The AMA National Speedway Championship rolled through the Industry Hills Center On Saturday night, in what can only be described as a “Tight Race”.
Literally everyone who made the Main event, is a current or past Champion of one sort or another. Broc Nichol, the reigning AMA National Speedway Champion, Many time Champion “Mad Max” Ruml, past State Champion, Billy Janniro, and Austin “RocketMan” Novratil, winner of a recent Connor Penhall Memorial Championship. Let’s face it, these are the cream of the crop in the Speedway world. Broc is the current National Champion, and he has his sights set on another Championship, mind you, so do the 20 or so other riders lining up for this 2nd round of the National Championship.
In Speedway, everyone races against all of their competitors in a 20 heat, Round-Robin format. Everyone runs 5 heats, scoring points on a 3-2-1-0 basis. At the end of the night the top 8 scorers run in two semi-main events with only the first and second place riders advancing to the main.
Of the twenty riders, only Broc Nicol had a perfect 15-point score, winning all 5 of his heats. The surprise was that Mad Max Ruml, who can easily score five straight wins, lost the first two of his 5 races, to be down by two points coming to the main event. Broc, who had shown he could run wide or down on the pole, was on fire all night, going outside of some, and inside of others. But in a 4 lap bout of hand to hand combat , starts can be almost everything. And, that was what it came down to in the end. One slightly less than perfect start.
After the usual choice of starting gates, and packing in the surface at your starting slot, Broc selected the outside or #4 gate, one that had worked well for him all night long. It wasn’t a bad choice, maybe just not the best one, and as the tapes went up “Mad Max” leapt into the lead. Mind you, Broc was literally right there, and tried both the wide line and the pole, and was within half a bike length. But Broc was forced to go inside to block Billy J, and at the line Max took the win. Mind you, you earn points for every heat, semi and main, so at the end, after two rounds, Broc Nicol stands exactly one point ahead of Mad Max. The final round goes off in Auburn California in a couple of weeks, but both Max and Broc have their work cut out for them.
Results 1st Max Ruml 2nd. Broc Nicol 3rd Billy Janniro 4th Austin Novratil
Story: Richard T. Haight
Photos: Chuck Null
