It’s Friday night again and the stars aligned to allow me to head out to the Dunc Gray Velodrome again for another night of the Race All Winter track series.  Tonight was my second outing for track racing - if you missed the first installment, the report from the kid in the candy store can be found here.

Up a Division

Being my second night, I didn’t have to race in the beginners division (div 5).  In fact, when I arrived my name was already on the sign on sheet for division 4 so I signed up, got my number and went and got changed.  I was wondering what the racing would be like - sure I would be racing up a division, but given the melting pot that division 5 is (there are lots of good strong riders who have just never ridden track) I was thinking I may have a chance for some good racing.

NSCC out in force

It was nice to rock up tonight and find some fellow Northern Sydney Cycling Club boys there - Graeme Heap and Owen Cooke who I raced with last time and another two - Carl Smith and Dan.  I’m led to understand that the absent, but talented Brock Roberts was a little soft and after the bravado between he and Graeme about who was the fastest rider, it would appear that Graeme takes the honours - gotta turn up to win the prize!

Some of the NSCC boys had blinders - notable performances from Carl Smith (man that kid is fast for a yr 9 school boy!!) who won his one lap screamer (a standing start sprint with 4 or 5 riders in each heat) in an impressive time of 21.83sec.  Graeme made sure that he came away as the fastest NSCC’er on the night with a slim margin of 3/100ths of a sec over Carl - winning his heat as well in 21.80sec.  Owen Cooke also pulled through with a win in his one lap screamer, holding off some strong div 3 riders to take line honours in 22.30sec.

Big respect also to Carl Smith (did I mention already that he’s only in year 9!) who won the division 2/3 combine scratch race - holding off some fierce competition in the sprint for the line!

I missed last week, but here’s a youtube video of the Wheel Race (handicap) that saw Graeme Heap in third place (and a triathlon mate Tony Unicombe in 4th): 

A few wins for GJ

I had a great night and managed to pull off a couple of wins and a couple of placings.  First race was a 10 lap scratch race (everyone rolls out together and the pace gradually increases until a balls-out sprint in the last few laps).  I rolled around and thought I was going to get boxed in.  It all came together, however in the last couple of laps, a gap opened and I swung up the track a metre or so, darted through, came around and buried myself to roll through in 1st place!

Second race for me was a one lap screamer.  The whistle blew, I didn’t really jump quickly enough and one of the other guys got the best of me - I rolled in second, but by a good margin, having been solidly beating.  Not sure of my time, but clearly not worth putting up alongside the other NSCC boys.

Third race was the snowball.  This is a really cool race - it’s 15 laps and there are points awarded to the first rider over the line of each lap - effectively setting up a sprint finish on each lap.  The catch is that the points get bigger and bigger - lap 1 is worth 1 point, lap 2 worth 2 and so on up to lap 15 being worth 15 points.  The rider who accumulates the most points over the 15 laps wins.  From the go the pace was solid, but it’s not really worth digging in because the value is low.  I cruised through and moved towards the front, sitting in 3rd or 4th wheel by the time we were up to lap 7 or 8.  I came through on lap 9 and took the points either on lap 9 or 10.  From there I just buried myself hunting points and took out the points from that point to the finish to win the race.  What a blast!!!

Fourth race for me was the division 3 and 4 combine - everyone who wants to from those two divisions go and do a 15 lap scratch race.  This is the opportunity for the guys in division 4 (that’s me) to test themselves out against the stronger riders of division 3.  The field rolled out and the pace hotted up.  At about lap 12 I moved up to the front and the legs started spinning.  I jumped off the front with a lap and a half to go, but ended up getting pipped at the line - I missed out on first and I think also got pipped for second - pretty sure I got third place.

Burning legs, but worth it!

The track racing is awesome fun.  If you’re a competitive type and want to have a bunch of fun, then it’s a must to try.  Being a veteran of all of two nights of racing, I can already see that there’s a massive amount to learn about the skill and tactics of racing.  Whilst raw power will definitely help you to win, having some cunning and understanding the flow of the different race formats is essential.

Can’t be there next week, but think I’ll be back in a fortnight’s time.  Woo-hoo, can’t wait, bring it ON!

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