Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

Fast Fridays, Auburn, California USA - August 8, 2008
By Gary Roberts

A pleasantly warm evening, a very good rider turn out and a smaller than normal crowd. Maybe it was the Olympic games, I heard something about some pre-season football event, what ever it was, they missed out, there was some great racing.

Bart Bast has won the scratch main at Auburn most weeks this season. Its always good to see a new young face do well. Kenny Ingalls won this week, with a fantastic gate, leaving Bast, Charlie Venegas and Ricky Wells in his dust. Bast and Venegas battled for second, with Bast taking it.

On to the 25 lap main event, but first some thoughts on the concept of 25 lap races. First of all, it is unkind to force a motorcycle that is designed to run no more than a mile to do three times that. Secondly, any long distance runner knows that there is no sense in sprinting from the start in a marathon. This means that this event will always be a bit of a procession, with very little striving for positions. The 25 lap main nearly always lives down to my expectations. This year was no exception.

Jimmy Lewis started at the scratch line, Ricky Wells, Greg Hooten and Kenny Ingalls started almost half a lap behind while Bart Bast, Mike Faria, Bryan Yarrow and Bart Bast started another 20 or so yards behind them. Most riders made an effort for a fast start, to minimize who they’d have to overtake later. Lewis had half a lap to play with, and took advantage of the fact, to postpone the inevitable competition as long as possible. Wells got the best start from the middle bunch, followed by Ingalls. Yarrow got the best start from the back. Bast was not on his regular machine and it showed. Faria looked uncomfortable and was the first to retire, on lap 7. Little happened in the order for the first dozen laps, although Lewis’s lead diminished. On lap 13 Wells and Ingalls overtook Lewis, then Hedden overtook Yarrow, Hooten disappeared about that time too. Wells and Ingalls battle for first place continued until lap 22, when Ingalls ran out of fuel. By that stage Hedden and Bast had overtaken Lewis, but was still way behind the leaders. With the exit of Ingalls, Wells cruised to a win, followed by Hedden and Bast. Lewis did well to hold fourth and Yarrow finished fifth, on the same lap as the winner.

Handicap Main Event – 25 laps
1. Ricky Wells; 2. Tommy Hedden; 3. Bart Bast; 4. Jimmy Lewis; 5. Bryan Yarrow.

Scratch Main Event
1. Kenny Ingalls; 2. Bart Bast; 3. Charlie Venegas; 4. Ricky Wells.

Scratch Consolation Event
1. Mike Faria; 2. Bryan Yarrow; 3. Chad Felicio; 4. Tommy Hedden.

Division 2 Main Event
1. Jay Ricketts; 2. Danny Turner; 3. Jeff Irwin; 4. Brian Leventon; 5. Les Veale.

Division 2 Consolation Event
1. Steve Lewotsky; 2. Rob Christian; 3. Mike Browne; 4. Harlan Bast.

Division 3 Main Event
1. Shawn Loessberg; 2. Dustin Berdollt; 3. Doug Geist; 4. Richard Fehrman; 5. Billy Vaughn.

Division 3 Consolation Event
1. Adrian Contrares; 2. Kjell Lovlien; 3. Greg Lovlien; 4. Lenny Bourassa; 5. Tori Hubbert.

Youth Division 1
1. Thomas Reich; 2. Amber Felicio; 3. Tanner Kane; 4. Tyler Warren; 5. Cody Ciciarelli.

Youth Division 2 & 3
1. Kendra Warren; 2. Joe Dingle.

There are just 2 more weeks of the regular 2008 points scoring events this season. Where did the season go?

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com