Fast Fridays Speedway Gold Country Fairgrounds Auburn, California
1999 Season Opener
Fast Fridays Speedway, Auburn, CA
Friday May 7, 1999
From Gary Roberts and RC Jones
An enormous crowd witnessed some more great racing at Auburn's opening night. It looked like
there were more people than at last year's National. There was still a
line of them coming in 30 minutes after the racing had started. Maybe they'll get there earlier
next week!
The track was well prepared, consistent, and many of the riders described it as grippy. Several
racing lines were used, enabling plenty of good competitive racing, with
a lot of overtaking. Up among the top division one riders was Ryan Fisher, whose father
confessed to me afterwards that he is still experimenting with gearing and
considered Ryan's performance far from his maximum capability. Last year the main event was
dominated by Bart Bast and Mike Faria. I suspect that there are
currently a number of riders capable of winning, and I would predict competition being closer
this season.
Along with the large crowd, there was also a large number of new riders among both junior and
full size classes. The third division was grossly over-subscribed, putting
the promoter in the difficult position of turning riders away, or over filling the races. He
chose the latter, and we got to witness a 12 man third division heat. Needless
to say, it had to be re-started so many times that it took longer than two 6 man heats would
have done. The nine man main had five restarts. These events were
spectacles for the crowd, but really not much fun for the riders. The increasing interest in the
sport that has been maintained by Auburn's consistently growing crowd
and the number of new riders is a great encouragement.
Similar to Costa Mesa's opening night, there were a number of nasty looking accidents. Rachalle Kerr hit the wall hard and it took her a long time to get up. Latest
report is that nothing is broken but she has a few bruises.
My reports in the past have focused a lot on the junior riders, because I firmly believe that
this is the future of our sport. There were several new division 3 riders and
the other two divisions were well supported. Never far behind Ryan last season, Eric Carrillo goes into this year as favorite. He finished third in his heat and retired in
the main event. Both second division races were lead start to finish by Tim Gomez from Southern
California. He was riding Ryan Fisher's old Junior bike and looked
exactly the same as Ryan did five years ago. He was incredibly fast and won both races by more
than half a lap. His father told me that they hope to come up at least
once a month this season. The div 3 main was won by 11 year old Danny Easley riding his first
ever Speedway race.
Moving out of Juniors this year were Ryan Fisher, mentioned above, Matt Browne, who managed a
fourth in his division 2 heat putting him in the div 2 consolation,
where he failed to make the top 3. The other promoted Junior, Donny Robinson had a similar
placing in his div 2 heat and went on to win the div 2 consi.
The div 3 main event was an endurance test won by first time out on a Speedway bike, flat-track
racer, Don Webster.
In the scratch part of the program, there was plenty of great racing and a few surprises. Pat Linn showed great form holding off Charlie Venegas for four laps, while Charlie in turn held off 1998 "double Nationals" number 4, Bobby Hedden. On form Tommy Hedden beat Bart Bast in his heat and Bart had a hard battle for a couple
of laps before he got past Ryan Fisher. Billy Janniro looked super fast at the end of last
season and at Costa Mesa a couple of weeks ago, but was unable to qualify
behind Mike Faria and Chad Felicio.
The Handicap part of the program was won by Ian Essary who started from the zero yard line and
won his heat, his semi final, then the main unchallenged. Expect
him to be moved back next week!
Results: (apologies for incomplete results and possible errors, it all went by too fast!)
Division 1 Scratch Main
1. Mike Faria
2. Charlie Venegas
3. Tommy Hedden
4. Bart Bast
Division 1 Scratch Consi
1. Chad Felicio
2. Robert Curry
3. Jim Sisemore
4. Pat Linn
Division 1 Handicap Main
1. Ian Essary
2. Ian Ferris
3. Charlie Venegas
4. Mike Faria
5. Matt Becker
6. Tommy Hedden
Division 1 Handicap Consi
1. Jim Sisemore
2. Bart Bast
3. Ryan Fisher
4. Billy Janniro
5. Dave Faria
6. Bobby Hedden
Division 2 Main
1. Mike Browne
2. Eric Veal
3. Glenn Scott
4. John O'Connell
Etc.
Division 2 Consi
1. Donny Robinson
2. Dave Booth
3. Shawn Eldridge
Etc.
Division 3 Main
1. Don Webster
2. Brian Ballard
3. Ivan Sevart
Division 3 Consi
1. Jamie Hughes
2. Donny Powell
3. Geno Bellino
4. Harry Bradwell
5. Billy Dixon
Jr. Division 1.
1. Bryan Yarrow
2. Chris Kerr
3. AJ Jones
4. JJ Martynse
5. Robert Curry
6. Eric Carrillo (ef)
Jr. Division 2
1. Tim Gomez
2. Anthony Marcucci (who was it? Anthony Martinez or Alex Marcucci )
3. Ray Linn
4. Brenton Bast
5. JT Mabry
Jr. Division 3
1. Danny Easley
2. Mark Carrillo
3. Paul Johnson
4. Chris Smith
5. Amanda English
Although I've lived in America for 17 years, I frequently still get caught off guard, by
political correctness. What is OK one year may not be acceptable the next.
Perhaps I have become over conscious of it, but the "Wild West Show" in the intermission somehow
seemed inappropriate. The concepts of drunkenness, suggestions
of debauchery, and violence with guns, are currently out of synch with the position of the
pendulum of political correctness! Not only that, it was slow and boring. It
might have brightened up a golf or cricket match but the people there were Speedway fans!
Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com
Report from RC Jones
Auburn May 7th, 1999 - Opening Night
Well another great speedway season started Friday night in Auburn.
Riders with new leathers, babes with new breasts, a wonderful night of
racing. Bobby and Tommy Hedden along with Bob Hicks were decked out
in brand new look alike Kevlar's from Peterich Cycles. Interestingly
enough Tommy was the one to get into the scratch main. The place was
jammed packed full, I have never seen that big a crowd for an opener.
The weather was great even though it cooled off quite a bit and shorts
were not the hot typo hot tip was purchasing a season ticket,
unfortunately I am not on the mailing list... Oh well maybe next year..
LOL LOL...
Everyone's eyes were on Ryan Fisher as he made his Division I debut.
Ryan was put on the 30 yard line for the handicap heat and had Mike Faria and Charlie Venegas behind him. Ryan followed Pat Linn for a
lap and a half then slipped past when Linn went to wide. Ryan ran in
front as Faria slowly gained on him. Then Faria snuck past and
Venegas came up to sandwich Ryan between him and Faria, Ryan held firm
and was able keep Venegas behind him at the finish it was Faria,
Fisher and Venegas. The handicap semi final that Fisher was in ended
in a photo finish for third and the last transfer to the main event.
Fisher had held the third spot for most of the race but coming out of
turn 4 heading for the checkered it was Fisher, Bobby Hedden and Bart Bast in a mad scramble for that transfer spot, and Hedden managed a
half a wheel over the other two. In the handicap consi Ryan finished
third behind Jim Sisemore and Bestride's scratch ride was only the heat
race as he fell victim to Bart Bast and Tommy Hedden.
Other interesting items included defending champ Bart Bast with his
problems winning, picking up only one win on the night and that came
in the scratch consi. Mike Faria looked up to form with three first
place finishes and winning the scratch main to top off his night.
The halftime show was something that maybe could have waited until
later in the season. It was a wild west type show with saloon girls
and gunslingers and a robbery of the saloon and the gunfight with
everyone left dead. All participants were dressed as in the 1800's;
but with the Colorado high school massacre so recent I was put off by
the show.
Mike Rooney the announcer kept the crowd in stitches as there were so
many new division 3 riders even he could not keep up with them. So
Mike resorted to letting them announce themselves from the starting
grid. Lots of fun, a great night of racing and it should be a show
stopping season.
Cheers
RC Jones
|