Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
1273 High Street
Auburn, California
Extreme Sidecars Series 1
Fast Friday's Motorcycle Speedway,
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Extreme Sidecars Open Series at Fast Fridays
By Michael Kirby (Story & Photos)
AUBURN, CALIFORNIA, May 26, 2017
The Extreme Sidecar teams rolled into Auburn Friday night to the Fast Fridays Motorcycle Speedway in the Gold Country Fairgrounds to a packed house. The scene was not unusual for the sidecar teams who have a strong fan base hundreds of miles north of their home in Southern California. On 1000cc three wheeled motorcycles the four teams put on quite a show in the first of five appearances to the tricky dirt Fast Friday’s oval. The team of Joe Jones and Cody Brant took the action packed sidecar main event, losing just one of the four heat races.
Billy Janniro again show why he is the seven time AMA Speedway National Champion by winning his second scratch main event in a row at Fast Fridays. Janniro won his heat race but took second to Luke Becker in the semi-final to advance to the main event. Out of the number two lane Janniro gated well to the inside on turn one. Kurtis Hamill also in the scratch main took a tumble on turn three and was unable to finish the race. From then on it was almost a carbon copy of last week’s scratch main event boiling down to Becker and Janniro and Becker just could not get around the champ. Showing great skill through, Becker gave it his all but in the end Janniro rode his signature wheelie across the finish line for the second time in two weeks. Becker was second and Bryan Yarrow was third.
In probably the best race of the night, Kurtis Hamill and Luke Becker challenged each other in a fantastic handicap main event race. Both riders rode together wheel to wheel for the six lap race, Hamill leading Becker by just inches the entire race. Again Becker had to settle for second as Hamill had just a slight edge on him. “Luke (Becker) was really on it, I could see his front tire on every straight away,” said Hamill. “I was just trying to ride a safe line and luckily it worked out.” For the second week in a row Becker has finished second in both the scratch and handicap races, but always just inches away from the win.
Lawrence McNutt picked up his first main event win in over a year in the Division II main event Friday night. McNutt had his share of misfortune Friday night with several spills, and one crash looked serious, but he dusted himself off and put all together for the Division II trophy. William McCloskey was second and Rick Shafer was third. “I did not win a main event all last season, Billy Hamill walked over to me and suggested I slide up two inches on my bike,” McNutt said. “It made a huge difference, I was able to pull the turns and not hit the walls.” Aaron Sorani, who finished in the top two places in Division III for the third week in a row, finished first in the DIII main event Friday night. Sorani opened the season with a main event win and followed that with a second place finish last week. Ray Holt Jr. Jr. was second and Casey Cornilsen was third.
In a new youth racing format, all the youth riders were grouped together and rode two heat rounds accumulating points to advance to a youth consolation main event and a youth speedway main event. Based on points won in the heat rounds the top four riders went to the main and the next four riders based on points advanced to the consolation race. The new format gives some of the youth riders three rides instead of two.
Up from Southern California AMA Youth Speedway National Champion Sebastian Palmese had a undefeated night winning his two heat races and then advancing to the youth main event with a win also. Landon Collins, also in the youth main event got disqualified by going to the tapes early on the start. Kyle Cunningham and Colton Hicks both had a little trouble with the track and slid out losing a little ground to Palmese who cruised to an unchallenged win. “It was good to ride with Colton (Hicks) again, we both got good starts and headed into the first turn together, then Colton had a little spill because the track was dry all night,” said Palmese. “It was really exciting, I will definitely will be back soon.” Cameron Krezman won the youth consolation main.
Fast Fridays Results for 5-26-17
Scratch Main Event
1-Billy Janniro, 2-Luke Becker, 3-Bryan Yarrow, 4-Kurtis Hamill
Scratch Consolation
1-Tommy Hedden, 2-Russell Green, 3-Louie Mersaroli, 4-Dan Faria
Handicap Main Event
1-Kurtis Hamill, 2-Luke Becker, 3-Louie Mersaroli, 4-Billy Janniro, 5-Russell Green, 6-Ryan Bast
Handicap Consolation
1-Dave Fonts, 2-Nick Dion
Division II Main Event
1-Lawrence McNutt, 2-William McCloskey, 3-Rick Shafer, 4-Mike Achilles, 5-Shawn Eldridge, 6- Nick Dion
Division II Consolation
1-Matt King, 2-Brian Leventon
Division III Main Event
1-Aaron Sorani, 2-Ray Holt Jr., 3-Casey Cornilsen, 4-Mac Henderson, 5-Joey Rosselit, 6-Peter Pecorilla
Division III Consolation
1-Pauly Good, 2-Jake Estes
Youth Main Event
1-Sebastian Palmese, 2-Colton Hicks, 3-Kyle Cunningham, 4-Landon Collins
Youth Consolation Main Event
1-Cameron Krezman, 2-Timmy Dion, 3-Sterling Martin, 4-Alex Martin
Extreme Sidecars
1-Joe Jones/Cody Brant
Photos By Michael Kirby
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