Fast Fridays Speedway

Gold Country Fairgrounds - Auburn, CA

2001 25 Lap Main Event
Fast Fridays Speedway
August 17, 2001
From Gary Roberts

Several people commented that this was the hottest Friday evening this year at Auburn. It also looked to me like the best track this year. As has now become the norm, it was a bit heavy for the first half dozen heats, but after that it was perfect all evening. The field looked a bit thin, I suspect many of the riders are taking vacation, but it did not inhibit a great evening of racing.

Scratch Main
1 Billy Janniro
2 Bobby Hedden
3 Bart Bast
4 Tommy Hedden

The appearance of Billy Janniro was an unexpected surprise. During his time in England he has certainly developed into a consistently better rider, being in a class of his own all evening. Bobby Hedden, who has demonstrated excellent form on the outside of the track was unable to catch him

Scratch Consi
1 Bartlomiej Bartecki
2 Chris Kerr
3 Ivan Sevart
4 Bryan Yarrow

Handicap Main 10 Rider, 25 Laps
1 Eric Carrillo
2 Bart Bast
3 Bobby Hedden

By my calculations, these were the only riders who completed the 25 laps, and the only riders who did not stop to rest.

Also in the race were Billy Janniro, Bryan Yarrow, Matt Browne, Tom Adams, Ian Essary, Chris Kerr, Rich Marcucci. Most finished the race as spectators on turn four.

All riders started at double their normal handicap. Tom Adams started from the zero yard line and led for the first couple of laps. In his scratch heat earlier in the evening Eric Carrillo ran hard into the wall on the front straight, hitting his head on the handlebars and spent the rest of the evening in the pits with an ice pack on his head. Eric started the 25 lap race at around the 60 yard line and by the first corner had already pulled level with Chris Kerr from the 40 yard line, the two making very heavy contact in turn one. From there he moved up to take the lead around lap 3, which he then held for the rest of the race. Billy Janniro started half a lap back and made his way through the pack, coming up to challenge Eric around lap 15. He pulled level a couple of times and just as it looked as if he was going to take the lead, his engine gave up with a serious lack of compression. On the final couple of laps Bart Bast made a bid for the lead, but was unable to get closer than a couple of bike lengths. Bobby Hedden was about half a lap down after the 25 laps. Of the rest, Matt Browne, who did not look at all out of place in first division, and Ian Essary were still circling, but I believe both had stopped for a breather, with the growing crowd of spectators on turn four.

Division 2 Main
1 Shawn Eldridge
2 Devin DeFreece
3 Ron Woodsford
4 Dave Baker
5 Bill Warnock
6 Jon Curry

Division 2 Consi
1 Vince Bertolucci
2 Kim Reeg
3 Craig Boone
4 Robert Mellor
5 Kevin Fereira
6 Harlan Bast

Division 3 Main
1 Randy Martin
2 David Fonts
3 Charlie Pascuzzi
4 Dean Blankenbiller
5 Mike Hooten
6 Mike Achilles

Division 3 Consi
1 Pucho Bagnis
2 Kim Reeg
3 Bruce Baker
4 Rick Gutzke

Juniors Division 1
1 TJ Fowler
2 Mark Carrillo
3 Danny Easley
4 Jeff Butler
5 Alex Marcucci
6 Greg Hooten Jr.

Juniors Division 2
1 Tom Fuhrman
2 Paul Johnson
3 Amanda English
4 Bruce Bast
5 Jay Ricketts

Juniors Division 3
11 Mitchell Johnson
2 RJ Becerra
3 Ricky Adams
4 Ronny Woodsford
5 Jesse Becerra

The Sideways Saturdays season finished a couple of weeks ago. Next week is the last regular Fast Fridays event. The track championship and the Junior National Championship is on August 31. The Gold Country Fair Championship has been cancelled because of some music concert, then it's the AMA National Championship on September 21.

Its hard to believe but the Fast Fridays season is rapidly approaching an end. Its still very much summer up here, very hot but nice and dry. This comes at a price. There have been a lot of fires in the area. Even last night a fire started 10 miles east of Auburn and by the time the final stragglers left the pits after 1pm, the smell of smoke was getting very strong. I hope the track is still there next week!