So It Turns Out I'm Not Very Good At Racing

Last night was a clusterfuck. Not only did I suck at racing, I sucked at life.

Upon arrival at the track, I realized I didn't have my license. After 30 minutes of messing with my asshole phone, I realized that I had forgotten to renew it! Oops. Evidently, I can't just buy a single-day pass because then I'd have to race with the 4's. I was eventually able to successfully renew my license on my phone, but it was more stress than I wanted to deal with on my first night back.

I then proceeded to lose everything. One glove, my water bottle, my boxers, my gloves again, and my helmet. Ugh. Oh, and my races...yeah, lost those, too.

Despite all my mishaps, I managed to get in a decent warm-up and was ready to race when it started sprinkling. This would be the theme of the night. Rain would threaten but we never got enough to cancel the racing.

If I had wanted to race well, my mind was certainly not in the right place. I was racing in self-preservation mode (don't crash don't crash don't crash!) instead of racing to win. I can't expect to have decent results with that mind-set. Keep in mind, it's been about 18 months since my last race, so my real goal was to get used to riding in the group again. In that, I succeeded.

The first race of the night was a 15-lap scratch race. I really just wanted to stay up and out of trouble. I followed a couple accelerations off the front, but mostly just hung out at the back. When the pace picked up with 2 laps to go, that's where I stayed. I ended up soft-pedaling in 2nd-to-last. That's OK, though. First race, no expectations.

The second race was a 3-lap sprint. We had 3 heats of 5, and I was in the 3rd heat with The DGC, Timmer, and Hagerty. Timmer led us out, and DGC took off with 1.5 laps to go. I was right on his wheel and I though we had gapped Hagerty and was content to ride DGC's wheel in for 2nd, which would qualify me for the finals. Then I heard Hagerty's squeaky-ass bike coming up beside me in turn 4, and he was carrying too much speed for me to react in time. I got 3rd, marking the first time I've ever failed to qualify for the finals in a sprint event. Boo.

In hindsight, I rode a stupid race. I wasn't riding aggressively and wasn't going for the win. I guess I got what I deserved.

The sprint final was fun to watch, with Ferris winning handily, followed by Franz and Tainter. Those guys were flying!

Because a night at the track isn't complete without some drama, the two Andy's got into it after their sprint heat. One of them was swearing a lot and one of them told the other that he's the sketchiest rider who ever rode the track. Ever. I though the issue should be resolved with some good ol' fashioned leg wrestling, but Skibby just yelled at them instead. Oh, well.

So, that was my night. After drinking a beer and spending 20 minutes searching for my helmet, we hit up Chipotle and headed home.

I feel like I could have had better results if I had focused on riding my race instead of worrying about what everyone else was doing, but it was good to get back out there and get my racing legs under me again.

Next weekend will be a different story.