Fast Fridays Speedway
Gold Country Fairgrounds
1273 High Street
Auburn, California
AMA Speedway National Championship
Fast Friday’s Motorcycle Speedway
AUBURN, CALIFORNIA, September 21, 2024
Michael Kirby Story and Photos
It was a great night of speedway racing pageantry, as the Fast Friday's Motorcycle Speedway staff pulled out all the stops at the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn Ca. Saturday night. The evening began with a rider's parade that included riders breaking through large paper banners during their introductions, lane girls with brightly colored shirts marking the starting places for the riders throughout the night and sponsor photos with the heat race winner after each race.
Nothing could be more fitting though, because on this night the third round of the AMA Speedway National Championship series a new national speedway champion would be crowned and wear the big number one on their back and motorcycle for the coming year. A big honor in the speedway racing community that shows commitment and determination.
The championship series consists of three races held throughout the season at three different racetracks. The championship format scores points for finishing order in the all-scratch heat races, three points for a first-place finish, two points for a second-place finish, one point for a third-place finish and zero points for a fourth-place finish. Four riders in each heat race face each other at least once during the evening. In the championship series the points carry over from each of the series rounds and all the points are added up after grand final at Fast Friday's Saturday night the rider with the most points is the AMA Speedway National Champion.
The stakes could not be higher. The three top riders, Broc Nicol, Max Ruml and Billy Janniro were just separated by one point each. Nicol was on top winning both the previous rounds with 35 points, Janniro brought in 34 points and Ruml carried 33 points. Each rider had a good chance of of winning the national championship.
Both Ruml and Janniro were both AMA Speedway National Champions, Janniro eleven-times and Ruml the 2023 current champion. Nicol was looking for his first AMA Speedway National Championship win to add to an already long and outstanding racing resume that began for him in the junior ranks in 2010 and progressed into his professional racing career that began in 2014. Saturday night at Fast Friday's Nicol won the third round of the AMA National Speedway Championship series and became the AMA Speedway National Champion.
Nicol had nearly a perfect performance in the third round dropping just one point to Ruml in Heat 20 when they faced each other. Ruml was prefect with all wins until the grand final when he placed second behind Nicol. Janniro dropped a point each to Ruml in the first race and Nicol in Semi Final Two.
After the 20 heat races the riders were put in two semi-final races decided by the points they earned after the heats with the top two finishers from each race transferring to the grand final. Semi-final one had Ruml, Blake Borello, Alex Martin and Timmy Dion. This race had a little trouble getting going and it took three starts to finally get off. Martin and Dion were excluded for crashes and the final start included just Ruml and Borello who both earned a spot in the grand final. Semi-final two included Nicol, Janniro, Bart Bast and Eddie Castro. Nicol got a good gate and outdistanced Janniro for the win, Janniro was second, Bast third and Castro fourth. Both Nicol and Janniro then walked out to the start line with Ruml and Borello for the final race to decide the championship.
At this point if Ruml would win the race he would tie Nicol and a run-off would be required, but this was not the case. Ruml came into the race with the most points and had the lane choice and he took lane four, Nicol had second pick, and he choose lane one, Janniro then chose lane two and Borello was left with lane three. Janniro was the seasoned veteran in this race at 44 years old, Ruml 27, Nicol 26, and Borello 23. As the gates went up it was clear that Nicol was not going to earn his first AMA Speedway National Championship with a run-off and made the lead in the first turn and held the lead. Ruml made a few tries at passing Nicol, but Nicol held on to the lead winning the race and the national championship. Ruml came in second, Borello third and Janniro fourth.
So, the way it works the finishing order in the grand final is the finishing order for round three, so Nicol won all the three individual rounds, Ruml was second, Borello was third and Janniro was fourth. For the series Nicol was first with 55 points, Ruml was second with 53 points and Janniro was third with 49 series points. So Nicol will proudly wear his number one for the next season.
It was a fantastic race night full everything a speedway fan could want. Hats off to all the racers and the staff at Fast Fridays that put on a great championship night.
Coming up is the last race of the season at Fast Friday's and it is not one to miss. The USA vs. the World is the season finale and a international racing treat. Fast Fridays brings over a European team of riders to compete against our hometown boys in a goodwill meeting on our tricky dirt oval. This event will take place on Saturday October 5 in Auburn at Fast Friday's. More information and ticket purchases can be found at www.fastfridays.com.
AMA Speedway National Championship Round 3 Grand Final
1-Broc Nicol, 2-Max Ruml, 3-Blake Borello, 4-Billy Janniro
Semi Final 1
1-Max Ruml
2-Blake Borello
3-Alex Martin
4-Timmy Dion
Semi Final 2
1-Broc Nicol
2-Billy Janniro
3-Bart Bast
4-Eddie Castro
Round Three Points
1-Broc Nicol 3 3 3 3 2 3 3-20
2-Max Ruml 3 3 3 3 3 3 2-20
3-Billy Janniro 2 2 3 3 3 2 0-15
4-Blake Borello 1 3 2 2 3 2 1-14
5-Bart Bast 3 3 1 2 2 1-12
Alex Martin 2 1 0 3 3-9
Eddie Castro 2 2 2 2 1-9
Timmy Dion 3 1 2 1 2 3-9
Russell Green 1 1 3 0 1-6
Chris Kerr 0 1 2 2 0-5
Daniel Faria 2 0 1 1 1-5
Louie Mersaroli 1 2 1 0 0-4
Gregory Moore 1 0 1 1 0-3
Tisiah Prout 0 2 0 0 0-2
R Darren Armbruster 0 0 0 1 2-3
R John Peters - 0 - 0 - -0
Youth 250
13 Brady Landon
13 Jameson Hutchinson
119 Caden Cavrikas
50 Wesley Rearick
Youth 150 Final
05 Riley Rearick
89 Liam Falcon
6 Logan Kerr
123 Leeann Emerson
Youth Consolation
8 Gavin Evans-Seeley
17 Zander Schroeder
219
77 William Bruce
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