Fast Fridays: Motorcycle speedway crowns Division I, Team Challenge, Pee Wee champions

Fast Fridays Motorcycle Speedway opened its championship season Saturday night with three exciting programs – the Fast Fridays, Pee Wee and Team Challenge championships. That's 21 Division I races, three Division II races, three Division III races, eight Pee Wee races and two team challenge heats. Division I ran a championship format with 16 riders in 20 heats scoring points three for a win, two for a second-place finish, three for third place and zero for fourth. The track champion was the rider with the most points after all the heat races. All were scratch races, and all riders faced each other at least once. The top 16 riders who accumulated points during the regular season made the lineup for the championship. These races were quick four-lap heats lasting well under a minute. When the dust settled, Broc Nicol, a Southern California rider who has made the trip north each week, won the Fast Fridays Track Championship. Nicol was nearly perfect, dropping just one point to Blake Borello in heat nine and finishing with 14 points. Placing second was Dillon Ruml, another Southern California rider who dropped just two points and finished with 13 points. Billy Janniro finished third after a run-off with Louie Mersaroli. Each totaled 12 points. Divisions II and III ran a different program with the top eight season points riders making the championship. They rode two heat races, transferring the first- and second-place finishers to a main event. Aidan McNutt was the Division II champion, winning his heat race and the main event. Sammy Tetrault was second and Chase Kangas was third. Cody Aker won the Division III track championship. Aker was also had a perfect night by winning his heat. Catherine Moore, who finished first in Division III season points, was second and Brian Leventon was third. Riley Rearick won the Pee Wee track championship. Rearick is well known at Fast Fridays as a Youth 150 rider along with his brother Wesley. Riley Rearick, 9, is young enough to compete in the Pee Wee division and will be in the hunt for the AMA Youth 150 National Championship on Sept. 2. Logan Kerr was second and Liam Falcon was third. The Pee Wees scored points in six heats with the top three riders seeded in the main event. A last-chance heat transferred the top three finishers also to the main event. The Team Challenge finished its season-long grudge match with an exciting championship. The challenge had five rounds throughout the regular season. Going into the championship round, Team Law Tigers led Team M-45 33-27. Team M-45 took advantage of the Joker rule by doubling the points of Nicol, who won his race, and with another point scored by teammate Blake Borello added seven points to their score in one race. Team Law Tigers added two points to their tally with a second-place finish by Billy Janniro to make the score Law Tigers 35, M-45 34. Louie Mersaroli won the last race for the Law Tigers to add three points and teammate Glen Moore chipped in one more with a third-place finish. For M-45, Dan Faria's second-place finish and his two points were just not enough to catch the Law Tigers and the final score ended up Team Law Tigers over Team M-45 39-36. All races will be on Saturday nights for the remainder of the season. The next race is Sept. 2 with the AMA National Sidecar and AMA National Speedway Youth 250 and Youth 150 championships. There is no racing this weekend.