Fast Fridays Speedway Gold Country Fairgrounds Auburn, California
Fan Appreciation Night
June 20, 2003 - Fast Fridays, Auburn
By Gary Roberts
A rather somber night at Fast Fridays. The previous
Saturday, Fast Fridays promoted a one night championship Speedway event at
the County Fair at Placerville. In the course of a flat track demo during
the intermission a flat track rider crashed receiving fatal injuries. John
Grant, the referee, who was a personal friend of the deceased rider,
reminded every competitor at the riders meeting that motorcycle racing is a
potentially dangerous sport. This might sound obvious, but is something that
many of us, both competitors and spectators, overlook, when enjoying our
evening at Speedway.
Moving on to the racing. The track started out OK but
turned dusty as the evening went on, and by the time the main events took
place there was only a blue groove single race line. The weather was hot
again, around 90 most of the day, but cooled as the evening went on. I would
estimate the crowd size at around 1800.
Scratch Main
1. Bobby Hedden
2. Bart Bast
3. Mike Faria
4. Alan Christian
Once again, Bobby Hedden took the scratch main. It was good to see Alan
Christian back out racing again, but this time he touched the tapes and
there ended his race. Hedden got the gate, closely followed by Bast and
Faria and that’s how it went for 4 laps.
Scratch Consolation
1. Bryan Yarrow
2. Chad Felicio
3. Jim Estes
4. Bart Bardecki
Handicap Main
1. Bart Bardecki
2. Eric Carrillo
3. Bobby Hedden
4. Bart Bast
5. Richard Christian
6. Mike Faria.
Richard Christian, from the zero yard line lead the race for three laps. At
the end of the fourth lap he went wide, letting Bart Bardecki through to
take the lead. On the next turn he fell, taking down Eric Carrillo and the
race was stopped. Mike Faria who had been inhaling vast quantities of dust
at the back did not come back for the restart. Riders were lined up in their
positions at the start of lap 5, but with Christian at the back. That was
the same order in which they finished.
Handicap
Consolation
1. JJ Martynse
2. Bryan Yarrow
3. Tommy Hedden
4. Alan Christian
5. Jim Estes
6. Justin Boyle
It was good to see the progress that Justin Boyle has made this season.
After taking third place in the 2002 Youth National Championship he stepped
up to a 500 at the start of this season in Southern California. This was his
first ride at Auburn this year. From the 10 yard line he lead for a couple
of laps before being passed by JJ Martynse, but later retired with machine
problems. For a 16 year old Justin has a bright future.
Division 2 Main
1. David Fonts
2. Ron Woodsford
3. Mike Achilles
4. Devon Defreece
5. Bill Hermant
6. Randy Martin
Division 2 Consolation
1. Mike Browne
2. Doug Mignano
3. Dean Blankenbiller
4. Harlan Bast
5. Shawn Eldridge
6. Greg Searle
Division 3 Main
1. Treggan Mullenix
2. Rich Mignano
3. John Deatherage
4. Guy Jessop
Dennis Chandler qualified but was a non starter. Greg Lovlien fell during
the first run of this race and was a non starter in the rerun. Danny Poli
and Dave Quick fell during the re-run.
Division 3 Consolation
1. Brian Deland
2. Kerr Kerrigan
3. Robert Christian
Other qualifiers were Christian Sherpy, Matt Pangburn, Greg Chacon, Clark
Caravella, Greg Howell.
Youths Division 1
1. JT Mabry
2. Danny Easley
3. TJ Fowler
4. Alex Marcucci
5. Paul Johnson
Youths Division 2
1. Ricky Felicio
2. Jay Ricketts
3. Ronnie Woodsford
4. Tom Fuhrman
5. Dario Galvin
Youths Division 3
1. Jason Ramirez
2. Tori Hubbert
3. Trevor Searle
Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com
|