2007 Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

Annual North vs South
Fast Fridays, Auburn, California USA - July 20, 2007
By Gary Roberts

Fast Fridays annual North vs South took place last Friday on a hot sticky evening.

Both teams seemed to be without key riders. Bryan Yarrow, Tommy Hedden, Chad Felicio from the North, Charlie Venegas, Chris Manchester, Gary Hicks, from the South. But it gave an opportunity to bring in new faces, Kenny Ingalls, who is one of the North’s biggest recent success stories, JJ Martynse and Matt Proto. Ricky Wells in his first season on a 500 rode, made a strong contribution to the South’s effort.

The stronger looking South team did not run away with the event as I was expecting, until the last 3 heats of the regular program. After heat 15 the score was 49 to 41 in favor of the North. The South put Ryan Fisher in as a tactical substitute using the golden joker doubling up function (or similarly named whatever, sorry if I sound cynical, anything that depends on a team manager’s skill, rather than a speedway rider, tends to make me go that way) producing an 8-1 to the visitors. The next 2 heats were 5-1 again to the visitors, so in 3 heats the North’s comfortable lead was diminished to a 59-52 seven point deficit. Then followed the heavily point weighted B and A main events. Eddie Castro won the B main, ahead of Kenny Ingalls and Matt Proto, bringing the score to 66-58 and it seemed that the South had it in the bag.

Then came the A main, Faria and Bast for the North, Harmatiuk and Fisher for the South. Harmatiuk fell in turn one, the referee deemed it to be his own doing and allowed the race to continue. Fisher lead the North pair for the rest of the lap, then made a peculiar decision. Seeing Harmatiuk still on the track he slowed and let the North pair pass him. Was he thinking the race had been stopped or was he just hoping that? Either way, there was no red flag, Bast lead Faria and eventually Fisher got the message and gave chase. While visibly closing on them, he was unable to get past, so the heavily weighted scoring gave the North 20 points to the South’s 4. Final score gave the North a 78-70 victory. Then came the dramatics. First Buck Blair waving the red flag at the North riders, then laying in the middle of the track.

The referee’s decision did not please all. Since the meeting had already run over the curfew time, there was clearly a need to push things along. Having been a referee myself for a season, I understand that every decision disappoints someone. Overall, it was a good meeting, with good racing, quite a lot of team riding, but it reminded me how much I prefer to watch individual competition. I also made the observation that the time between races increases dramatically for an event comprising only first division riders, over the regular mixed evening. One of the many reasons I enjoy watching American speedway is the short time between races. Fast Fridays especially has always been very good at keeping the program moving at a pace which accommodates my short attention span.

Unofficial scores:

The North
Bart Bast 3 2 2 2 2 1 12
Kenny Ingalls 2 0 1 3 1 1 0 0 8
JJ Martynse 1 1 0 2 4
Matt Proto 0 2 1 0 2 1 6
Mike Faria 2 1 3 2 2 1 11
T J Fowler 3 0 2 3 3 0 11

The South
Bobby Schwartz 1 3 0 0 0 4
Eddie Castro 0 0 1 1 3 2 7
Ricky Wells 2 2 0 1 1 3 9
Ryan Fisher 3 3 3 3 0 6 2 20
Buck Blair 1 1 3 0 0 2 7
Shawn Harmatiuk 0 3 2 1 3 3 12

The Youth North vs. South was more difficult to follow, with a lot of rider substitutions. The North’s home track advantage made them the stronger team, ending the night with a score of 62 to 49.

For the North Bryce Starks, Ben Essary and Cody Ciciarelli were the key players, with assistance from Will Hilgenberg.

For the South, Jason Ramirez was by far the top scorer, but Brad Pappalardo and Gino Manzares had some good races too. Joey Holt held good positions, but fell in too many races before finishing.

Unofficial scores:

The North:
Ben Essary 2 3 3 3 3 0 14
Tanner Kane 0 1 1 0 2
Cody Ciciarelli 3 3 2 1 2 2 13
Will Hilgenberg 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 10
Bryce Starks 2 3 3 3 3 3 17
Mitchell Johnson 1 1 0 1 1 4
Thomas Reich 1 1
Jamison Dilkey 1 1

The South
Jason Ramirez 3 2 1 6 2 3 3 20
Russell Green 1 2 0 0 2 3 0 8
Joey Holt 0 0 1 0 0 2 3
Gino Manzares 2 2 2 2 1 0 9
Brad Pappalardo 3 0 2 2 0 2 9
Richard Crocker 0 0 0 0 0

Next week its back to regular speedway with a round of the challenge elimination series.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com