Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

Fast Fridays, Auburn, California USA - August 4, 2006
By Gary Roberts

Another great night of racing at Fast Fridays. The weather is now down into the 90s during the day and the track was a totally different colour! Its the first time I have ever seen a gray surfaced speedway track. The material was like a pulverized slate. It started out feeling like wet sand. Everyone had a different opinion before the racing started, but by the end of the evening it seemed to work OK.

Scratch main winner was Charlie Venegas who gated from slot 2 ahead of Mike Faria, on the pole. Bryan Yarrow started in gate 3 and was third out of the gate, Tommy Hedden was in gate 4 and got to the corner fourth. That continued to be the order for four laps.

Returning from his two month English Speedway adventure only the previous night was Matt Browne. The most noticeable difference is that he has learned to gate. In the scratch consolation race he made a good gate along side Alex Marcucci, leaving Chad Felicio and TJ Fowler in his dust. The latter two made their way past Alex, over the four laps, but made no impression on jet-lagged Matt Browne.

A long awaited and very deserving winner of the Handicap Main was Alex Marcucci. Since winning the Youth National Championship in 2003 Alex has not had a division 1 win. Tonight he rode with the determination that won him the Youth National. He started out on the zero yard line with Matt Proto and Josh West. He got the best gate and the high yardage riders took time battling with Proto and West. Chad Felicio got ahead of the other two zero yard riders on the fourth lap and despite pressure on Marcucci, he was unable to past him.

Harlan Bast’s oldest grandson Josh Everle won the second division main for the third time this season despite pressure from flat-tracker Jim Lewis.

Adrien Contreras, the "Manic Hispanic" had a clear win in the division 3 main.

Results:
Scratch Main Event
1. Charlie Venegas; 2. Mike Faria; 3. Bryan Yarrow; 4. Tommy Hedden.

Scratch Consolation Event
1. Matt Browne; 2. TJ Fowler; 3. Chad Felicio; 4. Alex Marcucci.

Handicap Main Event
1. Alex Marcucci; 2. Chad Felicio; 3. Mike Faria; 4. TJ Fowler; 5. Josh West.

Handicap Consolation Event
1. JT Mabry; 2. Tommy Hedden; 3. Danny Easley; 4. JJ Martynse; 5. Bryan Yarrow.

Division 2 Main Event
1. Josh Everle; 2. Jim Lewis; 3. Cory Barringer; 4. Danny Turner; 5. Mike Achilles.

Division 2 Consolation Event
1. Tyler Hansen; 2. Bill Warnock; 3. Danny Poli; 4. Rachalle Kerr; 5. Harlan Bast.

Division 3 Main Event
1. Adrien Contreras; 2. Lenny Bouressa; 3. Dennis Michel; 4. Paul Schoen; 5. Clark Caravella.

Division 3 Consolation Event
1. Tom Fehrman; 2. Johnny Frank; 3. Jeff Irwin; 4. Gary Hubbert; 5. JK Bond.

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

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

Youth Main Division 3
1. Eric Randolph; 2. Tanner Kane; 3. Tyler Warren; 4. Michelle Fehrman.

It is unbelievable that there are only 2 more weeks of regular format speedway before the track championships and national championships. Where did the season go? Still no sign of the Carrillo brothers, maybe next week?

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com