Oxley Has Home-Course Advantage

Brad Oxley is the promoter of Speedway International Inc., and the weekly events at the Orange County Fairgrounds are legendary, dating back to the 1960s when his father ran the show.

Saturday night, San Juan Capistrano’s Oxley was the show.

Oxley won the 31st U.S. National speedway championship, largely because he knows this one-eighth-mile dirt oval like the back of his hand.

Facing three other national champions in the final, Oxley--who turns 40 on Wednesday--became only the third active rider to win more than one title. Oxley last won the championship in 1987.

In Saturday’s final he defeated Riverside’s Gary Hicks, who finished second, and defending champion Bart Bast of Auburn, Calif. Two Reno riders, Chris Manchester and Mike Faria, finished fourth and fifth.

Faria was trying to win his fourth title. Hicks was the only rider in the final who had not previously won a championship.

Oxley was the season-long points leader at the fairgrounds, but Saturday was clearly special to the six-time series winner.

“Winning the points title is about consistency and staying out of trouble, all those boring things I’m known for,” Oxley said. “But winning the nationals is about stepping up on one night, about having to be fast against the best riders in the world.”

Faria, who had a spectacular crash on the first lap of the championship, necessitating a restart--and the borrowing of Bobby Schwartz’s bike--got the hole shot, but Oxley took back the racing line by the time they completed the first lap.

“It’s a technical track, and you have to stay on that path,” said Bast, the defending champion. “The track was much drier than in past years. It’s a one-line track, and unless you make a mistake, it was whoever was in the line first.”

And Oxley knows the line better than anyone, since he prepares the track every week.

His victory was a bit of an upset, especially considering the events leading up to the semifinals.

Charlie Venegas appeared the rider to beat. He won all four of his heats, the only rider to reach the semifinals with a perfect score, but failed to advance to even the last-chance qualifier by finishing last.

Each rider faced every other rider once, with the top 10 advancing to the semis. Jim Sisemore defeated Jim Estes in a runoff for the final semifinal position.

“There’s a lot of rubber on the track, and if I can get on the rubber, nobody will touch me,” Venegas said before taking the field and discovering how cruel the format could be.