Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
1273 High Street
Auburn, California
Track Championship
Fast Friday’s Motorcycle Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Track Championships at Fast Friday's
AUBURN, CALIFORNIA, August 27, 2022
Story and results by Michael Kirby
Fast Friday's Motorcycle Speedway's move to Saturday nights for the remainder of the 2022 season proved to be an exciting one as championship racing began. Saturday night Fast Fridays began the championship portion of racing season with the Fast Friday's track championship, the SOS Team Challenge Championship and the Pee Wee 50 Championship.
All season long riders in all divisions collect points for finishing positions in every race and a points winner is declared at the end of the regular season last week. Division I was led by Billy Janniro, Division II was won by John Peters and Division III was won by Sam Richardson. The top 16 riders in Division I points and the top eight points riders in Division II and Division III are then qualified to race in the Fast Fridays Track Championship in each division. Then it's all scratch racing four laps elbow to elbow.
Division I ran 20 event races with each rider collecting points on finishing order in each race. At the end of the evening and the 20 races the rider with the most points is the track champion. The 2022 Fast Friday's Division I track champion turned out to be Louie Mersaroli. Mersaroli had a perfect night winning all his races and scoring a perfect 15 points. Second place went to Russell Green who scored 13 points dropping one point each in the second and third round. There was a tie between Alex Martin and Gino Manzares at 12 points and Manzares conceded the run-off and Martin was awarded third place and Manzares took fourth. Mersaroli also finished second in season points. He has had a great season so far.
Division II and Division III were a little different with the top eight riders riding in two heat races, four riders each, with the first and second place finishers moving on to a main event and the winner of the main crowned track champion in their divisions.
In Division II Sammy Tetrault and Dean Newnham were first and second in their heat race and John Peters and Lawrence McNutt were first and second in their heat race moving on to the main event. The four lined up with McNutt in lane one, Tetrault in lane two, Peters in lane three and Newnham in lane four. Peters got a good gate and held the lead for the four laps winning the championship. McNutt was second, Tetrault was third and Newnham was fourth. Peters also won the season points race in Division II.
In Division III it was a similar situation eight riders in two heat and the top two in each heat transfer to the main event. Sam Richardson and Cody Aker and Mike Newnham and Everett Holmes each came out first and second in the heat races to transfer. Richardson had lane one, Holmes had lane two, Newnham sat in three and Aker was on the outside. The tapes went up and in turn one Richardson got squeezed and went down and a restart necessary. This time the race got off and Holmes took command holding the lead all the way. Newnham was second and Richardson was third. Richardson was also the season points leader in Division III.
The Pee Wee division has become very popular and 17 pee wee's showed for a chance to win the Pee Wee 50 Fast Friday's track championship. These kids ran nine heat races accumulating points and the top four transferred to a main event in a winner take all finale. Leeann Emerson who all season has won over the Fast Fridays fans scored a perfect 12 points along with Riley Rearick who also scored 12 points to transfer. Jayce Preuss was third with 10 points to take a spot and the last spot went to Waylon Dempsey who finished the heat races with nine points. As the tapes went up Emerson took to the lead and finished in first place. Rearick was second, Preuss was third and Dempsey was fourth all doing a fantastic job.
If that wasn't enough racing for one night, the SOS Team Challenge between Team SOS and Team AR-17 finished with the final round for the season championship. The series was six rounds with the combined scoring over the six rounds in the team racing championship. Coming into the last round Team SOS trailed Team AR-17 48-30 and had a uphill climb. By the numbers they could not of won and the hope was to close the gap by as much as they could. The round ended with a draw 9-9 and the final series score was Team AR-17 57 and Team SOS 39. Louie Mersaroli and Rheten Todd had strong one-two finishes for Team SOS and Gino Manzares and Tyler Warren and had strong one-two finishes for AR-17.
Next Saturday September 3 the championship racing continues at Fast Friday's with the AMA Extreme Sidecar National Championship and the Youth 250 and Youth 150 AMA National Championships.
Results 8-27-22
Division II Track Championship
1-John Peters 2-Lawrence McNutt 3-Sammy Tetrault
Division III Track Championship
1-Everett Holmes 2-Mike Newnham 3-Sam Richardson
Pee Wee Championship
1-Leeann Emerson 2-Riley Rearick 3-Jayce Preuss
Season Points Final Division I
1-Billy Janniro 1461, 2-Louie Mersaroli 1439, 3-Bart Bast 1313
Season Points Final Division II
1-John Peters 648, 2-Marc Denniston 566, 3-Dean Newnham 556
Season Points Final Division III
1-Sam Richardson 523, 2-Sebe Denniston 511, 3-Ray Holt Jr. Jr. 478
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