Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

Season Opener
May 8, 2009 - Fast Fridays
By: Gary Roberts and Michael Kirby

Opening night at Auburn brought out a good crowd, a reasonably good rider turn out, although there were a number of missing faces, but the return of former missing faces too. Welcome back to former long term youth rider Mark Carrillo.

Racing was good, as always. Our new AMA National Champion Billy Janniro displayed the skills he has picked up in England over the past few years, by winning the scratch main. Ben Essary held off some heavy duty competition to win the Handicap Main.

Unofficial results

Scratch Main Event
1. Billy Janniro; 2. Bart Bast; 3. Chad Felicio; 4. Greg Hooten.

Scratch Consolation Event
1. Kenny Ingalls; 2. Tommy Hedden; 3. Charlie Venegas; 4. Bryan Yarrow.

Handicap Main Event
1. Ben Essary; 2 .Bart Bastt; 3.Billy Janniro; 4. Bryan Yarrow; 5. Tommy Hedden.

Handicap Consolation Event
1. Chad Felicio; 2. Greg Hooten; 3. Mark Carrillo; 4. Alex Marcucci; 5. Jim Lewis.

Division 2 Main Event
1. Steve Lewotsky; 2. Danny Faria; 3. Matt Drury; 4. Danny Turner; 5. Jeff Irwin.

Division 2 Consolation Event
1. Charlie Haines; 2.RJ Becerra; 3. Mike Browne; 4. David Fonts 5.Mike Achilles.

Division 3 Main Event
1. Dustin Berdollt; 2. Richard Fehrmann; 3.Tori Hubberts; 4. Michelle Fehrmann; 5. John Gauthreaux.

Division 3 Consolation Event
1. Casey Cornilsen; 2. Glen Scott; 3.Lenny Bourassa; 4.Kendra Warren; 5. Tor Lovlien.

Youth Division 1
1. Tyler Warren; 2. Thomas Reich; 3. Cody Ciciarelli; 4. Amber Felicio; 5.Tanner Kane.

Youth Division 2 & 3
1.PJ Byrne; 2. Jameson Dilkey; 3. Ryan Vaughn.

- Gary Roberts – gary_rob@ix.netcom.com

Billy Janniro, front, opened the speedway season with a narrow victory over Bart Bast in the main event Photo By Michael Kirby     Slide show is here !

By Michael Kirby Journal Sports Correspondent

Billy Janniro’s return to Fast Fridays after a four year regular season absence highlighted a picture perfect opening night Friday at the Gold Country Fairgrounds.

Janniro is taking this season off from racing in the European British Leagues where he competed very successfully with the Coventry Bees. The 2008 AMA National Champion will be a regular at Fast Fridays in Auburn each week and did not disappoint speedway fans with his daring and aggressive racing style in the opener.

“Racing’s a different experience for me now,” Janniro said. “I’m happy to be back able to enjoy racing for fun, it’s been a job for so long, I want to enjoy it again.”

Being one of he first riders in Fast Friday’s history to start from the 60-yard line in the handicap program, Janniro struggled trying to catch the lesser yardage riders. Starting from nearly half way around the track Janniro finished third in both Handicap heat races and after two false starts that changed the back yardage lineup a little, Janniro also finished third in the handicap main behind second place Bart Bast and winner Ben Essary.

In the Scratch Main the four fastest men of the night lined up on the start line, with Janniro in lane 1, Greg Hooten in lane 2, Chad Felicio in lane 3 and Auburn’s Bart Bast in lane 4. As the tape went up Janniro beat everyone to the inside corner and using the whole width of the track, tight in the corners and moving wide in the straight a ways held the persistent Bast from passing. Bast kept Janniro looking back, riding close to his rear tire, close to passing several times. Janniro proved to be the fastest rider Friday night, Bast finished second, Felicio was third, and Hooten finished fourth.

“It’s great having Billy here racing this year, he’s beatable, everyone’s beatable it’s all a matter of getting a good start. You have to pick up your pace to beat him though, I think he only got me by a bike length or so,” said Bast.

Steve Lewotsky won the Division II main event after an aggressive try by second place finisher Daniel Faria who passed several riders on lap three trying to catch Lewotsky. Matt Drury finished third.

Tylor Warren won the Division I Youth main event, leading from start to finish,

Thomas Reich finished second, and Cody Ciciarelli finished third.

Fast Fridays Results

Division I Scratch Main
1-Billy Janniro
2-Bart Bast
3-Chad Felicio
4-Greg Hooten

Division I Handicap Main
1-Ben Essary
2-Bart Bast
3-Billy Janniro

Division II Main Event
1-Steve Lewotsky
2-Daniel Faria
3-Matt Drury

Division III Main Event
1-Justin Berdollt
2-Richard Fehrman
3-Tori Hubbert

Division I Youth Main
1-25 Tylor Warren
2-Thomas Reich
3-Cody Ciciarelli