Midwest Sprint Challenge Recap

Turnout was a bit lighter than I had hoped, but we still had a good crew show up and everyone raced hard. Jon Fraley even came over from K-Town for the racing.
After the rain-out on Friday, we crammed 3 sessions into Saturday. It was a looooooooooooong day at the track, but it was a blast!

We started out with flying 200's and Sprint Prelims. I qualified 1st with an 11.21, and raced Ted in the first round. I kept the pace fairly high coming into the final lap, and jumped with 200m meters to go and held on for the win. I don't quite understand how the bubble-up format works, because in the second round it was a 3-up between Ted, Fraley, and I. I knew that the top two in this race got to stay in the "top" bracket, so when Fraley jumped with 1 to go, I got on his wheels and cruised across the line for 2nd. In the 3rd round I faced off against Fraley. The bubble-up format meant that no matter who won this race, we'd both be guaranteed a spot in the final 3-up of the prelims. I jumped with 1 to go, and he didn't even try to come around, so we were both able to save a bit of energy for the race which dictated our seeding for the finals to be held later in the evening (did that sentence make any sense at all?). The last race of the morning was a 3-up between Ferris, Fraley, and I. I qualified 1st, with Ferris in 2nd and Fraley taking the 3rd seed. Francis Hamre upset Ted in the final round to take the 4th seed for the finals. This meant I would face Francis in the semi's, and Ferris would face Fraley.

We then had a 2-hour break before the next session started, so we went to the NSC dorms and watched some of the olympics.

Due to light rider turnout we didn't have to do keirin prelims in the afternoon section, and instead could just skip to the finals in the evening. That meant that Team Sprint was the only race of session #2. After much whining, I convinced Tainter to show up and race the TS with us. In the prelims, we qualified fastest with a 51.xx. Not anywhere near the time we were shooting for, but still the fastest time of the day. In the finals we rode a bit better, with a 50.7. It was enough to win, but almost a full second off of our track record in the event.

Fast-forward through another 2 hours of watching the Olympics to the evening session.

We started the evening with the Sprint semi-finals. Francis had raced himself up from the 8th seed to the 4th seed. In all his races, he implemented the exact same tactic: take the front, slowly accellerate through the first 2 laps, and jump hard on the last lap. I took the front and held him in up at the rail for the first 2 laps, then jumped hard coming into the bell lap and held him off for the win. In the second race, I let him lead out and he did exactly what I knew he would, and I came around on the backstretch to take the win.

Since Fraley had prevailed over Ferris, I was to race him in the finals. He led out the first race, keeping me high on the track. With 2 to go, I started "pushing" him a bit to keep the pace higher. He jumped coming out of turn 4, and I let a small gap open up, then used it to slingshot around him, taking the win by about 4 inches. In our second race, I led out and varied the pace quite a bit. I kept a relatively high speed until the backstretch of the final lap, when I jumped hard and took the win.

Somewhere in between there we had a handicap race. I was on scratch and still had a sprint race coming up, so I didn't try very hard. Francis won that one to pull within 2 points of me in the overall omnium. Ted was 3 back, and there was a 3-way tie at 5 back. The only race left was the keirin, so everyone was gonna be going balls-out.

I drew the #7 position, of course. I jumped hard off the line and was able to get into 2nd position behind Ted. I was sweeping the track quite a bit to ensure my position, much to the dismay of everyone behind me. Hey, it's what I do! When the motor pulled off, the riders behind me started to swarm a bit, so I yelled at Ted to speed up. Repeat this 3-4 more times until we came into the final lap. I took over the lead with 200m to go and held on till the line, towing Ferris and Francis with me. That was the toughest race of the night for sure!

I don't think I've ever been so tired after a day of racing, but I have a lot of things to be pleased about. I won some cash, my sprinting tactics are greatly improved, and I got to spend a full day racing my bicycle. A man could do worse.