VICTORVILLE, CA

Josh Abbott showed why he was selected for the USA Dream Team by winning the main event at the Dream Team Fun-Racer event at Wheel2Wheel Raceway in Victorville, California.

Josh Abbott (above, second from right), starting the main event from gate two, and former Under 21 National Champion Neil Facchini (above, second from left) entered turn one side by side. Their battle continued down the back straight, with Abbott on the inside and Facchini on the high line. Facchini's fight ended in turn three when he hit a hole and went down. Tim Gomez (30, far right) picked up where Facchini left off, pressuring Abbott on the front straight. Gomez tried high and low to get past the leader but couldn't find a way around him. Abbott was first to the checkered flag, followed by Gomez and Gino Manzares (above, far left) to make it a Dream Team one-two-three. Facchini remounted and finished fourth. The victory was Abbott's first in the top division.

The Dream Team Fun-Racer was a charity event to raise funds for the fifth-anniversary USA Dream Team tour of Britain. The Dream Team is made up of seven riders who aspire to race speedway professionally in Europe. The two-week tour will include six race events, during which the racers hope to impress the promoters enough to earn a British League contract.

The event had a rough start when Austin Novratil and Joey Holt both went down in turn three. A bent machine and sore back ended Novratil's day. Abbott won the restart, ahead of Steve Bowen. Rick Valdez defeated Gino Manzares in event two. Rick Fehrman ended round one with a surprise victory.

Holt began round two with a win over Brad Pappalardo. Abbott made it two wins in a row in the next event. Gomez finished the second round by holding off Manzares for his first win.

Pappalardo opened the final round by deftly fighting off the challenge of Facchini. Holt got his second straight win by beating Rohn Zellner. Gomez and Manzares had an excellent wheel-to-wheel battle in the final heat, with Manzares getting a narrow victory.

Pappalardo led the first semi before a crash behind him forced a restart. Gomez and Abbott made the most of the second chance and they finished one-two and claimed spots in the main. Facchini led the second semi from wire to wire, with Manzares getting a gift of second when Holt fell in the final corner.

The Consolation required three starts, but Pappalardo led all three attempts, including the one that counted, to close out his day with a victory.

Rick Fehrman got the best start and never looked back en route to a triumph in the Second Division main event. Zellner finished second, Bowen was third, Brandon Leedy finished fourth, and Steve Dziadus was fifth.

Rick Howard led the Third Division main event for a lap before Mike Fuson took over the lead. Fuson faced heat from Tony De Almeida but never relinquished the lead and was first to the checkered flag. De Almeida settled for second, Kevin Johnson was third, Howard was fourth, and Rick Huspek finished fifth.

Results

P/W: 1. Nick Varner; 2. Michael Wells; 3. Summer Fehrman; 4. Dakota Shockley; 5. Keelan Venegas.

YTH D-2: 1. Dillon Ruml (Honda); 2. Michael Wells (Shu).

YTH D-1: 1. Maxwell Ruml (JAWA/CZ); 2. Gabe Price (JAWA/CZ).

D-3: 1. Mike Fuson (JAWA/CZ); 2. Tony De Almeida (JAWA/CZ); 3. Kevin Johnson (JAWA/CZ); 4. Rick Howard (JAWA/CZ); 5. Rick Huspek (JAWA/CZ).

D-2: 1. Rick Fehrman (JAWA/CZ); 2. Rohn Zellner (JAWA/CZ); 3. Steve Bowen (JAWA/CZ); 4. Brandon Leedy (JAWA/CZ); 5. Steve Dziadus (JAWA/CZ).

D-1 CONSI: 1. Brad Pappalardo (GM); 2. Joey Holt (JAWA/CZ); 3. Rick Fehrman (JAWA/CZ); 4. Rick Valdez (GM).

D-1 MAIN: 1. Josh Abbott (JAWA/CZ); 2. Tim Gomez (JAWA/CZ); 3. Gino Manzares (JAWA/CZ); 4. Neil Facchini (GM).