USA Auburn Jun 15, 2001
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 rebuilder 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
Div 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
Div2 Main win ahead of ex-Junior JJ Martynse.
Div 2 Consi
1 Shawn Eldridge
2 Harland Bast Senior
3 Glenn Scott
Div 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 Div 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.
Div 3 Consi
1 Rick Gutske
2 Lee Sharp
3 Brian Leventon
Juniors Div 1
Mark Carrillo
TJ Fowler
JT Mabry
Greg Hooten
Alex Marcucci
Danny Easley
Juniors Div 2
Jeff Butler
Paul Johnson
Jay Ricketts
Pete King
Tom Fuhman
Amanda English
Bruce Bast
Juniors Div 3
RJ Becerra
Ricky Felicio
Mitchell Johnson
Ronny Woodsford
Jesse Becerra
Tori Hubbbert
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.
Gary Roberts groberts@iee.org