The 2008 running of the US Open Speedway Championships was supposed to be 3 rounds but Saturday evening's event at Action Park East in Greene, NY was rained off.

That certainly didn't make the series any less exciting though as only one point separated the two leaders after round one which was held Friday at Batavia Motor Speedway and those points, along with equal rain-off points for Saturday, carried over into Sunday's finals, which were held at the original home of the US Open, Champion Speedway in Owego, NY. Heading into round three, it was Californian's Shawn Harmatiuk and Shawn McConnell who were the leaders.

Harmatiuk, a 25 year old rider from Garden Grove who had just returned from a stint in England, went undefeated on Friday and held a single point lead over defending Champion, Shawn "Mad Dog" McConnell of Brea, who is considered one of the top racers in the Country and is a veteran of the tough British League. McConnell  had his sights set coming into this years Championship of joining only Gene Woods and Warren Diem as riders who have won the title three times or more.  

The US Open began in 1977 at Champion Speedway and quickly became one of the premier events on the North American Speedway calendar, paying huge purses that at one time topped the National Championships at Costa Mesa, and attracting such big names as Bruce Penhall, Mike Bast, Bobby Schwartz, Lance King, John Cook and many more.

With a large crowd assembled and a 20 rider D-1 field, the first heat race blasted off.  It was local  favorite Adam Mittl who won handily over Diem. Candian National Champion, Aaron Hesmer, was third with Dave Clark fourth. Mikey Buman defeated Brian Hollenbeck, Jerry Harman and Russ Cornell in the next outing. Harmatiuk used his outside line tactics to finally get by Lenny McBride on lap three of their heat race for a win. Third went to Jesse Diem when Tuff McBride lost a spark plug cap.

McConnell showed that he was all business in the fourth event as he outgated and outdistanced Casey Donholt and former world great, Phil Collins, who was making a comeback to speedway and rode very well, in that order. Josh Carr was last. Sixty year old, 4-time East Coast Champion, Gene Bonsignore, proved he can still get the job done in the closing heat of round one when he beat 4-time Canadian Champion, Jeff Orosz, along with Keith Hawkins who got third and Corey Brookes who was fourth.

McConnell and Harmatiuk were again 3 point scorers in the second heat round along with Collins, Clark and Warren Diem.

Harmatiuk and McConnell kept it rolling as the third heat round went by and were joined by Donholt, Hesmer and Lenny McBride for the first time.

The opening heat of the last round may have been the turning point and produced fireworks. McConnell had to meet Harmatiuk and was one point down still in the overall standings. McConnell gated the young Harmatiuk and held off several of his hard charges including a moment down the back straight on lap three where Harmatiuk was bouncing off the wall trying to get by. McConnell took home the win and evened the score. Mittl had a great race with Collins and also won. Warren Diem, Donholt and Hesmer scored more wins to finish up heat racing.

At the conclusion of the heats, points were totaled to that stage including Friday's calculations. Riders were then placed in D-C-B and A-Finals based on overall scores. The Mains were worth more points to their final finishing order in the series. The D-C and B finals were one raceeach induration but the five riders who made the A-Finals would have to race 4 more times with the top 4 in points switching gates each time and the fifth placed racer, Aaron Hesmer, having to stat in gate five each time.

Harman made a nice start in the D-final and took it home but not without a strong effort from Orosz. Hawkins rode well to stay ahead of Cornell, who was fourth and Brookes was fifth on a 250cc machine.

Warren Diem was starting to look like his old self again in the C-final as he ran away with it from start to finish. Hollenbeck tried to keep pace but had to settle for second. Mikey Buman drew the pole for the B-final and it was an advantage on the this particular night as the outside was too wet to ride in. He made a solid gate and rode four good laps to the checkered flag ahead of Lenny McBride. Tuff McBride was third with Mittl fourth and Bonsignore fifth.

When all was said and done with heat racing it was McConnell, Harmatiuk,  Donholt, Collins and Hesmer who made the 4 Grand Finals. Harmatiuk won a 2 lap runoff with McConnell to win first gate choice. He chose one and McConnell chose four, which was wise as it meant that McConnell would be on the inside of Harmatiuk for 3 of four mains. Donholt started in 2 while Collins was left with 3.

Harmatiuk wasted no time when he jumped out of the gate and rode off with a win in race one. McConnell was a close second with  Collins getting credited with third  after Hesmer left him with nowhere to go but into the wall on turn four of lap three. Hesmer got last on paper, Donholt was fourth.

McConnell got revenge as he won the next main from wire to wire with Harmatiuk second, Hesmer third, Donholt fourth and Collins fifth.

Donholt made a great start in the third final and McConnell could not catch him but kept important points by staying in second, one spot ahead of Harmatiuk. Hesmer was fourth and Collins fifth.

It all came down the the last race as Harmatiuk had a chance to tie McConnell and force a runoff for the title if he scored one place higher then "Mad Dog". Donholt gated again and led but it looked like there would be a run-off as Harmatiuk was insecond for three laps with McConnell stuck behind him in third. On the last lap though in turn two, he bobbled a little and got off the groove and had to hopelessly watch McConnell speed by on his JBR/Western Blasting/Justice Brothers/NGK Plugs/K&N powered machine en route to his third US Open Championship!

The 2008 US Open was successful enough that promoter, Jason Bonsignore, announced afterwards that he would be hosting an Outlaw National Championship in NY on labor day weekend with more Californians in the field.

US Open Speedway Championships Overall
1. Shawn McConnell       114
2. Shaun Harmatiuk        111
3. Casey Donholt            107
4. Aaron Hesmer            99
5. Phil Collins                 97
6. Mikey Buman             44
7. Lenny McBride            40
8. Adam Mittl                 40
9. Gene Bonsignore        37
10. Tuff McBride            36
11. Warren Diem           31
12. Jesse Diem              27
13. Dave Clark              23
14. Brian Hollenbeck      23
15. Josh Carr                22
16. Jerry Harman          17
17. Keith Hawkins          16
18. Corey Brookes         12
19. Jeff Orosz                7
20. Russ Cornell            4