| September 6, 2022
Speedway Racers saved the best for last, but there is one more round left this season. Nevertheless, Wednesday, September 1, saw some of the best speedway racing of the year.
Mad Max Ruml leads Aaron Fox, Louie Mersaroli and Billy Janniro—just before Janniro wheelied into the wall—at the Connor Penhall Memorial Speedway.
Story and Photo by Richard Haight
Each season, the Speedway Racers honor Connor Penhall, the late son of four-time World Speedway Champion Bruce Penhall. Bruce brought the World Championship back to America after a 44-year hiatus. Before Penhall, the last win by an American was in 1937 with Jack Milne, with Americans taking all three podium places. Wilbur “Lammy” Lamoreaux took second and Milne’s brother, Cordy, finished third.
It wasn’t until 1981 and the revival of “Class-A” or Speedway Racing in America, that the title returned to these shores, when Penahll won the 1981 Individual World Title at London’s Wembley Stadium. He repeated in 1982 at the Los Angeles Coliseum and added the World Pair’s Championship (with Bobby “Boogaloo” Schwartz) at Chorzow, Poland, and the World Team Cup at London’s White City Stadium, with Kelly Moran, Scott Autrey and Bobby Schwartz.
The Connor Penhall Memorial is by invitation only to the top Division 1 riders. Broc Nichol, who grew up here, but now races for the Glasgow Tigers in Scotland traveled back to compete for the victory and the beautiful hand-painted Troy Lee Designs helmet that comes with it.
Despite being near perfect all season long, “Mad” Max Ruml and others, including 10-time National Champ Billy Janniro suffered upsets along the way. No one turned in a perfect score for the night. Janniro’s only victory came at the expense of Ruml in their match-up. But other than that, Janniro was so frustrated that he crashed twice. The second time was in the semifinal where he took out Aaron Fox and got himself excluded for causing the accident.
Names that you don’t see all that regularly in the win column, such as Louie Mersaroli, Slater Lightcap and Shawn McConnell, had wins, and Aaron Fox had two wins and three seconds on the night.
Broc Nichol had a near perfect 13 points from four wins and a third but hadn’t traveled from Scotland to lose. The final came down to Ruml, Broc Nichol, Louie Mersaroli and Austin Novratil, who won the last (pre-pandemic) Connor Penhall Memorial in 2019.
Nichol and Ruml lined up at opposite sides in the number-four and number-one positions, and when the gate went up it, was Ruml with his usual great start. Nichol was in third behind Novratil but only for two laps, as he ran Novratil down and set off after Ruml. By the white flag, less than a wheel separated the pair. Nichol went to the outside to carry more corner speed, which is Ruml’s usual game, but the last 50 yards nearly got caught by Novratil. At the finish you could have covered them all with a California King-size sheet. It was Ruml with the win, followed by Nichol, Novratil and Mersaroli.
Immediately after taking the flag, Ruml rode over to Novratil and the gave him the biggest hug.
