Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

Fast Fridays, Auburn, California USA - October 27, 2006
By Gary Roberts

For the second consecutive year the USA Speedway team suffered a defeat at Fast Fridays, by a World team.

The US team put on a noble fight, and took a one point lead at one stage, but at the end of the night the score was a conclusive 86 points to 64. Spearheading the world team was current World Champion, Australia’s Jason Crump.

This is the sixth time this event has been hosted at Fast Fridays and only the second US defeat. The make up of the world team had three levels of experience. First pairing, Australians Crump and Johnston are at the prime of their careers, having raced at the top level in Europe for over a decade. Second pairing Italy’s Armando Castagna and Denmark’s Brian Karger are both ex Grand Prix riders, both at the tail ends of their careers, but each had over two decades of top international experience. The third pairing, Swedish brothers, Jonas and Daniel Davidsson are in their early twenties, having broken into international racing only in the past couple of years.

Just the same as last year Crump made it look easy. He scored a maximum 6 wins in the regular heats, with partner Johnston taking second in three of them. The Castagna Karger partnership resulted in a win in 5 of their 6 races. The young Swedes were less successful, nevertheless under 21 Swedish Champion Jonas Davidsson took 2 heat wins and took points from Bast, the Hedden's and Venegas.

The World team put on a performance which when benchmarked with the top Auburn riders can only be described as outstanding. Every credit must go to Fast Fridays promoter Dave Joiner, for recruiting such a high power World Team.

The A and B main events had weighted point scoring to enable a late stage win by the lower team. So going into the main events the score was 59 to 52, against the US team.

The B main was a win from the gate for Brian Karger, over Bast and Venegas. This made the score 66 to 58. Crump and Johnston both made superior gates in the A main and team rode with Johnston in front and Crump blocking any attempts by top US riders Mike Faria and Tommy Hedden. Bobby Hedden got a big cheer from the crowd for coming out to race, after a broken back ended his very successful 20 + year career, 15 months ago. He said this is his final event.

Results:
USA: Charlie Venegas 10: Tommy Hedden 10: Bobby Hedden 7: Buck Blair 7: Bart Bast 6: Mike Faria 6: Bryan Yarrow (reserve) 6.

World: Jason Crump 18: Brian Karger 12: Jonas Davidsson 11: Armando Castagna 9: Steve Johnston 8: Daniel Davidsson 1.

B Main: 1. Brian Karger: 2. Bart Bast: 3. Charlie Venegas: 4. Jonas Davidsson.

A Main: 1. Steve Johnston: 2. Jason Crump: 3. Mike Faria: 4. Tommy Hedden.

Youth Speedway Div 1 Main
1. Ben Essary: 2. Bryce Starks: 3. Ricky Felicio: 4. Cody Cicciarelli.

Youth Speedway Div 2 Main
1. Steven Reese: 2. Tanner Kane: 3. Jameson Dilkey: 4. Thomas Reich.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com