Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

2008 AMA Speedway National Championship Series - Final Round
Fast Fridays, Auburn, California USA - September 20, 2008
By Gary Roberts

USA Speedway National Championship Series Round 1

USA Speedway National Championship Series Round 2

Last night Fast Fridays hosted the final round of the 2008 AMA Speedway National Championship Series.

Going into the final round Billy Janniro had built up a convincing 14 points lead from the previous two rounds and baring disaster looked like a safe winner. Behind him, 3 points difference covered the next 4 competitors.

Billy Janniro 42
Bart Bast 28
Charlie Venegas 26
Mike Faria 26
Ricky Wells 25
Jimmy Fishback 22
Bryan Yarrow 19
Buck Blair 19
Billy Hamill 18
Tommy Hedden 12
Nate Perkins 12
Kenny Ingalls 9
Bobby Schwartz 9
Ben Essary 7
Shawn McConnell 7
Tim Gomez 5

For whatever reasons, Jimmy Fishback, Buck Blair, Bobby Schwartz, Billy Hamill and Shawn McConnell did not compete in this round. This opened up opportunity to allow more than the regular 2 wild cards into the event infact the total number of qualifiers from the pre-event elimination races was 5 competitors and 2 reserves, meaning that of the 8 competitors, only one was totally eliminated in this process.

Qualifiers were: Greg Hooten, Bryce Starks, JT Mabry, Ivan Sevart and Devin Defreece.

Reserves were: Ben Essary and Eddie Castro.

The event started with a couple of surprises. Ricky Wells who has become almost a regular competitor at Auburn fell scoring a zero and Billy Janniro’s rear tire deflated, also scoring a zero. Both caught up later in the competition.

Kenny Ingalls got off to a slow start, but got better as the night went on, finally becoming the first person in the series to take an honest point from Janniro.

Unofficial results

Bryan Yarrow 3, 2, 3, 1, 3 12
Kenny Ingalls 1, 2, 3, 3, 3 12
Billy Janniro 0, 3, 3, 3, 2 11
Bart Bast 3, 3, 2, 0, 3 11
Tommy Hedden 3, 3, 2, 2, 1 11
Mike Faria 2, 3, 1, 2, 2 10
Charlie Venegas 3, 1, 0, 3, 3 10
Ricky Wells 0, 2, 2, 2, 2 8
Nate Perkins 1, 0, 3, 3, 0 7
JT Mabry 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 6
JJ Martynse 2, 2, 0, 1, 1 6
Greg Hooten 2, 1, 1, 0, 0 4
Bryce Starks 0, 0, 2, 1, 0 3
Tim Gomez 1, 1, 0, -, - 2
Ivan Severt 1, 0, 0, 0, 1 2
Devin DeFreece 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 0
Eddie Castro 2, 2 4
Ben Essary 0 0

D Main
1 Eddie Castro; 2. Ivan Severt; 3. Devin DeFreece; 4. Bryce Starks.

C Main
1. Nate Perkins; 2. JT Mabry; 3. Greg Hooten; 4, JJ Martynse.

B Main
1. Mike Faria; 2. Tommy Hedden; 3. Ricky Wells; 4. Charlie Venegas.

A Main
1. Billy Janniro; 2. Bryan Yarrow; 3. Kenny Ingalls; 4. Bart Bast.

Final points total for championship:

Billy Janniro 21 21 20 62
Bart Bast 10 18 14 42
Bryan Yarrow 3 16 19 38
Mike Faria 14 12 12 38
Ricky Wells 16 9 10 35
Charlie Venegas 12 14 9 35
Kenny Ingalls 5 4 16 25
Tommy Hedden 4 8 11 23
Jimmy Fishback 11 11 0 22
Nate Perkins 6 6 8 20
Buck Blair 9 10 0 19
Billy Hamill 18 0 0 18
Bobby Schwartz 8 1 0 9
J.J. Martynse 0 3 5 8
JT Mabry 0 0 7 7
Ben Essary 0 7 0 7
Shawn McConnell 7 0 0 7
Greg Hooten 0 0 6 6
Eddie Castro 0 2 4 6
Tim Gomez 0 5 0 5
Ivan Sevart 0 0 3 3
Devin Defreece 0 0 2 2
Travis Henderson 2 0 0 2
Bryce Startks 0 0 1 1
Neil Facchini 1 0 0 1

The only thing left now on Fast Fridays 2008 program is the USA vs. the World. On October 24.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com