Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

Fast Fridays, Auburn, California USA - August 25, 2006
By Gary Roberts

Last night Fast Fridays hosted both the first, second and third division Track Championships as well as the Youth National Championship (Ricky Felicio) on the same night, packing in a massive 46 races.

San Bernardino’s Charlie Venegas had an unbeaten night, winning the Fast Fridays first division 2006 Track Championship. He won each of his five races from the gate. For the other 15 riders in the field, things were not as easy. There were a lot of riders falling, races restarted and disputed referee decisions. But Venegas had none of that.

He started out in the first race up against two of his biggest competitors, Reno’s Mike Faria and Auburn’s Tommy Hedden. He set a pattern he was to follow all night. Lightning fast gates launching him into dominating the first turn and leaving the rest to sort out the next three places. Other winners in the first round of races were Bryan Yarrow, Buck Blair and TJ Fowler. In Venegas’s next race he proved his dominance again when he beat TJ Fowler and Bryan Yarrow. Other winners in that round were Mike Faria, Tommy Hedden and Chad Felicio.

Vacaville’s Devin Defreece was the reserve for the evening. Typically a reserve would get two, maybe three rides. Last night he got no less than seven rides because of disqualifications and riders being unable to take their ride.

Controversy surrounded two consecutive heats directly before the intermission. In heat 11 Auburn’s Bart Bast, Mike Faria and TJ Fowler battled in the first corner, with Bast taking a slim lead. Faria and Fowler went into turn three together, contact was made and both riders went down, as did last place man Chad Felicio. The referee deemed it Faria’s fault and disqualified him. This decision did not go down well with the crowd and Faria believed there should have been a full restart. But Defreece was brought out to replace him. It did not end there. Felicio, whose silencer fell apart when he went down came back out to the line with no silencer. He was disqualified and a second reserve was brought out.

In the next heat Bryan Yarrow got the gate but Loomis’s Danny Easley went past Greg Hooten going into turn three and Hooten tumbled spectacularly. This time it was a full restart, but exactly the same thing happened again between the same two riders in the same place. This time it was deemed Easley’s fault and Defreece was back out to replace him in the restart.

Venegas won his last three heats with relative ease, for his 15 points. Fowler, ended the night with 13 points, tied with Bryan Yarrow to take second and third places along side Venegas on the rostrum. Yarrow lost his points to Venegas and Fowler. Fowler lost his points to Venegas and Colorado’s Buck Blair.

How did the others do? Bart Bast, who suffered a broken ankle at the start of the season rode his first races at Auburn since his injury. He was clearly not up to his usual standard, but had an OK night. His main reason for being there was preparation for the AMA National next week. Chad Felicio scored less than would be expected due to a disqualification when he hit the wall in his first ride, then his muffler infringement in his third ride. Out-of-towners Blair and Perkins both did well, again getting valuable practice for next week.

The second division track championship winner was popular Yuba City rider Bill Warnock. He got past Auburn’s Mike Achilles on the final turn.

The third division championship was won by Jackson’s Paul Schoen, who lead from the gate.

The 2006 Youth National Championship was won by Orangevale’s Ricky Felicio. He was one of three top youth riders who were favorites to win. The other two both suffered misfortunes during the night, but Felicio went on to maintain a perfect score.

The first race was expected to be a decisive indication with Southern California’s Krystal Cramer and Rio Oso’s Ben Essary. But misfortune hit Cramer when her clutch failed at the start and she had to withdraw from the race. Essary went on to take the win. Both he and Felicio won their first three races and the decider came when they met in heat 14,. Essary took the lead, by a narrow margin and looked to be taking the championship until his rear tire went flat on the third lap and Felicio was right there to take over. Both won their fifth races so they took the first and second positions on the podium.

This is Cramer and Felicio’s last year as youths. Essary, a year younger will have another chance at the title next year. Third place scorer was Auburn’s Bryce Starks with 12 points scored. Tied for fourth place were Lomita’s Joey Holt, Chino’s Krystal Cramer and Meadow Vista’s Will Hilgenberg. The other top Northern California division on Youth rider, Auburn’s Cody Ciciarelli missed the event, due to injury.

Auburn Track Championship
Charlie Venegas 15
TJ Fowler 13
Bryan Yarrow 13
Buck Blair 11
Tommy Hedden 11
Bart Bast 9
Nate Perkins 9
Chad Felicio 7
JT Mabry 6
Kenny Ingalls 5
Mike Faria 4
Greg Hooten 4
Danny Easley 3
JJ Martynse 3
Josh West 3
Devin Defreece 3
Alex Marcucci 1

Division 2 - Track Championship
Bill Warnock
Mike Achilles
Danny Turner
Tyler Hansen

Division 3 - Track Championship
Paul Schoen
Adrien Contrares
Jeff Irwin
Clark Caravella

Youth National Championship
Ricky Felicio 15
Ben Essary 14
Joey Holt 11
Krystal Cramer 11
Will Hilgenberg 11
Steven Reese 9
Amber Felicio 8
Eric Randolf 6
Tanner Kane 5
Tyler Warren 4
Thomas Reich 4
Jamison Dilkey 3
Michelle Fehrman 2
Dylan Black 1

Next week its the second of three rounds of the AMA National Championship and with Venegas and Faria currently 1 and 2, Hamill and Hancock have their work cut out.

It should be good.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com