Fast Fridays: Janniro, Mersaroli score victories in scratch, handicap main events

Fast Fridays Motorcycle Speedway in Auburn continues to be the place to be on Friday nights for the best speedway racing. All summer long, David Joiner and his talented crew and riders show up each week and present a great show with fun family entertainment. In this seventh week of the season, current AMA National Speedway Champion Billy Janniro picked up his second Division I scratch main win and was the fastest man of the night. Janniro has qualified for every scratch main event this season. On Friday, the champ faced Blake Borello, Timmy Dion and Daniel Faria in the finale. Out of lane 2, Janniro with a good gate and working the inside line, unusual for him, mostly preferring the deeper outside dirt, got to the lead and avoided a mishap in turn 3 on the first lap that brought down Borello, Dion and Faria. Referee Steve Lucero called for a restart but without Borello, whose bike sustained damage. The restart was almost a carbon copy of the first start with Janniro quick off the line and to the inside in turn 1 and in front. Janniro continued to gain space on the other riders and rode his signature wheelie across the finish line. Dion was second and Faria third. Louie Mersaroli picked up his first Division I handicap main win of the season. Mersaroli has qualified for every handicap main event except one and finished in the top three of all. He put it all together Friday night. Third in his heat race and first in his semifinal, Mersaroli handicapped on the 30-yard line and worked his way around Janniro on the inside and then followed Faria until he found his hole to pass. Mersaroli and Borello passed Faria and sprinted to the finish line with Borello second and Faria third. John Peters won the support class main event. Peters, who has gotten quite a few rides lately riding in several divisions, won his heat race to transfer to the main. Handicapped on the 50-yard line, Peters was impressive in the win with a strong challenge from Cody Aker, who had a mechanical problem on the last lap and did not finish, leaving the race to Peters and Catherine Moore, who filled the gap. Moore was second and Brian Leventon was third. Aker won the trophy dash, and Peters was second. Injury and other commitments left only Nick Hohlbein in the Youth 250 division, and Hohlbein put on an impressive one-rider exhibition. In the Youth 150 division, it was the Rearick brothers, Riley and Wesley, going head to head again. A Rearick brother has won every Youth 150 main event this season except two. On Friday, it was Wesley Rearick on top. Wesley is handicapped on the 50-yard line and Riley is on the 30-yard line. Neck and neck in all their exciting races, Wesley came out top dog. Riley was second to his brother in their heats and the main event. Matthew Wright was third in the main event. Team Law Tigers kept their lead over Team M-45 in the third round of the Team Challenge behind strong rides by Janniro and Mersaroli, who finished first and second in the first race for five points. Timmy Dion and Glenn Moore added three points in the second race and the score ended up with the Law Tigers increasing their lead to 21-15 over M-45. Faria had a great ride for Team M-45 in the second race, winning and picking up three points. The season-long grudge match continues July 7 with round four. In season points, Broc Nicol leads Division I with 813, followed closely by Mersaroli with 795 and Janniro with 780. Peters leads Division II with 321 points, followed by Aidan McNutt with 240. Division III is led by Moore with 342 points, John Gauthreaux with 303 and Aker with 279. Be sure to be at Fast Fridays this week for the speedway endurance event of the year. Who will be this season's ironman winner of the 25-lap main event?