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Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds - Auburn, CA
2001 Challenge Championship
Fast Fridays Speedway
August 24, 2001
From Gary Roberts
Another pleasant summer evening at Auburn.
Unusually, the track was not heavy early on, but was absolutely perfect all
evening. Maybe a sign that the weather is cooling down. This enabled some
outstandingly close racing, with numerous heats, semifinals and main events where all
riders filled my camera shots, even on the last lap.
Scratch Main
1 Bart Bast
2 Chris Manchester
3 Bartlomiej Bartecki
4 Mike Faria
Mike Faria got the gate, but overdid the first turn, going wide and letting the other
three through. After that, there was no catching Bart Bast. Bartek took second
with Chris Manchester uncomfortably close. Chris got past Bartek coming into the final
lap. Bartek is off back to Poland this week, after an extremely successful 4 week
visit. He rode competitively with our top riders, had a good time and wants to come back
next year.
Scratch Consi
1 Dukie Ermolenko
2 Bobby Hedden
3 Eric Carrillo
4 Bryan Yarrow
Handicap Main
1 Bart Bast (50)
2 Bobby Hedden (50)
3 Bryan Yarrow (10)
4 Chris Kerr (20)
5 Ian Essary (10)
6 Chris Manchester (50)
Ian Essary, riding extremely fast took a commanding lead, and looked set to win until Chris Kerr, who was in third place and Bryan Yarrow, who was in second collided.
Bryan got the worst part of the deal, hitting the turn four wall hard. The staggered
re-start reduced Essary's lead to a bike length, which was soon eroded. Bart Bast, who is
top point scorer for both Auburn and Northern California this year, came through to take
the win, followed by Bobby Hedden.
Handicap Consi
1 Mike Faria (50)
2 Tom Adams (0)
3 Glenn Moore (0)
4 Paul Orlandi (20)
5 Rick Marcucci (20)
6 Eric Carrillo (30)
Another good race, with Mike Faria working his way past the rest of the field. Impressive
were Tom Adams and Glenn Moore. Tom has become a solid Division 1 rider this year
and Glenn is back to the form he had before breaking his leg in 1996.
CHALLENGE CHAMPIONSHIP
Five man Challenge results were: Winner Mike Faria, 2nd Chris Manchester, 3rd Bart Bast,
4th Eric Carrillo, 5th Bobby Hedden (ex tapes)
Congratulations to Mike Faria........
Division 2 Main
1 Devin DeFreece
2 Craig Boone
3 Bill Hermant
4 Mike Browne
5 Ron Woodsford
6 Vince Bertolucci
Division 2 Consi
1 Shawn Eldridge
2 Harlan Bast
3 Jon Curry
4 Rachalle Kerr
5 Dave Baker
Division 3 Main
1 Pucho Bagnis
2 David Fonts
3 Dean Blankenbiller
4 Mike Achilles
5 Kim Reeg
6 Kelly McBane
7 Mark Lemma
8 Charlie Pascuzzi
Division 3 Consi
1 Bruce Baker
2 Kimi Valentine
3 Kevin Fereira
4 Les Veale
5. Mike Hooten
Juniors Division 1
1. Mark Carrillo
2. TJ Fowler
3. Danny Easley
4. Greg Hooten
5. JT Mabry
6. Jeff Butler
7. Alex Marcucci
Juniors Division 2
1. Tom Fehrman
2. Paul Johnson
3. Bruce Bast
4. Amanda English
5. Jay Ricketts
6. Pete King
Juniors Division 3
1. Ricky Wells
2. Ricky Felicio
3. Mitchell Johnson
4. Hunter Morris
Next week will be the Junior National Championship.
For the past 5 years the most likely winner of the Division 1 class of the Junior National
was predictable at the start of the season. This years its not the case. It could be
the speed of Greg Hooten, the style of TJ Fowler, or the consistency of Mark Carrillo or
Danny Easley. One thing can be guaranteed, this will be a hard fought event.
There has been extremely strong participation from most
parents of the Junior riders and the riders themselves, with the Junior Speedway
committee's activities which have been going on all year, in preparation for next week's
event. Last night T-shirts went on sale, next week spectators will get a FREE 64
page program. This will be an event to be remembered.
I should mention that next week is also the Auburn Track
Championship!!!
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