Faria Heats Up at Right Time for Motorcycle Championship

At previous U.S. National Speedway Championship nights, Mike Faria would have been celebrating when the heats were done.

Faria, of Riverside, had a perfect night leading up to the championship race Saturday at the one-tenth-mile oval at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

Five races, five wins, 15 points.

But a new scoring system that advanced the top three point-scorers and the winner of a B Main to the final meant Faria had to win one more race.

No problem.

Faria, 40, got the hole shot from Gate 1 in the championship final and beat two world champions to win his third national championship.

Faria also won titles in 1990 and ’91.

“It feels great right now,” he said after getting thrown in the air by his supporters.

Faria races regularly on the track at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

Faria faced Monrovia’s Billy Hamill (14 points) and San Bernardino’s Charlie Venegas (13 points), and Costa Mesa’s Greg Hancock (12 points), the winner of the B Main, in the final.

Hamill was world champion in 1996 and finished last in the championship heat. Venegas was third.

Hancock, the current world champion, was second, unable to run down Faria after two restarts.

“He’s the man of the night, definitely,” Hancock said.

About 6,500 watched the event, which played out most of the night on a wet, slippery track that made for difficult handling.

Defending champion Steve Lucero of Lompoc was eliminated in his final heat for causing a crash with Brea’s Shawn McConnell.

“Traditionally, [the track has] been even wetter,” rider Brad Oxley said.

“Some nationals have been marred by that. Someone lost the first round and they were out of the running.

“Tonight, it wasn’t like that.”

That’s because, unlike past years, the last race determined the national champion, not an accumulation of points earned through the heat races.

It turned out that the top four point finishers met in the finals, anyway.

Riders seemed pleased by the new format.

“We figured out that you could finish seventh and still win the title,” said Ontario’s Andy Northrup.

One of those who benefited was Costa Mesa’s Bobby Schwartz, who has probably put more laps on the track than any other rider.

He hit a rut between Turn 3 and 4 and ran into the hay bales protecting the flag man in the first heat, but tied with McConnell with a scant seven points and qualified for the B Main, along with Auburn’s Bart Bast and world champion Greg Hancock of Costa Mesa.