Hellyer Velodrome Thursday Night Results

Obviously I am a big fan of points racing. Not just as a racer, but as a spectator as well. Tonights racing was pure and simple fun! I played my promoters prerogative card and moved a few of the riders between groups in hopes of making the events competitive. With some classy assistance it worked well. Here are a few examples of why I thought tonights racing was so much fun:
1) Rob Evans and Shelley Olds sprinting handlebar to handlebar for points (ah!)
2) Marc Franklin looking after Dash when Jen Coler was racing and then Jen looking after the little tike when Marc was racing (teehee)
3) Julie Nevitt sprinting to 2nd place and then Andrew Nevitt taking 6th place (coffee!)
4) 11 Bs started and all of them scored points. You might call that a competitive race (ah yeah!)

Thanks go out to Jen and Marc for baking the cookies. Thanks to Joe Fineman for the Peets and Clif Bars. Because of their generosity prizes went six deep. Thanks to all of those that continue to support this series and the track. Another $250 contributed to the track! Maybe we can afford that scoreboard soon?

Tip time: 2006 elite scratch race national champion Dave McCook and I shared a few tips with the C group before they started. Unsolicited, but good advice all the same. I cautioned about going too hard in the first few sprints and Dave reinforced that idea by mentioning that you should always have something in reserve in a points race because you just never know when an attack might come. Of course, the intent of this whole series is to give each rider ample opportunities to learn their limitations!

Survey time: If the county approved such a notion, would you support the track being open every Wednesday night, all year long. Rick Adams could run his excellent summer series, I could move my spring and fall series to Wednesdays and we could rotate supervisors to lead all the other Wednesdays the rest of the year. That would mean that you would have a well lit place to ride on cold winter nights. Sprinkle in a few BIG Friday nights of racing and you can easily tell your friends: the track is open Saturdays and Wednesdays all year long, except for rain! Do you like that idea? More importantly, would you show up in December?

C Group Results- 9 starters, 60 laps in 34:00 averaging 22.0mph

Highlights- Andreas Vogel took seven of the twelve sprints and controlled this race but that never stopped the group from attacking him and their competitors. This was a fun race to watch.

1st- 43 points- Andreas Vogel (CyclingCalifornia.com)- 7 victories
2nd- 22 points- Julie Nevitt (SJBC)- 1 victory
3rd- 20 points- Jen Coler (Trumer Pils)- 1 victory
4th- 10 points- Carlos Soto (Synergy Racing)
5th- 9 points- Sabine Dukes (Velobella-Kona)
6th- 3 points- Ryan Williams (Fresh Oakland)
Also- Joe Pritchard (Mako), Natasha Perry- 2 victories and 12 points (Velobella-Kona), Job Rucker- 1 victory and 13 points

B Group Results- 11 starters, 60 laps in 30:47 averaging 24.5mph

Highlights- The second of three great races to watch. All eleven starters scored and all but three stayed on even laps but it was the gutsy move by Stan Terusaki (Morgan Stanley) with 20 to go that gave him the win. Maybe if the Bs had listened to Dave McCooks advice they might have saved some energy(?)

1st- 32 points- Stan Terusaki (Morgan Stanley)- 5 victories
2nd- 21 points- Mark Patten (VOS)- 3 victories
3rd- 19 points- Maurice Monge (SJBC)- 1 victory
4th- 13 points- Aaron Hunter (SJBC)
5th- 11 points- Marc Franklin (Chico)- 1 victory
6th- 7 points- Chris Wehan (Look USA)
7th- 5 points- Ted Brooks (Synergy)
8th- 5 points- Ken Sato (Rock Lobster)
Also- Randy Armstrong- 4 points (SJBC), Joakim Vinberg- 10 points, 1 victory (Squadra Ovest/ Kovarus), Tim Bisson- 5 points, 1 victory (FFBC)

A Group Results- 8 starters, 60 laps in 29:00 averaging 26.0mph

Highlights- Tied on points, the win goers to Dave McCook on his final sprint win about a wheel ahead of Keith Miller, who continues to impress me with his strength and leg speed. Both will be ready for Nationals in 3 weeks!

1st- 38 points- Dave McCook (Kelly)- 4 victories and the final
2nd- 38 points- Keith Miller (Giant Strawberry)- 6 victories
3rd- 17 points- Rob Evans (BPG)
4th- 11 points- Shelley Olds (Proman)- 1 victory
5th- 8 points- Logan Loader (BPG)
Also- Giovanni Rey– 5 points and 1 victory (BPG), Matt Martinez, Alden Tanaka- 5 points (Cyfac), Andrew Nevitt- 7 points (Safeway)

September 20 and 27- that is two more Thursday Night Races in 2007! Larry Nolan, AMD-Discovery Channel Masters Cycling Team