2022 American Speedway Round 1 Results
| July 7, 2022
Bakersfield’s Kern County Raceway Park hosted the first of three rounds of this year’s American Speedway championship.
Max Ruml kicked off the AMA Speedway Championship in Bakersfield with the win.
Story and Photos by Richard T. Haight
Most of the current stars of American Speedway were in attendance, with the exception of National number one Max Ruml’s brother Dillon, who has chosen to get some International experience and signed with the Oxford Cheetah’s of the British SGB Championship League.
Saturday’s entrants included Max Ruml and multi-time California and National Champion Billy Janniro, who was hoping to avenge his loss to Max in the 2021 Championship. Also on the entry list was Austin “On-The Throttle” Novratil, Gino Manzares, recent 250cc-class Champion Slater Lightcap, Rheten Todd and the latest version from the first family of American Speedway Racing, Bart Bast.
The event ran in both the traditional 16-rider, 20 heat round-robin format, where each competitor runs in five races against every other competitor, and in a two semi-final, one main event-style run-off.
After a lot of cheering and hand waves to the crowd, the gate was pulled down for the final, and the four finalists (Louie Mersaroli, Aaron Fox, Ruml and Janniro) pulled up to the tapes. Ruml pulled a slight lead over Janniro out of the gate, but Janniro went to the outside cushion in hopes that the slightly higher corner speed would get him around Ruml by the end. But it was not to be.
At the end of four laps, and try as he might, Janniro was not quite able to get around him. Ruml, down on points all night due to an earlier mechanical DNF, used his reserve bike and was able to hold off the 10-time champ for the win. However, because riders accumulate points throughout the series based on their heat race finishes, as well as the main event, Janniro left with a slight three-point lead in the championship due to an earlier DNF by Max.
