AUBURN, CA

Fast Fridays Motorcycle Speedway at the Gold Country Fairgrounds was a hub of activity on Friday night. Including the regular speedway program, two championship programs were also being run, as the 2010 AMA/USA Youth National and the 2010 AMA/USA Under 21 National Speedway Championships were also staged at the Auburn, California, track.

AMA/USA 2009 Youth National Champion Austin Novratil (8, above right) again topped all youth competitors with a perfect performance and was crowned the 2010 AMA/USA Youth National Champion. Novratil scored wins in all four of his heat races, and won the final main event to take the championship. Novratil outpaced Auburn's own Tyler Warren and Tanner Kane, who each finished the heat races with 10 points, and Gabe Price (13, above left), who finished the heats with five points. Kane finished second in the final, Price was third, and Warren fourth.

Auburn's Bryce Starks (above) also repeated his performance of last year, winning the AMA/USA Under 21 National Championship. Starks finished his four heat races and semifinal with wins and went into the final with 15 points. Gino Manzares finished the heats and semifinal with 10, Russell Green had tallied 12 going into the final, and Brad Pappalardo had nine entering the final. Starks struggled in the final for the first time of the evening and finished third, behind Manzares, who was second, and Green, who finished first. Pappalardo finished fourth. With a comfortable lead going into the final, and with the championship awarded by total points for all races, Starks won the Under 21 Championship, finishing one point ahead of Green, with 16. The win again qualifies Starks to represent the United States in Europe in the 2011 Under 21 World Cup Qualifier, which he missed this year because of injury.

"It feels great," said Starks. "I hope to stay injury-free this year and go overseas next year and achieve my goal to race in the Under 21 championships."

Charlie Venegas (above) won the Division One Scratch main event, getting a good gate out of lane four and holding off Billy Janniro, who, working the outside of the track, was unable to pass Venegas and finished second out of lane two. Auburn boys Tommy Hedden and Bart Bast finished third and fourth, respectively.

Tommy Hedden (40, above), who is on a Division One main-event winning streak, won the Division One Handicap main event. Bast finished second, Janniro finished third, and Alex Marcucci was fourth. The previous week, Hedden had won a Division One Scratch main event.

Rounding out the exciting night of speedway racing at Fast Fridays, Dustin Berdolt won the Division Two main event, Robby Northam won the Division Three main event, and Jim Lewis again topped the Run What U Brung program.

Results

YTH NAT'L C'SHIP: 1. Austin Novratil; 2. Tanner Kane; 3. Gabe Price; 4. Tyler Warren.

UNDER 21 NAT'L C'SHIP: 1. Bryce Starks; 2. Russell Green; 3. Gino Manzares; 4. Brad Pappalardo.

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

D-1 HDCP MAIN: 1. Tommy Hedden; 2. Bart Bast 3. Billy Janniro.

D-2 MAIN: 1. Dustin Berdolt; 2. Brandon Leedy; 3. Richard Fehrman.

D-3 MAIN: 1. Robby Northam; 2. John Williams; 3. Billy Vaughn.

RUN WHAT U BRUNG: 1. Jim Lewis.