AUBURN, CA

On Friday night, two veteran riders climbed to the top of the winners' podium for the first time this season at Fast Fridays Motorcycle Speedway at Auburn, California's Gold Country Fairgrounds. Tommy Hedden and Ricky Felicio each picked up first-place victories, with Hedden winning the Division One Scratch main event and Felicio topping the Division One Handicap main event.

Auburn's own Tommy Hedden (40, above) has been racing well all season at Fast Fridays, making it into the Division One Scratch main event nine times and the Division One Handicap main event five times in 13 regular season meetings; he has only had one night without a Division One Scratch or Handicap main event showing this season. The brother of retired speedway veteran Bobby Hedden, Tommy began his career in 1983; he has been racing speedway for 27 years and is a competitive force on any track.

Hedden fought his way into the Division One Scratch main event on Friday night by winning his first Scratch heat race and winning his Scratch semifinal heat. Hedden then drew lane three, lining up alongside Billy Janniro in lane four, Charlie Venegas in lane two, and Auburn's Bart Bast in lane one.

Out of the gate, Hedden was inside of all riders by turn one and riding hard, with Janniro just outside of him, a little higher on the track. Hedden and Janniro continued to battle, with Janniro trying to get around Hedden on the outside as Hedden held fast on his inside line, and with Bast and Venegas just behind, within striking distance. It was looking like this one was shaping up to be another close finish, but then the unexpected happened: On lap three of the four-lap race, Janniro and Venegas went down on the straightaway between turns three and four. Hedden was declared the winner without a restart because the Scratch main had gone into three laps, and his lead position gave him the win. Bast finished second, Venegas third and Janniro fourth.

"I've got a couple of good sponsors right now," said Hedden. "We put in a different motor we haven't run in a while that's working well. It feels good [to] finally beat Janniro."

Ricky Felicio (154, above, leading Tommy Hedden) won the Division One Handicap main after winning his Handicap heat race and finishing second in his Handicap semifinal. The 20-year-old Orangevale resident has been racing at Fast Fridays since 2000 and was the 2006 Youth National Champion.

"I'm ecstatic," said Felicio. "I hope to keep it rolling."

Bart Bast was second (for the second week in a row, Bast picked up a pair of second-place finishes in both the Division One Scratch and Handicap main events), and last week's Division One Handicap main-event winner, Alex Marcucci, was third.

Tom Fehrman topped the Division Two main event, followed by Richard Fehrman in second and Steve Rowett was third.

Division Three was won by Chris Casey. Fast Fridays owner David Joiner finished second, and Robby Northam finished third.

The Youth A main event was won by P.J. Byrne, the Youth B main event was won by Colton Hicks, and Jim Lewis won the Run What U Brung event.

The three-man Liv Fast Freestyle Moto X Team of Reno, Nevada - Dustin Miller (above), Greg Garrison and Tim O'Brien -put on an exciting exhibition of motorcycle tricks, stunt-jumping their bikes off ramps set up in the speedway infield, thrilling the Fast Fridays crowd.

Results

D-1 SCR MAIN: 1. Tommy Hedden; 2. Bart Bast; 3. Charlie Venegas; 4. Billy Janniro.

D-1 HDCP MAIN: 1. Ricky Felicio; 2. Bart Bast; 3. Alex Marcucci.

D-2 MAIN: 1. Tom Fehrman; 2. Richard Fehrman; 3. Steve Rowett.

D-3 MAIN: 1. Chris Casey; 2. David Joiner; 3. Robby Northam.

YTH A MAIN: 1. P.J. Byrne.

YTH B MAIN: 1. Colton Hicks.

RUN WHAT U BRUNG: 1. Jim Lewis.