Since we got rained out last week tonight was the first real night of racing at Kenosha this year.
We were scheduled for 3 lap sprints, a snowball, a point’s race for the consolation and a Madison Main Event.
3 lap sprints are not my favorite event since I don’t like sprinting or races under 15 laps so I sorta resigned myself to sucking, but hey you gotta give it a shot right?
They had heats of 5-7 riders with the top two advancing to the finals in each heat. So the night started off pretty slow. With the juniors and masters 4/5’s. The first race I really watched was the women’s sprints since my teammate Katy Steudel was in it. The race started off slowish but not a crawl like a few of the other races before it, there was no real attempt at a jump just a steady acceleration through the 2nd lap and a group sprint starting in turn 2. Katy was sitting a bit far back and down in the sprinters lane about 4-5th coming through that turn so I yelled for her to get up track and she started moving up into 3rd place where she got boxed in by Katie Antano, and Sarah Huang so she was sitting in third coming into turn four with a pretty good gap on the rest of the field all three fought it out down the final straight and it was damn close but Katy ended up 3rd with Katie A. winning, Sarah H. coming in 2nd and Beth Engvis rounding out the top 4 . Not a bad way to start the night.
After that I was up for my 3 lap sprint heat. I was in with my teammate Jon Raleigh, Frank Chemotti and 3 guys from Hayes they were taking the top two so Jon and I wished each other luck and started riding. The pace basically just gradually increased throughout the race I tried to stay 2nd or third wheel until the back straight where I yelled for Jon to jump and I just latched on to him and we passed the leading hayes guy on the outside in the last turn and I beat him in the final sprint by about 4 inches with Jon taking the win in the heat. I was really surprised at how it turned out but the pace of the race really played into my strengths since I don’t really have a good jump but I do have a pretty good top speed.
In the first 3s heat Lyle Hanson won with ED White taking 2nd and Casey Masterson getting beat out finishing in 3rd. After that I sorta took a break and went and talked to a few people while the 1-2s and 30+ heats were run.
In the fours finals john and I were lined up against Gideon Stitt and Zack Geyer as well as two other guys who I didn’t catch the names of. This time we rolled around the track at a snail’s pace for the first lap I just sat on the front waiting for a jump to happen we made it to the back straight when a guy from Hayes jumped and I hopped on his wheel, he was pulling up but not getting a gap so I just sorta marked him and stayed up with him until 2 other guys started coming through underneath him I then dropped down and went with them I couldn’t tell what type of gap we had if any coming into the final straight but I could see a shadow coming up behind me so I knew it couldn’t be much. So I gave it all I had and just beat out Jon at the line for 3rd place. He swore loudly at that and got a talking to but it was all cool in the end. So I ended up in 3rd overall which I’m pretty happy with since I don’t consider myself a sprinter at all.
After that it was the women’s Snowball which was five laps, they were only giving points for first though which seems like it takes away a lot of the strategy in the race. Anyways Katy nabbed the first point, got 3rd on the 2nd lap got the 3rd lap points, got 3rd again in the 4th lap and just missed out on the final lap points getting 2nd in that lap. So she ended up 3rd overall in the race since Katy Antano won the 2nd and last lap and Sarah Huang won the 4th lap.
The fours snowball was a large field and I basically just tried to stay in the front of the pack since I knew I wasn’t going to really be able to contest many laps because they were only giving points to 1st. so I just sorta hung out and rode hard for the first ¾ of the race and then took it easy for the last couple of laps.
That race was won by Corey Belchams (sp?) with Chaz Martin taking 2nd with Jeff Bradek and Chris Hurst taking 3rd and 4th respectively.
After that it was time for the 3s finals where Lyle Hanson got beat by Ed white(1st) and Len Caveltera(2nd) in the finals.
As for the consolation and Madison results well they weren’t up when I left so your guess is as good as mine but I’m pretty sure Andy Crater and his teammate took the win in the Madison.
Pic By: Gary Lake, more here
Full Results are hard to read but click on the Pics to check em out.
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