Industry Speedway staff members were erecting the starting gate for this week’s Speedway Motorcycle races when The Grand arena started to shake as an earthquake rolled through nearby Chino Hills late Tuesday morning.
“Some of the guys are still shaking,” promoter Jeffrey Immediato said, laughing, about 90 minutes after the magnitude 5.4 trembler had subsided, “but there was no damage at all to the arena, so we’re ready to go racing Wednesday night.”
The Grand arena, on the grounds of the Industry Hills Expo Center, is considered the most beautiful Speedway Motorcycle facility in the nation. The covered, outdoor arena is set in a landscaped, tree-lined bowl on the top of a hill that offers those in the pit area a view of the San Gabriel Valley.
The arena, with bleachers lining one side of the 150-yard dirt oval track and giant-screen video displays on the overhead message board, provides an unrivaled viewing experience for the spectators.
The competition is unrivaled, too, with the stars of the original Extreme sport testing each other and their methanol-powered, brakeless 500cc motorcycles in a series of four-lap races that are over so quickly they make the expression “if you blink you’ll miss it” more than a cliché.
This week, reigning U.S. Under 21 champion Ricky Wells, of Yorba Linda, will try to continue his hot streak in a 7 p.m. program that will feature both the light, nimble two-wheel motorcycles and the entertaining sidecars.
Wells, who just turned 17, gave himself an early birthday present last week by capturing his second main event in three starts and joining Charlie Venegas as the season’s only multiple winners.
Venegas, who was absent last week to prepare for the opening of his own Golden Gate Motor Speedway in Vallejo and compete in the round two of the USA Speedway Nationals, has twice put together four-race win streaks at Industry Speedway. He is the all-time win leader at the track in The Grand area at the Industry Hills Expo Center.
Buck Blair and Shaun Harmatiuk are the other main event winners during the first 12 weeks of the season.
Entrance gates at The Grand open at 5:30 p.m. and racing gets under way at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, students and military, and $5 for children 6-13.
