Reigning AMA National Speedway Champion Billy “The Kid Janniro” defends his Connor Penhall Memorial Cup at Southern California’s Industry Speedway.
Reigning National Speedway Champion Billy “The Kid” Janniro successfully defended his Connor Penhall Memorial Cup title at Industry Speedway in Industry Hills, California, last night. Along with the win, the 35-year-old Northern Californian walked away with the lion’s share of a national championship-level purse of over $12,000.
“This is one of the ones you want to win,” Janniro said. “They have three really good races here at Industry. They’re above standard. The rest of ‘em are just as good, but they just don’t pay as much!”
But Janniro will also readily admit that the Connor Penhall Memorial Cup is about so much more than just money. It’s about racing to honor a young man who was a part of the American speedway fraternity and whose family name is regarded among the sport’s best. The son of two-time World Champion Bruce Penhall, Connor Penhall tragically lost his life to a drunk driver while working as a concrete cutter on a Caltrans contract job in 2012. He was just 21 years old, and his loss his still felt in the community even though, in all reality, Connor spent very little of his motorcycle racing career in the sport that made his father a household name in the early 1980s. That hardly mattered, though, as his wit, spirit and friendly demeanor endeared him to the clan just the same. Southern California speedway fans knew Connor, and they followed his efforts as an amateur motocross racer and his later efforts in the SCORE Baja off-road races.
In the aftermath of the Connor Penhall tragedy, justice is still in the making. Although the person responsible for his death has been convicted and sentenced, there is still more at stake, according to Bruce Penhall. Civil litigation—with one of its more important goals being the improved safety of Cal Trans highway workers throughout the State of California—has dragged at an agonizingly slow pace through the court system.
“There’s still not a lot we can do right now because the [civil] trial is still pending,” Bruce Penhall said. “We can’t say much about it until it is all finished, but what tonight is about for us is to keep raising awareness. If it helps one person in these grandstands to not drink and drive, then we’ve done our job.”
Penhall, wife Laurie and children Ryan and Mackenzie We put a lot of work into this, and we are going to make a big charge, but for right now our message is ‘please don’t drink and drive,’ and ‘be cautious around the cone zones.’ I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating it has been. We really do want all of the legal stuff behind us, but Connor will never be behind us, and my family feels that he would be proud that we are trying to bring awareness and thinking about him. I’ll tell you that not a minute in a day goes by that we don’t think about him.”
Indeed, Connor would have been proud of the effort put in by many of California’s top speedway stars in a championship-style format that pitted the riders against one another in five rounds of four heat races each, with the winner earning three points, the runner-up two and third-place one. The top eight points earners would then be seeded into one of two semi-final events to determine the final four that would race for the Connor Penhall Memorial Cup.
This year’s field was arguably just a little lighter without former World Champion Billy “The Bullet” Hamill in it, leaving many fans to anticipate a repeat win by the dominant Janniro. But when 19-year-old Max Ruml and his even younger brother Dillon, of Huntington Beach, California, beat Janniro in the final heat of the first round, one had to wonder if the veteran speedster would be able to retain his crown. Ever confident, Janniro was quick to shrug off the loss.
“I just had the wrong setup for the bike,” Janniro said. “I think I underestimated the track a little, but we came in and made changes that would make it easier to ride. In the second round, I was pretty nervous because I knew that was going to be my hardest race of the night. I went out and made a great start, and I won that race. Then after that I started making changes back to where I started. By the end I was two teeth lower [gearing] than where I started, and I had gone from having the rear wheel all the way in [shortest wheelbase] to the middle and then back to all the way in.”
Ruml would go on to earn 14 of a possible 15 points and be the high-point man of the night. However, Janniro did more than enough to take an easy win in his respective semi to get a shot at redemption against Ruml when it counted most.
After bouncing back to win his heat race in the second round, Janniro never put another wheel wrong for the rest of the night, and even though he didn’t land first gate pick for the all-important Connor Penhall Cup main event, it wouldn’t matter when the lesser-experienced Ruml did what most any speedway racer would, use his selection as the night’s high-point rider to choose the inside starting gate. Janniro happily snapped up gate number two, with former U.S. National Champion Charlie “The Edge” Venegas in gate three and young lion Austin Novratil coming from gate four. Janniro jetted into the lead when the tapes went up and put in four clean laps. Novratil also got a good start from the outside and drove through the deep dirt to emerge ahead of Ruml off turn two and take over second place, but there would be no catching the fleeing Janniro, who collected the win with Novratil second, Ruml third and Venegas fourth.
“Gate two was awesome,” Janniro said. “Max, if he was experienced, would’ve picked gate two, but he’s young and he’ll learn. It’s all about knowing which gate is going work for you.”
Although he felt he had a strong chance for the win, Ruml would not only yield to Janniro but also to Novratil in the main event.
“I went into the final with the top points and had a good gate position, but I gave up a really good gate position in gate two to Billy,” Ruml said. “He just had the experience over me and knew that gate two would work better than gate one. Complete kudos to him, but overall I feel I had a really good night. The pace was fast tonight, and I feel like I’ve gotten some things working right this year, and move on and see what happens.”
Novratil, who is battling pneumonia, was just happy to be on the starting line at the beginning of the night, let alone finishing second in the Connor Penhall Memorial Cup main event.
“To be honest, I was throwing up when I got here, and I just wanted to turn around and go home, but we turned it around and had a pretty good night,” said the 21-year-old Novratil from Westminster, California. “I’ve won three main events from gate four this year, so I had confidence coming out of four, but you never know. I got a good start and somehow found some grip on the outside to get around Max. It all came together. This is one race where you definitely want to do well.”
Indeed, it’s a high honor, although one that Janniro doesn’t accept without a sobering note of his own.
“It’s just sad that something like that has to happen to get a great race like this,” Janniro said. “But to race in honor of his name, and for the family, it’s awesome to be able to come here and win the race and go home with another cool trophy.”
As Janniro is now the proud owner of two custom-painted Troy Lee Designs helmet trophies for being a back-to-back champion of the first two Connor Penhall Memorial Cup events, one has to wonder if he even has space to place them in a trophy room that has got to be cramped.
“Ah, we’ll figure it out,” Janniro said.
2nd Annual Connor Penhall Memorial Cup
Industry Speedway
Industry Hills, California
Results: June 1, 2016
Mini 150 Second Division Main Event
52n – Sammy Waddill
419 – Dakota Shockley
25 – Travis Horn
96 – Andrew Russell
Mini 150 First Division Main Event
1 – Sterling Martin
27 – Luke Whitcomb
2 – Alex Martin
3 – Slater Lightcap
Junior 250 Main Event
18 – Sebastian Palmese
14 – Sara Cords
214 – Michael Wells
35n – Kyle Cunningham (engine failure)
Connor Memorial Cup Semi 1
5 – Max Ruml
43 – Charlie Venegas
111 – Dillon Ruml
22n – Luke Becker
Connor Memorial Cup Semi 2
1 – Billy Janniro
7 – Austin Novratil
4 – Broc Nicol
24 – Gino Manzares
Connor Memorial Cup Final
1 – Billy Janniro
7 – Austin Novratil
5 – Max Ruml
43 – Charlie Venegas
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