BRI WEEKEND RACE REPORT:
Friday Night Track Racing
I ventured out to the track on Friday night to race for the first time since I busted my elbow last August. A Madison was on the schedule and after cajoling and otherwise bullying my team mate Gary Brown for 2 days straight to be my partner I was looking forward to some racing. When we got there though the powers that be decided that since there had been no Madison practices yet this year, there would be no Madison and instead we would ride a points race.
(an aside here: no Madison practice so cancel the Madison, are you kidding me? There was no attempt to talk with the racers on this one and frankly this decision seems typical of the wussy mentality prevalent around here. We are Cat 1-2 riders who are all experienced riding Madisons. For the first one of the year, we could have all made a gentleman's agreement to ride controlled for at least the first half, put on a good show for the spectators and thus have completed the first Madison practice of the year. And to those riders who were bitching that they did not know there was a Madison on tap b/c the program was not posted on-line, guess what, I called Harley on Wednesday to get the program. Be proactive next time.)
So the program ended up being a 16 lap scratch, a Keirin and a 40 lap points race, still not a bad program but no Madison either. There was almost 30 guys in the 1-2 field with some new fast guys which made the racing fast all night so that was fun. The BRI track squad of Gary Brown, Lief Clark and myself put in a good showing with the fast twitch duo of Brown and Clark making some coin. After the split I ended up racing for free so anytime that happens it's a good night.
SATURDAY NIGHT BALLARD CRIT
What can I say on this other than that BRI ruled the Ballard crit. Russell won and the team put 3 in the top 10 as well as ringing up a number of primes. Russell, Remi, Gary and Higgins carried the day as the rest of us found the damp course a bit to scary to negotiate over the bricks (me) or the pace way to rich.
As usual, the morning of Ballard dawned wet and....wet. It rained all day and only stopped just leading up to the Pro 1-2 race at 7:30. The course was actually pretty dry at start time with the exception of the hairy even-when-dry corners 1 and 4. My race was over pretty much the first time we went through turn 1 and my rear wheel slid over about a foot and four guys went down. Ever since my twice-busted elbow in the last 9 months I have been, how should a say this, a puss going through corners. This was a race where the puss approach would not work out well. Fortunately though, Russ, Remi, Gary and Higgins are no such pusses and were driving the pace at the front. It was great to see the guys pull off a win at one of the best crits in the area, nice job guys!
Friday Night Track Racing
I ventured out to the track on Friday night to race for the first time since I busted my elbow last August. A Madison was on the schedule and after cajoling and otherwise bullying my team mate Gary Brown for 2 days straight to be my partner I was looking forward to some racing. When we got there though the powers that be decided that since there had been no Madison practices yet this year, there would be no Madison and instead we would ride a points race.
(an aside here: no Madison practice so cancel the Madison, are you kidding me? There was no attempt to talk with the racers on this one and frankly this decision seems typical of the wussy mentality prevalent around here. We are Cat 1-2 riders who are all experienced riding Madisons. For the first one of the year, we could have all made a gentleman's agreement to ride controlled for at least the first half, put on a good show for the spectators and thus have completed the first Madison practice of the year. And to those riders who were bitching that they did not know there was a Madison on tap b/c the program was not posted on-line, guess what, I called Harley on Wednesday to get the program. Be proactive next time.)
So the program ended up being a 16 lap scratch, a Keirin and a 40 lap points race, still not a bad program but no Madison either. There was almost 30 guys in the 1-2 field with some new fast guys which made the racing fast all night so that was fun. The BRI track squad of Gary Brown, Lief Clark and myself put in a good showing with the fast twitch duo of Brown and Clark making some coin. After the split I ended up racing for free so anytime that happens it's a good night.
SATURDAY NIGHT BALLARD CRIT
What can I say on this other than that BRI ruled the Ballard crit. Russell won and the team put 3 in the top 10 as well as ringing up a number of primes. Russell, Remi, Gary and Higgins carried the day as the rest of us found the damp course a bit to scary to negotiate over the bricks (me) or the pace way to rich.
As usual, the morning of Ballard dawned wet and....wet. It rained all day and only stopped just leading up to the Pro 1-2 race at 7:30. The course was actually pretty dry at start time with the exception of the hairy even-when-dry corners 1 and 4. My race was over pretty much the first time we went through turn 1 and my rear wheel slid over about a foot and four guys went down. Ever since my twice-busted elbow in the last 9 months I have been, how should a say this, a puss going through corners. This was a race where the puss approach would not work out well. Fortunately though, Russ, Remi, Gary and Higgins are no such pusses and were driving the pace at the front. It was great to see the guys pull off a win at one of the best crits in the area, nice job guys!
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