It’s after 12:00 and I am sitting on the back straight trying to stay cool in the rental car watching the afternoon session. I know the last post was about Wednesday but since then my schedule compressed and got busy. Tuesday morning a 500, Wednesday night a Points race, Thursday night a Scratch race, Friday Sprints, Friday night Sprints and today a 2k. Ha, I am tired. I think I got all I could out of Pat for the week. I am glad I rested a lot prior to the points race and then again all day Thursday to put that rest in the bank for the end of the week.
The Scratch race was a 5K event with 7 of us again. I thought about tactics all day Thursday and decided I wasn’t going to let anyone off the front to take a lap like in the Points Race. Tonight it’s a 5K race or 13 laps, half the distance of the points, I can do this. I got to the track early again and gradually worked into my get ready, gear choice and warm up. A little windy so no front I/O but trying the rear disc and a front 808, seems good. Whistle off the rail and a really slow neutral lap. (I’m not sure if you can slip off this track in the banks at any speed) A few slower laps and then Monte goes off the front again. The rest of us are riding around at a non race pace, I’m at the front and start to chase him down and as I go off I yell back at the rest of the slackers to start racing. It takes a bit more than a lap and I catch Monte and he rolls up. In hind site we both should have gone but we didn’t. We regroup and few laps later Monte drops in 3 and goes again, me right behind him. Neutralized. A few more breaks but no one gets away. The finishing laps were fast as I tried going over who ever I could on the back straight to the finish collecting 4th place. Kind of gassed but happy I kept it together and didn’t make it easy for anyone. Definitely different tactics then my home track methods against a whole different level of competition.
We are rolling around the infield warmup track and as I pass the winner I asked why no one else chased and he says that another guy in the race was supposed to cover Monte, WHAT? Â Didn’t realize this was a team event and if it was, why wasn’t I invited to the team pre race meeting! Frustrated by that but excited and happy to garner the second 4th place medal. The only problem is that awards are at the end of the night and I need to be back on Friday for a long day of Flying 200’s and Match Sprints. Back to “glad I put some rest in the bank” Â Home for the night and finally to bed after 11 so I can be up at 6.