Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

North Vs South Civil War
July 15, 2005 - Fast Fridays, Auburn
By Gary Roberts

The annual North vs. South Civil War took place on an extremely hot night, well into the 90s, in which the Southern Californians clearly struggled. The track started out wet, but quickly settled down into a very good surface, which was confirmed some good racing.

After the first 4 heats the North had a 10 point lead, which they continued to expand throughout the evening.

Unofficial results:

North
Mike Faria 2 3 3 0 8
Chad Felicio 1 1 1 1 4
Bart Bast 3 2 1 2 8
Bryan Yarrow 2 1 3 3 9
Bobby Hedden 3 3 2 1 9
Tommy Hedden 1 2 1 2 6
Chris Kerr 3 2 2 3 10
Matt Browne 2 0 1 1 4

South
Charlie Venegas 0 3 0 0 3
Buck Blair 3 1 3 3 2 12
Randy DiFrancesco 1 1 0 2 4
Nate Perkins 0 0 2 dq 2
Ryan Fisher 2 3 3 3 11
Denny Scopellite 0 0 0 0
Bobby Schwartz 1 2 3 1 7
Shaun Harmatiuk 0 0 0 0 0

This left the score at 57 to 39. Thereafter followed a final and a grand final with weighted scoring.

Final:
1. Mike Faria
2. Randy DiFrancesco
3. Nate Perkins
4. Bart Bast

Grand Final:
1. Bobby Hedden
2. Chris Kerr
3. Charlie Venegas
4.Buck Blair

By my calculations, this made the final score 71 - 49. (This could be wrong, since it differs with 2 other fans, both of whom differed with one another!)

Clearly the North deserved the win. Everyone contributed. As top scorer for the North, Chris Kerr demonstrated that he has moved up a few notches this season. Last minute substitute Matt Browne, who got promoted from reserve to take the place of TJ Fowler, lived up to expectations.

For the South, Buck Blair and Ryan Fisher rode well, scoring more than half the points. I expected more from Charlie Venegas and Nate Perkins whose previous trips to Auburn have produced much better results.

Last night I perceived some definite cultural differences. While American fans enjoy watching team racing, they are not as pedantic as Europeans about following the score. The accumulative score was reported for the first few races, after that there was no interest, perhaps because the North pulled so far ahead. While American teams are keen to win, they do not take advantage of the rules like tactical substitutions in the same way as European teams. Only one tac. sub was executed, which gave the South their one and only 5-1. I am sure that if Ryan Fisher had been given another ride, the score would have been closer.

Along with the adult NvS last night included the third annual running of the Youth NvS event and for the first time the South won by 35 to 33. Ricky Wells and Krystal Cramer were unbeaten by any North team member.

Congratulations to the South!

Unofficial results:

Youth North
Paul Johnson 2 2 2 1 7
Bryce Starks 1 1 1 - 3
Jay Ricketts 0 3 1 3 7
Ben Essary 0 1 2 0 3
Ricky Felicio 3 2 2 0 7
Tom Fehrman 0 1 1 1 3
Cody Ciciarelli (Res) - - - 3 3

Youth South
Ricky Wells 3 3 3 3 12
Joey Holt 0 0 0 0 0
Krystal Cramer 3 3 3 2 11
Austin Novratil 2 0 0 1 3
Jason Ramirez 0 2 3 2 7
Ricky Valdez 0 0 0 2 2

So next week its back to the regular AMA District 36 points program, hopefully with the exciting addition of Bobby Ott to the program.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com