Charlie Venegas, who won eight of the first nine Speedway Motorcycle races at Industry Speedway this season, returned to the winner’s circle Wednesday night with a wire-to-wire victory.

Venegas, who hadn’t been happy with his engines the past few weeks, reached into his memory bag and pulled out the 17-year-old horizontal engine he had used to win the SRA U.S. Nationals in 2000. It proved to be a wise decision, enabling him to get the lead from Jimmy Fishback when the starting gate lifted on the 4-lap main event and stay out front to the finish.

“After winning eight of nine (and hitting a losing streak) your morale gets beat up a little bit, but you’ve got to just persevere,” said Venegas, 49, of San Bernardino. “I just went back to the basics.”

The win was the 33rd for Venegas at The Grand arena, which is in its fifth season as a Speedway venue.

Fishback finished second and was followed by Shawn McConnell, Ricky Wells and Eddie Castro. Wells, 17, of Yorba Linda, had won the past four main events and five of the past six.   

Two-time U.S. national champion Brad Oxley fared reasonably well in his first race in almost six years. Oxley, 49, who also is the promoter at Costa Mesa Speedway, finished second to Bobby Schwartz in his opening heat, was last in his second heat and won his finale over Shawn McConnell.

Oxley finished qualifying with five points, which tied him with Tim Gomez of Hesperia for the final spot in the semifinal field, but Gomez advanced by winning the 4-lap runoff. 

The “Battle of the Ages” went to the youngster, with Nicky Reimer, 9, of Seal Beach pulling away on the last of four laps to beat Hugh Randolph, 76, of Costa Mesa. But the youngest winner of the night was Jacob Wondolowski, 6, of Placentia, who took the PeeWee main event.