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Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California
USA vs. The World
Fast Friday’s Motorcycle Speedway
Michael Kirby (Story & Photos)
AUBURN, CALIFORNIA, October 14, 2011
International speedway riders from four countries came across the ocean and thousands of miles to test their racing skills against the best riders in America at the Fast Fridays Motorcycle Speedway annual good will speedway meeting USA vs. the World competition in Auburn Friday night. Fast Fridays owner David Joiner again assembled a great handpicked team of international speedway talent to travel to Fast Fridays and take a run at our best riders on our home turf.
For the fourth year in a row German rider Martin Smolinski made an appearance in the World line-up and led a all-star international team of Robert Kosciecha and Grzegorz Walasek from Poland, Lewis Bridger from England, and Cameron Woodward of Australia into the competition. The sixth rider on the World team was USA racer Alex Marcucci. All of the international riders are well respected and successful riders on their respective teams.
The strong USA team consisted of newly crowned 2011 US/AMA Racing National Speedway Champion Billy Janniro, Auburn's Tommy Hedden, Bart Bast and Bob Hicks, Bryan Yarrow, and coming up from Southern California was veteran rider and former US national speedway champion Bobby Schwartz.
The event paired the riders in teams, racing in eighteen heats, scoring 3 points for a win, 2 points for a second place finish, and one point for a third place finish. For the USA Janniro was teamed with Hedden, Bast and Hicks rode together and Yarrow and Schwartz were a team. The World teamed Smolinski with Marcucci, Kosciecha with Walasek, and Bridger with Woodward.
For thirteen heat races the World team led the USA team by sometimes as much as eight points. In the 10th heat race, down by eight points the USA team used their joker which allows a team to double their first place finish heat points to six points if down by more than six points. Janniro won that heat, picked up the six points and brought the USA to 28 points but still trailing the World team by four points. In the 14th heat with Bast and Hicks going against Bridger and Woodward, Hicks and Bridger tangled and went down on turn three each scoring zero and Bast picked up an impressive three point win to knot the score at 43-43. Not since 2006 has the World team been able to beat the USA at Fast Fridays. For most of the night it looked like this just might be their year and the hometown team had their hands full with this group of talented international riders.
After the 17th round the score was still very close at 52-51 with the World leading by a slim margin and bragging rights would be decided by the last race. The final heat brought Yarrow and Schwartz up against the Polish riders Kosciecha and Walasek at the starting gate. Walasek rolled before the tapes went up and was penalized with 10 yards and then the race was then underway. Schwartz using all his years of experience on speedway track got a great gate and led the entire race riding a very impressive race that had the hometown crowd on their feet cheering for the USA. The 55 year old Schwartz was elated at the finish after beating a very good field and bringing home championship for the USA team. The final score was USA 56-World 53. "There was a lot of pressure to win that last race, we really needed to get that one," said Schwartz. "It felt really good to win," he said. It was another great evening of international good-will speedway racing for speedway fans and good natured speedway fun for the riders.
German rider Martin Smolinski was the overall individual high points leader for the evening with 18, Bast was second with 15. Janniro and Hedden held the highest team points with 21 followed by Bridger and Woodward with 19.
USA Final total score 56
Billy Janniro 1 0 3 6 3 0-13
Tommy Hedden 0 3 0 2 1 2 -8
Bart Bast 3 3 2 3 3 1-15
Bob Hicks 1 0 1 0 0 2-4
Bryan Yarrow 0 1 0 0 2 2-5
Bobby Schwartz 1 2 2 2 1 3-11
World Final team score 53
Martin Smolinski 3 3 3 1 3 3-16
Alex Marcucci 2 0 0 0 0 0-2
Robert Kosciecha 0 1 1 2 3 1-8
Grzegorz Walasek 2 2 3 1 0 0-8
Lewis Bridger 3 1 2 3 0 0-9
Cameron Woodward 2 2 1 1 2 2-10
PeeWees
1st Sterling Martin
2nd Randy Carney
3rd Michael Lampe
Photos Michael Kirby
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