Opening Night on the boards
May 18th, 2007 |
Hooray! I’ve been looking forward to track racing all winter and now that it’s finally here I have to agree with the Man in Black: it’s like we never left…except we got to wear two numbers and Timmer was there!
I am not going to explain every single event format so if you don’t know what I am talking about you have a few options:
– Not care
– Research online
– Come out to the track and watch the racing some Thursday night
I encourage the 3rd option.
So I have been experiencing a fair amount of unnecessary anxiety about racing with the Category 2’s this year. I had developed a lot of confidence racing with the 3’s over the past few years but I was worried that upgrading to 2’s would feel like going to the back of the line. There are some really fast guys in the 2’s field, plus Super Rookie.
The first race of the evening was the Bavarian Win and Out, except that I think something got screwed up because it was a Miss and Out format to eliminate half the field and then an 8 lap scratch race for the winner. I figured that I may as well use the same secret Miss and Out strategy that was so effective for me last year and see what happened. I was amazed to find that I was able to stay in the race for the final 8 laps. With 3 or so laps to go Luke Winger hit the after burners and took Brian Crosby with him. Skidsy and I were kind of gassed and he beat me on the line for 3rd place with me in 4th. (UPDATE 5-18-07 11:09am I was apparently so gassed that I did not realize it was the National Champion that beat me instead of Skidsy. National Champion had a good size gap on my that I could not close down and I held off Skidsy. It’s all becoming clear to me now…)
Next up was the Miss and Out. Again my secret strategy paid off and I made it to the final four. Once again it was the Luke and Brian show with Skidsy and I bringing home the 3rd and 4th spots.
At this point I was ecstatic that I was riding well enough to be competitive in the 2’s field. But I was feeling a bit over geared so I changed up the chainring and put on a gear that I felt I would be able to more easily get and stay on top of. It worked great.
Ped was less ecstatic because he hates the “circus races” like the Miss and Out and the Handicap races.
The final race of the night was the 50 laps scratch race with the 2’s and 3’d field combined. I put in an attack during the first 10 laps that got everything moving and immediately regretted it because the pace only slowed twice during the course of the race. Someone would attack and look like they were going to stay away but then the field would get motivated and chase them down. It went on like this for the rest of the race until you know who and you know who else went one two in the finish. There was someone else up there (Skidsy again?) and Der Kruser pipped me on the line for 4th which left me in 5th. Ped gave me the super sweet lead out but I just ran out of gas before the line.
It was tons ‘o funs, everyone rode really smart and safe, there was not a single problem that I can recall in our field.
Gilby looked to be having a great night. She had a winning streak going after the first two races and I told her that she needed to keep the streak alive for the rest of the entire season. So, out of spite, she did not win the next race. Thanks.
Timmer looked to be a bit nervous riding with the 4’s but it seemed he figured out the fit guy way to stay out of trouble: ride off the front and stay there.
Tuffy was riding pretty good in the 3’s races. He did not crash anyone when they combined the field so that’s awesome.
Ray did a fantastic job keeping everyone in line and on schedule.
The container was all prepped for bike storage so big thanks to Der Kruser for putting that project together. Thanks to those who did the finish work on the container as well.
Ummm, I think that’s it. I am looking forward to seeing Super Rookie’s power ranking when it’s published on Monday.
