Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

Week 3
Friday May 22, 1998 - Fast Fridays Speedway
By: Gary Roberts and RC Jones

From Gary Roberts

This was the best meeting so far this season. The track looked a bit over watered early on, but very soon became perfect, as was proved by some excellent races. For the first time this season, Mike Faria won both the scratch and the handicap main events. Heavy duty representation from Southern California comprised Charlie Venegas, Chris Manchester and Randy DiFrancesco.

Division 1 Scratch Main
1. Mike Faria
2. Louis Kossuth
3. Bart Bast
4. Bobby Hedden
A very fast race, with Mike in the lead from the tapes, although Louis got within half a bike length with a final dash to the tapes.

Scratch Consolation
1. Chris Manchester
2. Jim Sisemore
3. Charlie Venegas
4. Pat Linn
This was the best race of the night. Chris and Jim rode side by side for 4 laps. Jim was handicapped by the fact that his steel shoe was tangling behind him by the strap for the last 2 laps causing him to do some very proficient leg trailing. I, nor any of the people around me had any idea who was third or fourth, we weren't watching!

Division 1 Handicap Main
1. Mike Faria
2. Billy Janniro
3. Randy DiFrancesco
4. Tommy Hedden
5. Matt Becker
6. Charlie Venegas
Another fast race, with Charlie falling early then Matt Becker spinning out during a battle with Tommy Hedden.

Division 1 Handicap Consolation
1. Bobby Hedden
2. Jim Sisemore
3. Bart Bast
4. Chris Manchester
5. Vance Felicio
6. Louis Kossuth

Division 2 Main
1. Danny Miles
2. Scott Olney
3. Bill Newby
4. Tom Adams
5. Doug Mignano
6. Bill Thomas

Division 2 Consolation
1. Scott McNeil
2. Dave Booth
3. Harlan Bast Snr.
4. Steve Arena
5. Mike Gildersleeve
6. Shawn Eldridge

Division 3 Main
1. Richard Powell
2. Bobby Chipman
3. Glenn Scott
4. Rich Mignano
5. Danny Chipman
6. Don Chipman
With 3 weeks experience, Richard Powell won the Third Division Main. He is one of the many new riders to appear this year. Each qualifying heat this week had eight riders, down from last week's nine, but its still too many. This was the first third division main with 50% Chipman content, father and 2 sons. Father Chipman fell after bouncing off the wall on the front straight but managed to hobble away.

Division 3 Consolation
1. Harry Bradwell
2. Luke Rogers
3. Bob Peters
4. Les Veale
5. ?
6. Troy Burton

Results for Junior Speedway.
Juniors Division 1
1. AJ Jones
2. Eric Carrillo
3. Bryan Yarrow
4. Chris Kerr
5. Luke Bennett
Eric Carillo took a nasty spill and the race was stopped. It was only after he came second in the rerun that it was noticed that the bottom steering head bearing was torn out of the frame. With no Southern California competition, the junior races were somewhat less fiercely fought.
Juniors Division 2
1. Josh Newby
2. Jonathan Curry
3. Matt Browne
4. Jay Heidt

Juniors Division 3
1. Ray Linn
2. Brenton Bast
3. JT Mabry

The bad news was that the Dixon season opener, was again not able to take place, because of contractual problems with the Fairgrounds Board. With such a full program of events and riders at Auburn on Fridays, not to mention the near capacity packed stands, it is essential that this momentum is maintained on Saturday, somewhere. Every avenue is being pursued to find a place to race on Saturday nights.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com

From: RC Jones

Dear Speedway Fans

After three weeks at the Auburn Speedway track it looks like the season is going to be a barn burner for sure... Mike Faria's double main event was the second double this season already with Bart Bast accomplishing the feat on opening night of all nights..

The best race of the night was Jim Sisemore and Chris Manchester in the Scratch Consolation race... Like Gary Roberts stated, no one new who placed 3rd and 4th as all eyes were watching Jim and Chris go wheel to wheel. Too bad Jim's hot shoe came off forcing him to lose ground at the end of the race...

Rain in the Sacramento area for two days now, including the Auburn area, I am not holding my breath or gassing up my truck for a run to Auburn tonight... (May 29th)

The points after the first two weeks are as follows: (Points are towards the Northern California Speedway Championship, current champ is Bart Bast)

Rider Points
Bart Bast 297
Mike Faria 297
Jimmy Sisemore 283
Charlie Venegas 233
Bobby Hedden 184
Tommy Hedden 122
Ian Ferris 109
Kelly Bennett 90
Randy DiFrancesco 56
Vance Felicio 53

As problems with the second speedway track unfold (Dixon), I certainly hope another track opens up soon. We need two tracks in Northern California.