Fast Fridays Speedway

Gold Country Fairgrounds - Auburn, CA

2001 Fan of the Week
Fast Fridays Speedway
June 15, 2001
From Gary Roberts

Another great night of racing at Fast Fridays Speedway in Auburn. Most riders thought the track was probably the best it has been all year. The quality of racing certainly confirmed it.

The first race of the night was billed in the program as Mike Faria, Eric Carrillo, Chris Kerr, Bryan Yarrow, Billy Hiles and Ivan Sevart. Someone described it as granddad and the kids! Although granddad Mike won it, the kids put on a great show, and it made me realize how much young talent has emerged in Northern California in the last 2 years. At that time Yarrow was a promising junior, Kerr and Carrillo were moving from the Junior program to take their first rides on 500s, Sevart was a 10 yard Division 3 rider and Hiles was nearly a year from sitting on his first Speedway bike.

Scratch Main
1 Bart Bast
2 Mike Faria
3 Tommy Hedden
4 Paul Orlandi
Bart got the gate and kept the lead for 4 laps, despite Mike’s attempts to take it from him. Both were riding SECO (Sparks Electric Company) machines. Bart has been riding a SECO bike every week this season. SECO helped Mike out for the night because his engine had been dropped in transit from the re builder breaking the crank case.

Scratch Consi
1 Bryan Yarrow
2 Dukie Ermolenko
3 Eric Carrillo
4 Rich Marcucci

Handicap Main
1 Mike Faria
2 Bart Bast
3 Eric Carrillo
4 Rick Shafer
5 Billy Hiles
Mike Faria and Bart Bast battled from the 50 yard line past first time Handicap Main riders Rick Shafer and Billy Hiles. In the middle of the tight battle, Hiles fell, and the race was stopped and restarted with a staggered start for the last two laps, with all riders remaining in the same order to the finish.

Rick Shafer mentioned to me after the races how great the track was. Rick drives 100 miles to race at Auburn every week. As a lower first division rider he frequently only gets a handicap heat ride, and no scratch ride. This means that unless he qualifies from his handicap heat, his evening is over, in the first four heats, during which time the track is never at its best. Its good to see riders like Rick, who are the backbone of the sport, riding a track on which they can display more confidence.

Handicap Consi
1 Ivan Sevart
2 Dukie Ermolenko
3 Glenn Moore
4 Bryan Yarrow
5 Scott Olney
6 Tommy Hedden

Division 2 Main
1 John Stunkard
2 JJ Martynse
3 Kevin Fereira
John Stunkard made the trip up from LA with Dukie Ermolenko and was rewarded with a
Division2 Main win ahead of ex-Junior JJ Martynse.

Division 2 Consi
1 Shawn Eldridge
2 Harland Bast Senior
3 Glenn Scott

Division 3 Main
1 Brenton Bast
2 Eric Ryan
3 Mike Achilles
Another successful Bast, ex-Junior Brenton Bast looks much tidier riding a 500 than he ever did as a Junior. With this form,I would expect to see him transferring to Division 2 in the near future. Brenton’s father, Harlan Bast Jnr. was last night, sporting a cast over a broken elbow, another injured warrior, from last Saturday’s battle of Cal Expo.

Division 3 Consi
1 Rick Gutske
2 Lee Sharp
3 Brian Leventon

Juniors Division 1
Mark Carrillo
TJ Fowler
JT Mabry
Greg Hooten
Alex Marcucci
Danny Easley

Juniors Division 2
Jeff Butler
Paul Johnson
Jay Ricketts
Pete King
Tom Furhman
Amanda English
Bruce Bast

Juniors Division 3
RJ Becerra
Ricky Felicio
Mitchell Johnson
Ronny Woodsford
Jesse Becerra
Tori Hubbert

At the riders meeting the promoter, Dave Joiner, congratulated the riders and his staff on the professionalism that has been shown this year at Auburn. Dave is right on the nail, everyone at Fast Fridays has been putting on an outstanding show. From Mike Rooney, the announcer, down to the third division juniors, everyone has done a great job.