Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds - Auburn, CA

2000 Fast Fridays
Fast Fridays
August 25, 2000
From Gary Roberts

Bobby Hedden wins the Track Points Championship, Billy Janniro takes the Main, and Chris Manchester wins the Handicap!

Tonight was the last regular Speedway event of the year at Auburn. Not the last event, but the future weeks will all be Championship events.

Tonight was the last points scoring night and this year Northern California has a new name as the Division One points Champion. Bobby Hedden won his first points championship. He has been in the lead most of the season, but it has been close. Out in front with him were Billy Janniro and multi points Championship winner, Bart Bast. So Bobby Hedden will wear number "1N" next year.

For the first time in a long time, there was a faint blue groove on the track at the end of the evening. But it proved not to be the only line. The outside had a very rideable smooth cushion of dirt.

Unofficial results

Scratch Main
1. Billy Janniro
2. Mike Faria
3. Bobby Hedden
4. Bart Bast

Janniro, Faria and Bast left the gate in that order and stayed on the blue groove, by the pole, in that order for the entire race. Bobby Hedden got a pretty bad start but rode his own race, riding the outside cushion, oblivious to the others, moving back and forth sometimes ahead of Faria, other times behind Bast.

Scratch Consi
1. Chris Manchester
2. Ryan Fisher
3. Ian Ferris
4. Paul Orlandi

Handicap Main
1. Chris Manchester
2. Mike Faria
3. Billy Janniro
4. Eric Carrillo
5. Tom Adams
6. Charlie Venegas

Another polished Manchester performance. After following early leader Eric Carrillo for a few laps, he moved Eric gently over, sending Eric wide, letting Faria and Janniro past.

Handicap Consi
1. Matt Becker
2. Bob Hicks
3. Bart Bast
4. Bobby Hedden
5. Dukie Ermolenko

Robert Curry fell earlier in the evening and was a non starter.

It was good to see Matt Becker back. It was the first appearance this season of the former Junior National Champion.

Division 2 Main
1. Ivan Sevart
2. Billy Hiles
3. Chris Kerr
4. Dave Booth
5. George Snodgrass
6. Chuck Lane

Division 2 Consi
1. Vince Bertolucci
2. Robert Mellor
3. Marvin Sonnier
4. Harlan Bast Snr.
5. Shawn MacDonald
6. Craig Boone

Division 3 Main
1. Greg Hooten
2. Dave Baker
3. Mike Achilles

Also in the race were Billy Hines, Eric Ryan, Dave Quick, Kevin Fereira and Ron Woodsford.

Division 3 Consi
1. Bruce Baker
2. Randy Krebs
3. Mike Hooten
4. John Stunkard
5. Devon DeFreece
6. Les Veale
7. Richard Doster
8. Jeff Blades

Junior Division 1
1. Bryan Yarrow
2. Greg Hooten  Jnr..
3. JJ Martynse
4. JT Mabry

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

Junior Division 3
1. Chris Smith
2. Jeff Butler
3. Jay Ricketts
4. Tom Fehrman
5. Bruce Bast
6. Ricky Felicio

Next week is the Auburn Track Championship and the Junior National Championship, rolled into one, and will comprise significantly more races than the usual 36 races. My recollection was that last year there were 54 races, all successfully completed in two and a half hours. A model of efficiency, by any standard.

The Junior National will be interesting. Division 1 should belong to Bryan Yarrow. He fought season long last year with Eric Carrillo but usually finished up #2. This year he has been ahead, but by a smaller than expected margin. JJ Martynse, in particular has made significant progress through the year. Division 2 is a much more difficult one to pick a winner. Each week the field has been very evenly matched. Mark Carrillo has been running consistently all year, Danny Easley is always near the front and TJ Fowler has been fast, but too often fails to finish. This will be the closest of the three divisions. Division 3 belonged to Paul Johnson early in the year, having the advantage of last season's experience. The same applies to Jeff Butler. But some of this year's newcomers have come a long way. Pete King, Tom Fehrman and Jay Ricketts have all won main events. My pick would still be Paul Johnson. Northern California has created some great new talent among the Junior Speedway riders. The program has grown each year.