Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

Challenge Elimination Series - Round 3
June 25, 2004 - Fast Fridays, Auburn
By Gary Roberts

On return from my annual Cardiff pilgrimage, I am told the Auburn weather was up in the 100 degree F area during my absence, but last night was a gentle 75 with a light breeze. I arrived to see the track looking more like a ploughed field, but it very quickly became a good flat, smooth racing surface, and provided more excellent racing.

Unlike most fans, I was sorry to see Bryan Yarrow back in Auburn. Bryan is a former Youth National Champion, who over the past couple of seasons has put his heart and soul into his Speedway. Along with his parents, he has spent his Friday nights at Auburn, then driven over 800 miles on Saturday to race at Costa Mesa. I was pleased to see him get a place on Coventry's team this year, and was confident that he would quickly pick up the supplementary skills to succeed on the larger UK tracks. Unless one has lived in both places it is difficult to realize how much American riders give up when they go to race in Europe. In addition, the different lifestyle, weather, food, personal space take time to get used to. I am sorry that Bryan's first conquest of Europe failed, but then he was in good company. Remember how well Mike Bast and a certain Bruce Penhall did on their first visit? I hope Bryan gets another chance soon. Meanwhile, the Auburn crowd was pleased to see him ride last night.

Unofficial results:

Scratch Main
1. Chris Manchester
2. Scott Brant
3. Bobby Hedden
4. Bryan Yarrow

Handicap Main
1. Chad Felicio
2. Bobby Hedden
3. Scott Brant
4. Chris Manchester
5. Bart Bast
6. TJ Fowler
TJ Fowler lead until the last lap, when he got overtaken by Chad and Bobby, on turn two, then he fell on turn three.

Handicap Consolation
1. Bryan Yarrow
2. Tommy Hedden
3. JJ Martynse
4. Billy Hiles
Mike Faria and Bart Bardecki also qualified for the race but were non starters.

Division 2 Main
1. RJ Becerra
2. Bruce Bast
3. Shawn Eldridge
4. Mike Achilles
5. Harlan Bast
6. Rachelle Kerr

Division 2 Consolation
1. Kenny Ingalls
2. Mike Browne
3. Vince Bertolucci
4. Greg Searle
5. Bill Hermant
6. Les Veale

Division 3 Main
1. Sean Billenstein
2. Derek Sheppard
3. Kell Kerrigan
4. Norman Brooks
5. Jim Jensen
6. Brian Leventon
7. Scott Robinson
8. Don Ballard

Division 3 Consolation
1. Cory Ballinger
2. Greg Lovlien
3. Treggan Mullenix
4. Greg Howell
5. Steve Rowett
6. Kjell Lovlien
7. Rich Mignano
8. Todd Repsher

Youths Division 1
1. Krystal Cramer
2. Miles Calvin
3. Paul Johnson
4. Jay Ricketts
5. Mitchell Johnson
Southern California visitors, Krystal Cramer and Miles Calvin gave the local riders some competition. Since Alex Marcucci have moved to a 500 it now looks quite likely that the 2004 Youth National Champion will be from Southern California. The last one to achieve that was Ryan Fisher.

Youths Division 2
1. Dillon Petersen
2. Tom Fehrman
3. Tori Hubbert
4. Cody Ciciarelli

Youths Division 3
1. Bryce Starks
2. Troy Guisande

After 2 weeks of UK Speedway, it was nice to get back to going to a Speedway track where I knew it was not going to get rained off. I also knew it was not going to change to a different night of the week because of a TV company or have to find out if it was to be running this week or should I wait till next week because of BSPA planning. It was great that the admission price was a sensible 10 bucks (now only about 6 quid) and that the program was free.

Now if only I can get them to offer some UK beer as well, maybe we'll have a winner!

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com