Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds - Auburn, CA

2000 Fast Fridays
Fast Fridays
June 16, 2000
From Gary Roberts

A hot night at Auburn, with some excellent racing, as always a lot of overtaking, but a number of injuries to riders.

Scratch Main

1. Billy Janniro
2. Bobby Hedden
3. Mike Faria
4. Charlie Venegas (tapes, disq)

Charlie Venegas had been suffering clutch problems all evening, and in the scratch main it pulled him right into the tapes. The rerun was a great race with Bobby Hedden getting the gate, being chased hard by Billy Janniro, who got past him on lap 2. Third man Mike Faria was close behind.

Scratch Consi
1. Ryan Fisher
2. Bart Bast
3. Robert Curry

Tommy Hedden also qualified, but was a non starter. Ryan was first out the gate, followed by Bart and that was the way it stayed for 4 laps.

Handicap Main

1. Ryan Fisher
2. Bart Bast
3. Mike Faria
4. Charlie Venegas
5. Billy Janniro
6. Robert Curry

Another great win for Ryan Fisher. He has truly established himself as a top performer, and at the age of 16. His brilliant riding, along with his calm, mature attitude must put him at the top of the list of the long term hopefuls, in the future of US Speedway. This was a great race, with Ryan and Robert Curry starting out on the 30 yard line and the rest coming off the 50. Ryan lead all the way through, and maintained a safe lead. Behind him a strong battle took place, with Charlie Venegas initially trying the outside, before finding it was no quicker.

Handicap Consi
1. Bobby Hedden
2. Paul Orlandi
3. Ian Ferris
4. Chad Felicio
5. George Snodgrass
6. Tommy Hedden

In the first running of this race, Paul Orlandi had quite a commanding lead, when Tommy Hedden fell. Tommy's fall appeared quite graceful, more or less landing on his feet, however sustaining a broken hand in the process. He was operated on the next day. The race was re-run with a staggered start with Orlandi, Ian Ferris and Bobby Hedden much closer together. Bobby made a great start, getting past Ian, then later getting past Paul.

Division 2 Main
1. Ivan Sevart
2. Tom Adams
3. Richard Powell
4. George Snodgrass
5. Dave Booth
6. Mike Browne

Another win for Bart Bast's nephew, Ivan Sevart.

Division 2 Consi
1. Marvin Sonnier
2. Matt Browne
3. Harlan Bast Snr. 
4. Scott Olney
5. Don Chipman

Division 3 Main
1. Billy Hiles
2. Greg Hooten Snr.
3. Kevin Fereira
4. Robert Mellor
5. Dave Baker
6. Bruce Baker
7. Mike Hooten
8. Dennis Chandler

Billy Hiles had another convincing division 3 win. This time he went straight into the lead, but the race was stopped. In the re-run he did the same thing, but within a lap his hand went up as his engine stopped. He then appeared to turn the fuel back on, and re joined the race in fifth position. It took him another lap and a half to regain the lead.

Division 3 Consi
1. Mike Achilles
2. Vince Bertolucci
3. Bill Warnock
4. Geno Bellino
5. Devin DeFreece
6. Eric Ryan
7. Les Veale
8. Brian Leventon

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

Junior Division 2
1. TJ Fowler
2. Josh Newby
3. Danny Easley
4. Chris Olney (ef)

Junior Division 3
1. Chris Smith
2. Paul Johnson
3. Bruce Bast
4. Mitchell Johnson
5. Tom Fehrman
6. Michael Wade
7. RJ Becerra
8. Adam Butler

Other riders injured included popular lady rider Rachalle Kerr. Rachalle fell down in her division 2 heat without injury, but before she had a chance to get up, another rider ran into her. She also had a broken hand. Her injuries could have been much more serious. The other rider's foot peg went through her leathers into her back protector. Rachalle attended Cal Expo on Saturday as a spectator.

Veteran rider Rich Mignano broke an ankle in a fall in his division 3 heat. Bill Thomas, the oldest regular competitor in Northern California, (at the age of 76 he must be the oldest competitor in the world!) fell in his division 2 heat, damaging his shoulder muscles, thankfully no bones broken.

Mike was supposed to be going to the Overseas Final this weekend, but was unable to raise the funds to do it. So the only US representatives will be Sam Ermolenko, John Cook and Josh Larsen. Good luck to all three of them!