Southern California Speedway Round 5 Results

| July 18, 2022

The fifth event of the Southern California Speedway season went down on Wednesday night, July 13, at the Industry Grand Arena in City of Industry. While National number-one Max Ruml’s brother Dillon rides for the Oxford Cheetahs in the British SGB League, he has left his brother to mop up the competition here at home. Some of the Nor Cal riders ventured down to the Industry Grand Arena in hopes of ending Ruml’s reign in California and add some excitement to the racing, as if it needed any.

Billy Janniro (right) and Max Ruml 2022 — **Billy Janniro (right) and Max Ruml battle it out at the Industry Grand Arena in California during round five of the California Speedway Championship. Ruml took the narrow win. Photo by Richard Haight**

By Richard T. Haight

Primarily, it was 10-time National champ Billy Janniro who was out to avenge a very close loss to “Mad” Max Ruml at last month’s round of the AMA National Championship at Kern County Raceway. Ruml has won every main event this year, which is four in a row now. However, after all the heats were finished, it looked like Max’s string might have run out, because he lost his last heat race, while three others—Janniro, Fox and Gino “G-Man” Manzares—all scored max points straight through their heats!

Before the Division 1 main, the Mini and Junior classes ran, with Hudson Jones keeping his winning streak alive despite starting from a half-lap handicap to win the Minis, while the Junior 150s and 250s were won by Ryder Schulz and Charlie Trana, respectively.

The Joe Jones and Tom Summers team took the win in the Sidecar main.

The last events of the night were the Division One Consolation main and the Division One Scratch final. In the Consolation, Shawn “Mad Dog” McConnell won over Tim Gomez, “Fast” Eddie Castro and Slater Lightcap.

The Division One Scratch main was worth every minute of watching the 40 heats throughout the night. All four of the finalists, except Ruml, were three for three on the night, winning all of their previous heat races. Manzares, Fox and Janniro all wanted a piece of Max. But when the tapes went up, Janniro took the lead from the outside start lane over Ruml. As Janniro crossed the line at the end of the first lap, he made a big fist pump, as he led Ruml across the line by only inches. At that point, you could literally have covered all four of them with a single king-sized bed sheet.

Janniro led for three laps but a tiny bobble in the second corner allowed Ruml to pull a “Billy” on Janniro, running wide in the cushion, and he slid around Janniro to win by a single bikelength! At the finish, Ruml returned the favor and gave a giant fist pump to let Janniro know that he was still King!