Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

AMA US National Speedway Championship Series Round #1
July 25, 2003 - Fast Fridays, Auburn
By Gary Roberts

The first round of the AMA National Championship started with a disappointing announcement at the riders’ meeting. Bill Amick, Vice President of track racing announced that the three round series has been reduced to a two round series, both at Fast Fridays at Auburn. He did offer his sincere public gratitude to Charlie Venegas for his efforts to try and put on the third round. So as far as points are concerned, this made last nights round significantly more important.

Like last year’s series, Billy Hamill came out again as the winner of this first round. However places two and three signify the experience that our youngsters get when they race in Europe. Ryan Fisher took second place, with Billy Janniro third. Fourth place went to America’s GP competitor, Greg Hancock. Having watched Ryan Fisher ride since he was practically an egg, it is good to see his effort and dedication to the sport be rewarded. I have always maintained that he is definite World Champion material.

The track held up well considering the 90+ temperature. Hand-watering and dragging took place every 4 heats.

Like last year, the format adopted for the series includes a pre-event qualifier to fill two floating positions and two reserve spots, on the 16 rider format.

Unofficial results:

Wildcard Heat 1
1. Charlie Venegas
2. Bart Bardecki
3. JJ Martynse
4. Bobby Krips

Wildcard Heat 2
1. Eric Carrillo
2. Jim Estes
3. Ivan Sevart
4. Chris Kerr

Wildcard Elimination Heat
1. Chris Kerr
2. JJ Martynse
3. Bobby Krips
4. Ivan Sevart

Wildcard Final (qualifier race for the 2 places)
1. Chris Kerr
2. JJ Martynse
3. Bobby Krips
4. Ivan Sevart

Wildcard Heat 5
1. Chris Kerr
2. JJ Martynse
3. Jim Estes
4. Bart Bardecki

Round 1 Heat Results
Heat 1  Brant, Venegas, Yarrow, Manchester
Heat 2  Hamill, B. Hedden, Cam Rafferty, Schwartz
Heat 3  Janniro, Bast, Castro, Carrillo
Heat 4  Faria, Fisher, Hancock, T. Hedden
Heat 5  Bobby Hedden, Manchester, Bast, T. Hedden
Heat 6  Janniro, Fisher, Yarrow, Schwartz
Heat 7  Hamill, Faria, Carrillo, Venegas
Heat 8  Hancock, Brant, Castro, Rafferty
Heat 9  Hancock, Manchester, Schwartz, Carrillo
Heat 10 Faria, B. Hedden, Castro, Yarrow
Heat 11 Fisher, Bast, Venegas, Rafferty
Heat 12 Brant, Hamill, Janniro, T. Hedden
Heat 13 Fisher, Hamill, Castro, Manchester
Heat 14 T. Hedden, Rafferty, Carrillo, Kerr
Heat 15 Hancock, Janniro, B. Hedden, Venegas
Heat 16 Brant, Faria, Bast, Schwartz
Heat 17 Janniro, Faria, Manchester, Rafferty
Heat 18 Hamill, Hancock, Bast, Kerr
Heat 19 Venegas, Castro, T. Hedden, Schwartz
Heat 20 Fisher, B. Hedden, Brant, Carrillo

Round 1 Points Scored
Billy Hamill     3 3 2 2 3  13
Ryan Fisher      2 2 3 3 3  13
Billy Janniro    3 3 1 2 3  12
Greg Hancock     1 3 3 3 2  12
Scott Brant      3 2 3 3 1  12
Mike Faria       3 2 3 2 2  12
Bobby Hedden     2 3 2 1 2  10
Bart Bast        2 1 2 1 1   7
Eddie Castro     1 1 1 1 2   6
Charlie Venegas  2 0 1 0 3   6
Chris Manchester 0 2 2 0 1   5
Tommy Hedden     0 0 0 3 1   4
Cam Rafferty     1 0 0 2 0   3
Eric Carrillo    0 1 0 1 0   2
Bryan Yarrow     1 1 0 - -   2
Bobby Schwartz   0 0 1 0 0   1
Chris Kerr (res) - - - 0 0   0

With 4 riders tied on 12 and only 2 remaining place in the A final, there was a run-off. Greg Hancock made no mistake about the gate and took a lead followed by Janniro. Janniro tried a couple of times to get around Greg, but settled for what he needed. Scott Brant follow a larger distance behind Billy Janniro and Mike Faria disappeared. That was the only run off necessary.

D Final:  Schwartz, Carrillo, Rafferty

C Final:  Manchester, Venegas, T. Hedden, Castro

B Final:  Brant, Faria, B. Hedden, Bast

A Final:  Hamill, Fisher, Janniro, Hancock

Series Total after Round 1
Billy Hamill     21
Ryan Fisher      19
Billy Janniro    16
Greg Hancock     14
Scott Brant      12
Mike Faria       11
Bobby Hedden     10
Bart Bast         9
Chris Manchester  8
Charlie Venegas   7
Tommy Hedden      6
Eddie Castro      5
Bobby Schwartz    4
Eric Carrillo     3
Cam Rafferty      2
Bryan Yarrow      1

Note: Hamill and Fisher also receive one bonus point each for topping the points chart in the 20-heat qualifying round.

The crowd was not the biggest I have seen at Auburn. The Civil War last week seemed to attract a bigger one.

The Round 2 of the 2003 AMA National Speedway Championship, will be on September 26.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com