Fast Fridays Speedway

Gold Country Fairgrounds
1273 High Street
Auburn, California

Speedway
Fast Friday’s Motorcycle Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Janniro again in the Scratch Main
AUBURN, CALIFORNIA, August 5, 2022
Story and Photo by Michael Kirby

The exciting team racing series continued with the Team Challenge Round Five pitting Team SOS against Team AR-17 Land and Tree in Auburn at the Fast Friday's Motorcycle Speedway. Looks like Team AR-17 could have put the series away scoring 11 points with strong rides by Gino Manzares, Tyler Warren, Timmy Dion and Greg Moore. Manzares scored three points with a win for Team AR-17 and Warren, Dion and Moore each added two points with second place finishes in their races. With the 11 points from round four Team AR-17 now totals 48 points.

Team SOS hung in the hunt with a strong rides by Louie Mersaroli and Alex Martin who each scored three points with wins. Russell Green added one more point for Team SOS and they ended the night with seven points and added to the 23 they brought into the round they now total 30 points. After round five the score now sits at Team AR-17 48 and Team SOS 30. There is still one more night for Team SOS to pull a rabbit out of their hat and close the gap. Maybe the use of the joker doubling the scores of the finishing positions might work. Find out August 27 during the final round championship.

Billy Janniro seems unstoppable of late in the scratch program, picking up his sixth scratch main event of the season. Again, the ten time AMA National Speedway Champion was perfect in the program with first place finishes in his heat, semi-final and then the main event. Janniro in lane one was up against Bart Bast in lane three, Gino Manzares in lane two and Alex Martin lined up in four. All got good starts and were jammed together well in the first lap when Manzares got a little too close to Janniro's rear tire in turn three and took a hard end over end crash. Manzares laid on the track getting his wind back then slowly was able to stand. Dazed pretty well he was unable to continue with the restart. Janniro took control in the restart and led the way to the finish line, Bast was second and Martin third.

Alex Martin learned a few new skills having just returned from a stint riding in Europe and pulled off a stunning win in the handicap main event. With Greg Moore and Janniro battling for the lead for most of the race, Martin came inside with a great move and took the lead from Janniro and Moore in the last few yards of the last lap for the main event win. Moore was second and Janniro third. Martin is handicapped on the 30-yard line, Janniro on the 40-yard line and Moore starts on the start line.

Rick Shafer won his second Division II main event of the season. Shafer getting a real workout riding in both Division II and Division I. Shafer is handicapped on the 30-yard line and won his heat race to transfer to the main event. Lawrence McNutt took a fall in the final turn of the main event giving way for John Peters to take second place and Shawn Eldredge was third. Cody Aker was the winner of the Division III main event. Aker off the 10-yard line was second in his heat race and transferred to the main for the win. Sam Richardson was second and Mike Newnham was third.

Charlie Trana took the Youth 250 main event out of a crowded field this week. That makes eight times Trana has climbed to the top of the trophy podium for wins in the Youth 250 program this season. Up from Southern California Levi Leutz was second and Darren Armbruster was third. The Youth 150 program was again split into an A and B division. Jayce Preuss won the A division and Jameson Hutchinson won the B division.

It's getting close to the Fast Friday's Track Championship scheduled on August 27 and leading the Division I points race as of last week's race is Louie Mersaroli with 1229. John Peters leads Division II with 534 points and Ray Holt Jr. Jr. leads Division III with 449. Just a note, Fast Friday will go dark next week and there will be no races scheduled for a back-to-school break on August 12. Races will continue August 19 when the Extreme Sidecars return to Auburn's tricky dirt oval.

Results for 8-5-22

Division I Scratch Main Event
1-Billy Janniro, 2-Bart Bast, 3-Alex Martin, 4-Gino Manzares

Division I Scratch Consolation
1-Blake Borello, 2-Louie Mersaroli, 3-Rheten Todd, 4-Gregory Moore

Division I Handicap Main Event
1-Alex Martin, 2-Gregory Moore, 3-Billy Janniro, 4-Rheten Todd, 5-Timothy Dion, 6-Russell Green

Division 1 Handicap Consolation
1-Louie Mersaroli, 2-Bart Bast, 3-Rees Todd, 4-Blake Borello, 5-Rick Shafer

Division II Main Event
1-Rick Shafer, 2-John Peters, 3-Shawn Eldredge, 4-Marc Denniston, 5-Dean Newnham, 6-Lawrence, McNutt

Division III Main Event
1-Cody Aker, 2-Sam Richardson, 3-Mike Newnham, 4-Brian Leventon, 5-John Gauthreaux, 6-Sebe Denniston

Division III Consolation
1-Tim Rott, 2-Les Veal

Youth 250 Main Event
1-Charlie Trana, 2-Levi Leutz, 3-Darren Armbruster

Youth 150 A Main Event
1-Jayce Preuss, 2-Leeann Emerson, 3-Riley Rearick

Youth 150 B Main Event
1-Jameson Hutchinson, 2-Matthew Wright, 3-Caden Cavrikas, 4-Wesley Rearick

Team Challenge (Round Five)
Team AR-17-11 Team SOS-7
Total after Five Rounds
Team AR 17-48 Team SOS-30