Wednesday 28 October 2009

Sideburn represented at Pomona 2





A few notes:
From Krumpledick...

Gene [Romero, organiser of the West Coast Flat Track series, that co-promoted Pomona] had a helluva few weeks leading up to that event. The Love Ride cancellation created a huge shitstorm. And as always, he prevails and pulls it off. The event ran nearly flawless, remarkable considering the unusual co-promotion with DMG.

The track was menacing. It tore up easily and although the equipment and prep crew was top notch, they only could manage a barely-raceable surface. But that slowed nobody down. Unlike the first two years, the stands were nearly at capacity - most remarkable considering the last minute Love Ride cancellation and all of the negativity that swirled around.

The sequence is from second practice at Pomona, Jimmy Sanchez, sponsored by Bud Riddle. Jimmy Sanchez's practice crash was grandiose. Fortunately, his stay in the hospital was quite short.
Bud wasn't very happy as Jimmy flew and Wayne Karcich brought along some tainted fuel and left it for Bud to deal with. Was a fantastic night. The highlight of the evening was Sammy Halbert. Sammy wasn't very fast in open practice, nor the heats. But once it came down to business, he found the setup... and just in time. Sidelined GP250 racer Stevie Bonsey went down, taking Halbert with him in turn 4. Bonsey retired, but Slamsonite remounted and started from the back row. At the drop of the flag he started what seemed to be the insurmountable peak. On lap 23 he battled up to third place. Given a couple of extra laps, my money was on him winning. Five laps, he likely would have won from last place.
And he did it all with a seriously mashed-up left leg. Heart, Big Heart.

Sammy's ride in the main was nothing short of remarkable. Bonsey took him out on lap two and on the re-start he just mowed through the pack, a solid third at the checkers. Five more laps and he could have won the thing.

The world's worst track food can be found at Pomona. $7.50 for a chili dog that was so gross, I still get a weak stomach as I think of it. All of the food was unfettered garbage.
The girls were better than average and that's saying something
Mikey Martin was the first WCFTS rider in history to win two championships. (Open class and TopGun 450 class).
John Kocinski had the trickest dirt track pits ever seen and he rode quite well on a pristine Rotax.


'Hey, you're on my shirt' Wayne K (whose Yamaha TT500 framer is in Sideburn 4) and Gene Romero).

Wayne K. An athlete. Look at the sweat rings on that Sideburn shirt. That's what you get racing at the front in Californian flat track races. Hey, it's pay day. Get your own Sideburn Gene shirt.

1 comment:

ridgeback said...

a great day of racing.hopefully the start of a return to how it used to be in s. cal.