More fun at Hellyer

Saturday was good fun again at the track, though a lot of the Cat 3's from the night before didn't show up, so the competition wasn't as good and the fields were small. That didn't make the prizes any smaller! Me and an AMD junior got away in the Tempo race and traded points for a number of laps before sprinting for the last lap. He won that, but I got second overall. The Tempo race was a new one on me, its 2-1 pts every lap and 4-3-2-1 for the final lap. Makes a two man work perfectly, though I think this race is rare. In the points race, I got away from the small field and managed to perform my first lap of the field, which was good fun.

Master's Miss and Out you ask? out on the first lap. Larry came down track just before turn 3 took position from me and I was boxed again. His rear wheel was clanking against my front which made me slow up, I don't have those kind of balls. I still have much to learn in these tactical races.

The organizers did a great job with this event. Tom Simpson announcing, great prizes, free food and beer, really good. They made a novice feel welcome. Robin was very gracious. Then some trackie was giving me a hard time about the auto upgrade for 1's and 2's on the road. It's true that it's a shortcut and that we don't know much about the track, but do they really want us beating up on 4's and 5's on the track, against trackies that aren't all that experienced anyway.

I include Hernandez in the group of roadies that are still learning on the track. Of course, in the Scratch and Points he kills them, but I was watching him do the Keirin and the Madison, and that's a different story. Puts him at a disadvantage against the experienced trackie. Again though, does the angry trackie really want Hernandez killing some poor Cat 4? Wouldn't make sense. Dan Martin would have crashed with the auto upgrade or not anyway.