Speedway Champions

 

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS:   p.NC4     AMERICA
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  Alternative National Championships 
   -  USA    .
   - Canada      - 'Series' Championship
   - Argentina  - Winter Series
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   United States of America
         - National Championships
         - State Championships
         - Track championships

USA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

There are currently 3 national championships in USA:
  •  AMA National Championship  (official US competition,)
  • SRA National Championship  (Costa Mesa- run title,) 
  • US Open Championship (East Coast-based events,)
    as well as a former 'American Final'
    and a 'Long Track Speedway' championship.
    The American Motorcycle Assoc’n (AMA) is the present FIM affiliated body, and the winner of its competition, the ‘US National’, run over 2 or 3 rounds in California, is hence the internationally-recognised US title-holder. The Speedway Riders Assoc’n, (SRA) is a Costa Mesa-based organisation, where the Orange County track has held a national championship title meeting continuously since 1969. FIM affiliation has not been enforceable in USA and as Costa Mesa registered alternatively with SRA and AMA over the decades these bodies in turn have alternated periodically with FIM affiliation. Thus all Costa Mesa National championship winners u.t.i. 1997, whether SRA or AMA, have been the official US National Champions. From ’98 as AMA rejoined FIM and Costa Mesa stayed SRA, the National title event moved to Auburn,Ca. and 2 parallel US National championships co-existed, (in addition to the US Open,) Later, in line with FIM’s guidance to motorcycle sports worldwide, the championship became a multi-round event, whilst Costa Mesa continued to stage its own ‘US National Championship ! Riders were able to participate in both AMA and SRA events with impunity, Hamil and Janniro each twice being concurrent US National Champions. In recent years Costa Mesa has additionally held one round of the AMA series as well its own SRA 'National'.

    The “US Open” Championship is essentially an East Coast competition in New York State at the 1/8mile Owego track, ‘open’ to West Coast riders, who participate in most annual meetings, dependent upon the purse, and have taken the championship many times.

    Various past titles such as ‘Eastern States Championship’, ‘US Open National’ and ‘US National Invitation’, at different tracks across the region are today collectively recognised and termed as the US Open Championships. A further example of duplication existed during the ‘90s when a mid-West Ohio track ran ‘US Opens’, where the winner each year was the track’s own promoter !

    'American Finals' were the US qualifying stage of the FIM World Championship, from which 2 - 5 riders moved to Europe for further progression, - though a number declinded to travel and so were excluded the following year.

    The table below gives winners of the 2 Nationals (replicating the US National column of the main page) and the Open, side by side to enable easy distinction of a holder's title. Note: between 1969 and '97 the Costa Mesa and official Nationals are one and the same meeting and title.
   n.b: AMA USA national 'Long Track Speedway' Championship winners, (½ml,) presently run in Ohio, but formerly an LA-staged event at the Ascot Park venue, are given in a separate table further below.

    Click thumbnail for full-size tables.
  

      Billy Janiro holds the record (as of 2023) for most US National Championship wins at 11. The Bast brothers Mike and Steve took the title all but twice in the first 11 Costa Mesa years until World-Champ-to-be Bruce Penhall took the title. (Former Heathens have taken the AMA National 16 times.) Hamill and Janniro have thrice done the 'double' by winning concurrent AMA and SRA National titles, in 2002, '07 & '12, and 2008, '10 & '11.  Mssrs Hancock, Hamill and Janniro have now monopolized the official AMA title for the past 22 years.

     On the East Coast, Californian participants in the US Open have had many successes, Bobby Schwartz taking the first post-war title in 1977 at Owego, NYS and repeating it 26 years later to complement his 2 US titles on the West Coast.

     Best run in the Open has been that of Warren Diem, with 6 consecutive wins in his total of 7 championships between 1986 and '93 at Action Park, Greene and at Champions Speedway, Owego, whose closure in '94 ended Diem's trophy-gathering run.

   In recent years the 'American Final' has been resurrected as a qualifier route to the Speedway Grand Prix World Championship, in which Wolverhampton regular Luke Becker (left) has thrice qualified through to rounds leading on to the GP Challenge.


             
1975 Los Angeles                  1999 (AMA)  Auburn               1999 (SRA) Costa mesa                   2004 Auburn   

 
Lt. to Rt:  Steve Bast,  Mike Bast,  Sonny Nutter,
3 US Champions with a total of 13 Nat'l and 13 State speedway titles between them.



US  STATE  & TRACK  CHAMPIONS

          The 2 tables below of State and Track championship winners are as identified, though certain titles are for 'Long Track' competitions, - which on stateside may be ¼ml. or ½ml. i.e. 400m. or 800m, and hence conventional speedway frames are used. The usual US track size is much smaller than European ones, around 1/8ml.(200m.) Other 'State' titles can be exclusive to a track. It should also be noted that in several cases track names have changed with time and promotion, (e.g.San Bernadino: Inland, Arrowhead, IMS,) whilst the opposite can also apply: Perris during 2010 has operated on 2 sites, Lake Perris (½ml) and Perris Raceway (¼ml.).

    Click thumbnail for full-size tables.                                                                                                                       

      

     Here again the Bast family have dominated the Californian championships. Over the past 30+ years brothers Steve and Mike Bast each took the California State title 6x, then cousin Bart had 11 successes in the Northern California Championship, as well as being a Track champ 4 times (at Dixon, and the CalEx circuit in Sacramento.)

    At Auburn Charlie Venegas has been Track champ 5 times, but on the East Coast the State wins have been well distributed, with 8 holders in the last 10 years. In the '80s and '90s Scotty Brown took a total of 9 State titles in Indiana and Ohio, at both 1/8ml (Bear Creek) and ½ml. Long Tracks at Canton and Wauseon.

    Click thumbnail for full-size tables.                                                                                                                       

 


 
  

 


For USA's U21 champions see U21 & Youth Champions page
 
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  LONG TRACK CHAMPIONS - USA & Canada

   Click thumbnail for full-size tables.     
 
  Data in the above table is a duplication of results on 'Long Track' page.


    For LT Series rounds of the Canadian  Speedway Championships see 'Alternative Champs' table below.

 

More American Championship programmes HERE


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 ARGENTINA  &  CANADA
     Winners of the recognised National speedway championships of Argentina and Canada are given in the main table on the previous 'National Champions' page, but alternative speedway championships exist in both countries: 
  • in Argentina, an 'out-of-season', nationals only 'Winter Championship', multi- meeting series;
  • in Canada, a 'Series' championship, incorporating both Short Track & Long Track meetings, under the same affiliated body, the CMA;

     In Canada in the first decade of the new millennium there was both a Series and an Individual (one-off meeting) national championship title within the affiliated body, CMA. A non-affiliated body, CMRC, also ran Canadian national speedway championships. Prior to 1980 the 'Speedway' class was unrecognized.   As of 2015 there has been no speedway race meetings in Canada, with only an occasional heat or two at Flat track meetings.