Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
Auburn, California

AMA US Nationals - Final Round
September 24, 2004 - Fast Fridays, Auburn
By Gary Roberts

Nationals Round 1 - August 6 / Nationals Round 2 - August 7

It would seem that the end is finally coming to the 2004 Northern California summer. Last night was a pleasant 75 degrees, with a fine mist at the beginning of the evening. The track started out looking a bit on the heavy side, but soon turned into a great race track. There was some overtaking, but not as much as one would expect. Billy Janniro had a couple of very spectacular races, with some wild overtaking moves on the outside, in a couple of others, his style of riding, going hard into the corner and parking it, did not pay off for him, with both Mike Faria and Chris Manchester simply staying on the pole and riding under him. To my mind, Janniro made the evening, providing excitement in every one of his races.

On the night of the first round of the National, less than 100 miles up the hill in the town of Reno, Nevada was a gathering of collector cars, known as "Hot August Nights". This was the main competition for Speedway fans. Coinciding with this round Reno held "Street Vibrations" which is a weekend get-together of motorcyclists, mostly Harley riders. This was responsible for the absence of a number of people I expected to see at Speedway. Nevertheless, those in attendance enjoyed an exciting night of racing.

Winner on the night was no surprise, last year's AMA National Champion, a very on-form, Greg Hancock. Greg lost a couple of points in the qualifying heats, but made no mistake in the A main. Greg made it look incredibly easy.

Elimination races:
Race 1
Bartek Bardecki, Mark Carrillo, Chris Kerr, Greg Hooten Jnr.

Race 2
Bobby Schwartz, Justin Boyle, Matt Browne, Shawn Harmatiuk

Race 3
Mark Carrillo, Chris Kerr, Matt Browne, Justin Boyle

Race 4
Chris Kerr, Bobby Schwartz, Mark Carrillo, Bart Bardecki.

Since Scott Brant retired from the sport, this left a third place to fill, so Kerr, Schwartz and Carrillo went straight into the program with Bardecki as reserve.

On to the main part of the event:

Heat 1
Bart Bast, Chris Manchester, Eddie Castro, Charlie Venegas

Heat 2
Greg Hancock, Mike Faria, Bryan Yarrow, Chris Kerr

Heat 3
Bobby Hedden, Tommy Hedden, Eric Carrillo, Tom Sephton

Heat 4
Billy Hamill, Billy Janniro, Mark Carrillo, Bobby Schwartz

Heat 5
Mike Faria, Billy Janniro, Bart Bast, Bobby Hedden

Heat 6
Greg Hancock, Charlie Venegas, Bobby Schwartz, Eric Carrillo

Heat 7
Billy Hamill, Tommy Hedden, Ed Castro, Chris Kerr

Heat 8
Chris Manchester, Bryan Yarrow, Tom Sephton, Mark Carrillo

Heat 9
Greg Hancock, Bart Bast, Bart Bardecki, Mark Carrillo
Tommy Hedden fell and was disqualified from the re-run

Heat 10
Billy Hamill, Charlie Venegas, Tom Sephton, Mike Faria

Heat 11
Bryan Yarrow, Bobby Hedden, Eddie Castro, Bobby Schwartz

Heat 12
Chris Manchester, Billy Janniro, Eric Carrillo, Chris Kerr

Heat 13
Chris Kerr, Tom Sephton, Bart Bast, Bobby Schwartz

Heat 14
Billy Janniro, Charlie Venegas, Tommy Hedden, Bryan Yarrow

Heat 15
Mike Faria, Eric Carrillo, Eddie Castro, Mark Carrillo

Heat 16
Billy Hamill, Greg Hancock, Bobby Hedden, Chris Manchester

Heat 17
Billy Hamill, Eric Carrillo, Bryan Yarrow, Bart Bast

Heat 18
Charlie Venegas, Bobby Hedden, Chris Kerr, Mark Carrillo

Heat 19
Billy Janniro, Greg Hancock, Tom Sephton, Eddie Castro
The first time this race was run, there was a nasty crash on turn one. Tom Sephton high sided and Eddie Castro demolished the wall. Both got back up for the rerun.

Heat 20
Chris Manchester, Mike Faria, Bobby Schwartz, Tommy Hedden

Qualifying points:

Billy Hamill      3 3 3 3 3  15
Greg Hancock      3 3 3 2 2  13
Billy Janniro     2 2 2 3 3  12
Chris Manchester  2 3 3 0 3  11
Mike Faria        2 3 0 3 2  10
Charlie Venegas   0 2 2 2 3   9
Bobby Hedden      3 0 2 1 2   8
Bryan Yarrow      1 2 3 0 1   7
Bart Bast         3 1 2 1 0   7
Eric Carrillo     1 0 1 2 2   6
Tommy Hedden      2 2 0 1 0   5
Tom Sephton       0 1 1 2 1   5
Eddie Castro      1 1 1 1 0   4
Chris Kerr        0 0 0 3 1   4
Bobby Schwartz    0 1 0 0 1   2
Mark Carrillo     1 0 0 0 0   1
Bart Bardecki, the reserve, scored 1 point from 1 ride.

The ABCD finals then followed:

D Final
Bobby Schwartz, Chris Kerr, Ed Castro, Mark Carrillo

C Final
Eric Carrillo, Bart Bast, Tom Sephton, Tommy Hedden

B Final
Mike Faria, Bobby Hedden, Charlie Venegas, Bryan Yarrow

A Final
Greg Hancock, Billy Hamill, Billy Janniro, Chris Manchester

Totaling up the points, the 13 top finishers are as follows:

Greg Hancock      38 + 20 = 58
Billy Hamill      37 + 19 = 56
Billy Janniro     36 + 16 = 52
Chris Manchester  26 + 14 = 40
Mike Faria        25 + 12 = 37
Bobby Hedden      22 + 11 = 33
Bart Bast         16 +  7 = 23
Tommy Hedden      16 +  5 = 21
Charlie Venegas   11 + 10 = 21
Bryan Yarrow      11 +  9 = 20
Eric Carrillo     11 +  8 = 19
Ed Castro         11 +  2 = 13
Tom Sephton        5 +  6 = 11

The first number is the total going into the final round, the second number is the points scored in the final round.

So its another National Championship for Greg Hancock, to add to what must now be a mountain of trophies. Greg mentioned that he had been warned by Mike Bast that if he catches up with Mike's record of 7 National Championship wins, the last one in 1979, Mike might have to come back out of retirement, to defend his position.

Gary Roberts - gary_rob@ix.netcom.com