bast
1976 (SRA): Mike Bast
1977 (SRA): Mike Bast
1978 (SRA): Mike Bast
1979 (SRA): Mike Bast
1980 (AMA): Bruce Penhall
1981 (AMA): Bruce Penhall
1982 (AMA): Shawn Moran
1983 (AMA): Kelly Moran
1984 (AMA): Kelly Moran
1985 (AMA): Alan Christian
1986 (AMA): Bobby Schwartz
1987 (AMA): Brad Oxley
1988 (AMA): Steve Lucero
1989 (AMA): Bobby Schwartz
1990 (AMA): Mike Faria
1991 (AMA): Mike Faria
1992 (SRA): Chris Manchester
1993 (AMA): Sam Ermolenko
1994 (AMA): Sam Ermolenko
1995 (AMA): Greg Hancock
1996 (AMA): Steve Lucero
1997 (unsanctioned): Mike Faria
1998 (SRA): Bart Bast
1998 (AMA): Greg Hancock
1999 (SRA): Brad Oxley
1999 (AMA): Billy Hamill
The U.S. National Championships were held at Costa Mesa from 1969 to 1997
regardless of what the sanctioning body of American speedway was. The only
exception being 1975 when it was contested at the Los Angeles Memorial
Coloseum (site of the 1982 World Championship) but was run by the Costa Mesa
promoter, Harry Oxley. Following a split in the sanctioning in American
Speedway, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) has held its National
Championship at the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn, California. Costa
Mesa continues to hold a National Championship for the SRA.
- Ryan Evans
Sideways31@aol.com
evansr@ulv.edu
OneList and SpeedwayBikes.com fans, left to right: Gary Roberts, Amanda, some guy, Linda Love and her son, and on the right, Tim Crump from Los Vegas!
Photo by Bill, taken at the US National at Costa Mesa, Oct. 2, 1999.
Canada + USA Speedway:
http://speedwaybikes.com