Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds - Auburn, CA

2000 Season Opener
Fast Fridays
May 12, 2000
From Gary Roberts

Fast Fridays season roared into action on Friday night with a full program of Speedway racing. It was refreshing to see a lot of new riders, and with some of last year's top juniors about to move up to full size machines, there was a healthy bunch of replacements filling in at the bottom end.

After a week of questionable weather before Friday, and even worse weather after Friday, the rain delivery department certainly looked after us, enabling a very nicely prepared racetrack.

The only problem I had was working out who was who. Many riders had new leathers, so there a few gaps in the results.

Scratch Main
  1.. Charlie Venegas
  2.. Bart Bast
  3.. Eddie Castro
  4.. Mike Faria

The only real controversy of the evening took place in the Scratch Main. Because more than one rider was still moving around at the start gate when the tapes went up, the referee turned on the red light, but neither flag marshal noticed. By the time the race was stopped Mike Faria and Charlie Venegas were having a great battle and had already changed places a number of times while either not noticing or choosing to ignore the red light. In the re-run Charlie made a lightening fast gate with Eddie Castro behind him on the inside and Mike Faria using the outside line he had been using all evening. After a couple of laps Bart moved up on the inside of Eddie and took second place, but had no chance of catching Charlie.

Scratch Consi
  1.. Tommy Hedden
  2.. Bobby Hedden
  3.. Ian Ferris
  4.. Dukie Ermolenko

The Heddens took the gate, Dukie fell on the first corner and remounted, but there was no catching Tommy Hedden.

Handicap Main
  1.. Rich Marcucci
  2.. Ryan Fisher
  3.. Bobby Hedden
Also qualifying were Ian Ferris, Robert Curry and Dukie Ermolenko.

The handicap main took a while to get going, with a couple of overambitious starters. Main culprit was Robert Curry, who was moved back 20 yards. Rich Marcucci started from the 10 yard line and kept everyone at bay for 5 laps. Second place looked firmly in the hands of Dukie Ermolenko until the last lap, when he machine stopped. I am still trying to work out how the other riders managed to miss running into the back of him. Ryan Fisher took over the position followed by Bobby Hedden. Curry and Ian Fisher tangled, leaving only three finishers.

Handicap Consi
  1.. Tommy Hedden
  2.. Billy Janniro
  3.. Chad Felicio
  4.. Mike Faria
  5.. Bob Hicks
  6.. Randy DiFrancesco

Division2 Main
  1.. Ivan Sevart
  2.. Mark Thomas
  3.. Rachalle Kerr
  4.. Dave Booth
  5.. George Snodgrass
  6.. Ryan Bast

Division2 Consi
  1.. Marvin Sonnier
  2.. Matt Browne
  3.. Scott Olney
  4.. Shawn Eldridge
  5.. Derek Silva
  6.. Bill Thomas

Division3 Main
  1.. Mark Woodward
  2.. Geno Bellino
  3.. Robert Mellor
Also in the race were Greg Hooten Snr. Les Veal and 
Dave Lee. 
their finishing order.

Junior Division1
  1.. Eric Carrillo

Greg Hooten Jnr. moved up from Division 2 and did incredibly well in winning the earlier heat and holding off Bryan Yarrow until the last lap. Then the pair tangled and fell. In the course of the next couple of months, Eric Carrillo, Jon Curry and Chris Kerr will have their 16th birthdays and will move up. Bryan Yarrow is the obvious favorite for this year's junior national champion, but from last night's showing it looks as if he will have plenty of competition.

Junior Division2.
  1.. Danny Easley
  2.. Mark Carrillo
  3.. Alex Marcucci
  4.. Chris Olney
  5.. Brenton Bast
Danny Easley took the lead of a bike length at the gate and 
Mark Carrillo 
was a bike length behind. He stayed there for the entire race.

Junior Division3A
  1.. TJ Fowler
  2.. Paul Johnson
  3.. Amanda English
  4.. Mitchell Johnson
Clearly destined not to remain in the Junior Third Division TJ Fowler 
convincingly won his heat and the main. My guess is that he will soon be 
in Division2.

Junior Division3B
  1.. Tom Fehrman
  2.. RJ Becerra
  3.. Mr. Powell Jnr.
  4.. Victoria Hubert

For the main even the Division 3 Juniors were split up into the faster ones and the not so fast ones. In fact, 3B comprised brand new riders who had never raced before. All looked very promising. I was really impressed with all the juniors. This is the future of Northern California Speedway, and it looks very healthy.

Another week of regular Speedway next week before the North American World Qualified on May 26. Sam Ermolenko and John Cook will be over from Europe for the event.