Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

Fast Fridays, Auburn, California USA - July 28, 2006
By Gary Roberts

Back to more reasonable weather. The thermometer has come down to under 100 after no less than 10 days of 100+ and last night it began to feel almost chilly. There was again a disappointing lack of riders at Fast Fridays.

Colorado native Buck Blair won the Fast Fridays endurance 25 lap main event. He took the lead on the fourth lap and held on for the 25 laps. Blair’s victory was not easy considering he had Auburn’s Tommy Hedden on his tail providing constant pressure every lap of the way. Eight riders qualified for the race, but before it even started Matt Proto blew up his engine, splitting the cases, in an earlier race. Sacramento’s Greg Hooten got to the starting line, but retired with machine troubles before the start. So it was a six rider start. Ivan Sevart and Josh West started on the zero yard line. Blair started in turn 4, Bryan Yarrow and Chad Felicio were in turn 3 and way back on the back straight was Tommy Hedden. Sevart got the gate and lead West and fast approaching Blair for the first lap, after which Blair moved up to second. In the back, Felicio and Hedden pulled away from Yarrow and quickly caught up with the front runners. By lap 5 Blair was in front with Felicio and Hedden close behind. Then there was a widening gap before the other group of West, Yarrow and Sevart. As the race progressed, Blair and Hedden pulled ahead, Yarrow got by West, then Sevart pulled to the infield. Felicio slowed when his steel shoe came off, but he continued without it, maintaining third place. Several times in the closing laps Hedden pulled along side Blair but was unable to complete the pass.

The scratch main was also an action packed race. Lining up on the inside was Bryan Yarrow, then Charlie Venegas, then Tommy Hedden and completing the line up on the outside Chad Felicio. Yarrow and Venegas gated side by side but Yarrow was first out of turn 2 and kept the winning position till the end. The real battle took place behind him. On the back straight third place man Tommy Hedden found sufficient traction to fly past Venegas. A lap later, Venegas fought back and took second. By this time Felicio had pulled off. Not one to give up Hedden tried again to get around Venegas, but fell, although he remounted to take third.

Second division main winner was, for the second time this season, Jim Lewis. His flat track background gave him a similar style to second place finisher, veteran motocrosser Danny Turner.

Third division main winner was Paul Schoen, who started racing Speedway only 6 weeks ago.

Results:

Scratch Main
1. Bryan Yarrow; 2. Charlie Venegas; 3. Tommy Hedden; 4. Chad Felicio.

Scratch Consolation
1. Buck Blair; 2. Greg Hooten; 3. Ivan Sevart; 4. JJ Martynse.

25 lap Handicap Main
1. Buck Blair; 2. Tommy Hedden; 3.Chad Felicio; 4. Bryan Yarrow; 5. Josh West.

Division 2 Main
1. Jim Lewis; 2. Danny Turner; 3. Cory Barringer; 4. Tyler Hansen; 5.Josh Euerle.

Division 2 Consolation
1. Brian Leventon; 2. Bill Warnock; 3. Harlan Bast;; 4. Rachalle Kerr; 5. Steve Lewotsky.

Division 3 Main
1. Paul Schoen; 2. Tom Fehrman; 3. Lenny Bouressa; 4. Dennis Michel;; 5. Rich Mignano.

Division 3 Consolation
1. Adrien Contreras; 2. Clark Caravella; 3.Tori Hubbert; 4. Jeff Irwin; 5. JK Bond.

Youth Main Division 1
1. Ben Essary; 2. Ricky Felicio; 3. Will Hilgenberg; 4. Cody Ciciarelli.

Youth Main Division 2
1. Steven Reese; 2. Amber Felicio; 3. Ben Turner; 4. Tom Reich.

Youth Main Division 3
1. Tanner Kane; 2. Eric Randolf; 3. Michelle Fehrman; 4. Jamison Dilkey.

Next week will be the night before the Costa Mesa National Championship round and I suspect some top names might be missing. This may be an opportunity for riders who have been thinking of coming out for a race to come out and win some prize money. How about it Eric, Mark and others?

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com