Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds - Auburn, CA

2000 Season Opener
Fast Fridays
June 9, 2000
From Gary Roberts

A comparatively cold evening in Auburn did not stop a large crowd coming out to watch some superb racing. The track, as always was in great shape and stayed that way all night. It seems as if the racing is getting faster each week. There were a number of very close races, a fair amount of overtaking, and a number of riders using the outside.

Scratch Main
1. Mike Faria
2. Bobby Hedden
3. Charlie Venegas
4. Bart Bast

A very fast race with Mike Faria taking the gate, but with Bobby Hedden breathing down his neck for 4 laps. For the first lap Bobby was riding an outside line, level with Mike. Charlie Venegas tried to get on the inside of Bobby , which caused Bobby to settle back to the inside. Bart Bast was going extremely fast, but so were the rest.

Scratch Consi
1. Billy Janniro
2. Chad Felicio
3. Dustin Schroeder
4. Tommy Hedden

Another good close race, with Janniro taking the lead from Felicio and Schroeder taking third place from Tommy Hedden.

Handicap Main
1. Tommy Hedden
2. Mike Faria
3. Ryan Fisher
4. Bobby Hedden
5. Bob Hicks
6. Bart Bast

Tommy Hedden started on the 30 yard line, along side Ryan Fisher. Hicks was on the 40 and the other three all started from the 50 yard line. Tommy Hedden took the gate and held it for the whole race. Mike Faria worked his way up the field using the outside, but ran out of laps before getting past the leader.

Handicap Consi
1. Billy Janniro
2. Robert Curry
3. John Cook
4. Chad Felicio
5. Ian Ferris

Charlie Venegas also qualified but was a non starter.
30 yard starter Robert Curry was the early leader, but Billy Janniro fought through from the 50 yard line and eventually took the lead. Meanwhile John Cook battled his way past Felicio and Ferris. John returns to Europe this weekend to fulfill his Swedish and Polish league obligations, after competing at Auburn for the past 3 weeks.

Division 2 Main
1. Jon Curry
2. Donny Powell
3. Ivan Sevart
4. George Snodgrass
5. Tom Adams
6. Dave Booth

Jon Curry won his first Auburn race on a 500 last week from the scratch line. So this week he was moved back to the 10 yard line. He won his heat, then won the main again. John is riding fast and gaining on the field. It will be interesting to see how he gets on with a bigger handicap, that will certainly come next week. Fellow 10 yard starter Donny Powell rode a good race, but was no match for Curry. Behind Donny, Ivan Sevart, George Snodgrass and Tom Adams had a good race.

Division 2 Consi
1. Don Chipman
2. Matt Browne
3. Mike Browne
4. Scott Olney
5. Harlan Bast Snr.
6. Marvin Sonnier

Popular Don Chipman lead from the tapes, with 30+ years his junior, Matt Browne, and father, Mike Browne, close behind.

Division 3 Main
1. Dino Blankenbiller
2. Dave Baker
3. Robert Mellor
4. Kevin Fereira

Also competing in this race were Michael Hooten, Richard Doster, Geno Bellino, Bruce Baker.

New Y2K beginner rider Dino Blankenbiller did a repeat of last week, leading the race from the tapes. Unlike last week, this time he survived the important final yards to take the checkered flag and a well deserved win.

Division 3 Consi

This was a very good race for a third division race. Mike Douglass lead from the tapes until about 10 yards before the checkered flag, then he hit the wall and down he went. After that pandemonium seemed to occur. It was like someone treading on a line of ants, with riders going everywhere. At least one hit the same wall as Mike and I completely lost track of who finished where.

Competitors were: Mike Douglass, David Lee, Vince Bertolucci, Ron Woodsford, Geno Bellino, Greg Hooten Snr., Rudy Becerra and David Quick.

Junior Division 1
1. Eric Carrillo
2. JJ Martynse
3. Bryan Yarrow
4. Greg Hooten Jnr.
5. JT Mabry
6. Chris Kerr

Eric Carrillo's last minute dash from nowhere surprised everyone. Greg Hooten and JJ Martynse had been battling for the lead. Eric had worked his way up to fourth, but was unable to get past his main Division 1 Junior competitor Bryan Yarrow. Between the middle of the last bend and the checkered flag Eric found a path and blasted through from fourth to first.

Junior Division 2.
1. Mark Carrillo
2. Josh Newby
3. Alex Marcucci
4. Brenton Bast
5. Danny Easley
6. Chris Olney

Following in brother Eric's footsteps, Mark Carrillo won the Division 2 Junior main, after a close battle with Josh Newby. Earlier they had been joined by Chris Olney, until he fell. Further back young messieurs Marcucci, Bast and Easley held their own battle. Danny Easley damaged the engine on his new Jawa a couple of weeks ago and is now back to the Honda he rode last year. It has certainly damped his competitiveness.

Junior Division 3
1. TJ Fowler
2. Tom Fehrman
3. Jay Ricketts
4. Amanda English
5. Paul Johnson
6. RJ Becerra
7. Jeff Butler
8. Bruce Bast

TJ Fowler did his usual, from the 30 yard line and caught and passed all the zero yard starters within 2 laps. This kid needs moving further back or moving up.

All in all, another great evening of racing. Tomorrow (tonight now) its off to Cal Expo in Sacramento for Sideways Saturdays 2000 opening night.