2010 First Round National Speedway Championship July 23, 2010

Preview for Fast Friday’s
First Round National Speedway Championship
By Michael Kirby (Story &Photos)

Get ready for some great speedway racing as the opening round of the 2010 AMA/USA Budweiser National Speedway Championship comes to Auburn’s Fast Friday’s Motorcycle Speedway Friday night.  Sixteen of the best riders in the nation will converge on the Gold Country Fairgrounds racing to win a national speedway championship.  Benicia’s Billy Janniro, who won the National Championship in 2008, and has been the man to beat all season riding at the top of his game and winning eight of ten scratch main events so far this season at Fast Friday’s and will be hard to beat.  Only Scott Brant, on June 5, and Charlie Venegas, just last week, has been able to beat Janniro in the scratch main event.  Both Venegas and Brant could spoil Janniro’s party and both riders have the credentials to pull off upset victories.  Venegas and Brant have been racing professionally since the 1980s, Brant was the 2003 National Champion,and Venegas would like nothing better than to add a national championship to his impressive list of speedway accomplishments.  “For me heck, that’s right on schedule, we’ve been pressing every week, I’m ready when the big ones come,” said Venegas.  You can never count out Auburn’s Bart Bast and Tommy Hedden, both who are riding well, and always a threat at Fast Friday’s and will be gunning hard for a chance at a national championship.

From Southern California Tyson Burmeister, Jimmy Fishback, and Gary Hicks could be a handful, and Bobby Schwartz a veteran of over 36 years of speedway racing and National Championships in 1986 and 1989 should never be counted out.  Absent from this year’s national line-up is current 2009 AMA/USA National Champion Greg Hancock, who with last years win holds a record eight championships surpassing Auburn’s Mike Bast who has won seven nationals.  “Greg’s racing commitments in Europe and scheduling conflicts have kept him from racing in the national championship this year,” said Fast Friday’s promoter David Joiner.  “He has promised to support the series and hopefully he will be back next year.”

This year’s national championship will be a two series event with both rounds staged at Fast Friday’s in Auburn.  Twenty heat races will seed riders into the night’s final four main events according to their heat race points.  Points scored in these final four main event swill go toward the championship series total points.  “To win a national championship you have to be a good rider, you have to perform when it counts, and you have to have a little bit luck,” said Joiner.

The final and deciding round will be October 1 at Fast Friday’s.  The total rider purse for each round is$10,000 with the high point’s rider of each round receiving $2,000.  Racing gets going an 8:00pm and gates open at 6:30pm, come early to get a good seat for the best speedway racing of the season.

	Billy Janniro (front) leads riders out of a turn in a heat race at Fast Friday’s earlier this season.  Janniro will be the man to beat Friday night when sixteen of the nations best speedway riders will compete in the opening round of the AMA/USA National Speedway Championship Series at the Gold Country Fairgrounds Auburn.
	Billy Janniro has been tough to beat all season at Fast Friday’s and will be even tougher to beat heading into Friday nights opening round of the AMA/USA National Speedway Championship Series at the Gold Country Fairgrounds Auburn.
	Auburn’s Bart Bast will be one of sixteen of the best speedway riders to compete for the2010 AMA/USA National Speedway Championship which stages it’s opening round Friday night at the Gold Country Fairgrounds Fast Friday’s track.