Race Report July 11th

[Chris Helwig]

Young Guns Nail Leadout as Streak Stays Alive

An overcast night for racing but still a pretty big turnout. The racing started fairly quickly with Charlie keeping a fast pace and a couple moves going off the front. The pace seemed fairly high with quite a bit of attacking. A few laps in Charlie went off the front solo and held it for close to two laps. The bunch kept him close and he was eventually caught. Kees and Brad also had a pretty good break for nearly a lap, but there always seemed to be people interested in chasing. With a couple laps to go Tony Frosst and Brad went off the front and at first it didn't seem the pack wanted to chase. Charlie went to the front and brought most of it back with Forsdike finishing it off. The bell rang one lap early, but either way the race to the finish was on. Westhaven was up at the front with Forsdike setting a good pace. Paul Dean took over near the 4 way stop but it may have been a bit early to try and control things. The young guns then took over with Craig Browne coming to the front not long after the 4 way stop turn. Craig kept the pace high with me on his wheel and I would guess quite a bit of gutter action behind. No one challenged Craig as he set a formidable pace. Around the last corner and final bend it was still Browne leading it out. Perfectly timed Matt Townsend came around Craig and took over the lead. He was setting a great pace and wound it up with about 400 meters to go. I came around a bit early at about 275 meters to go as the threat of getting swarmed made me nervous. The sprint for the win was on as all the favourties were lined up. With about 100 meters to go the inevitable happened as London's sprint ace Graydon Raymer came around for another win. I hung on for second with Charlie just behind in 3rd, Tony in 4th and Forsdike in 5th.

My Eload Stars are as follows:

Graydon - did plenty of work and takes the win.
Charlie - Strong as usual, nice solo effort
Tony - Active and a good sprint
Brownie - active and a smoking leadout
Matt Townsend - Did some hard chasing and a great leadout
Forsdike - Always strong in July
Kees - This guy is strong
Tony Frosst - Big engine and not afraid to try
Brad Nicol - Best I have seen him

[Chris Helwig]

I forgot to mention I apologize to Tim Crosby and Andrew House for having them not drive from out of town for the race. The radar looked bad and I thought the race would likely be rained out.

Chris

[the Superstar]

Charlie attacking at the perfect moment when everyone was knackered and then staying away for 2 laps was good. Chris did a deadly sprint from the front, I could not come around and Graydon's sprint was probably the most wicked one he's done this year, that I remember anyways. It was fast.

Watch out for Mike Thornton - every race he gets closer and closer to the front. He used to be good - he might be again soon.

Agreed that Brad, Tony Frosssst and Mat made an impression.

On a slightly negative note, I did notice a bit more yellow line violating going on than before - I'm not going to name any names like Craig V. or Joe, but let's be careful. Even if there is no traffic, we don't want any complaints bringing an end to the fun and games.

[SIBO]

B Race results were.\
1. Dean 2. Ben 3. Cope 4. Perry and 5. Sibo

I rode the back for a couple of laps to see what would unfold and the word is Scarey. We let a little splinter group go off the start and watched them tire themselves out. Dean and the rest of us bridged the gap and the comments were made quietly about how the group was unfolding. 4 laps in there was a front group of 5-6 and we rode it to the end. The usual suspects all worked hard and it showed in the end. For the B group..... what about making Mock Teams? Say at the start ..... 3 to a team if there is enough, work together ride together, lead out, etc. It always seems to be the same guys riding around in front without purpose. It could be fun and maybe more like our heros " The A Team " .
What do you think guys? Im sure the 5 or 6 regular b racers could move up to the A no problem but I think the B group would be awful and dangerous........ Any thoughts

[the Superstar]

You can't join the "A Team" until you've demonstrated that you can build a fully armored RV with 30mm canons, battering ram and a periscope in under one hour, while in a cave using nothing more than an acetylene torch and some sheet metal.