[Track] Friday Night Racing 2011/9/9

9/9 was the last Friday night of track racing in 2011, and it was a blast. Between the PG-13 commentary by Michael Hernandez and the free food and beer, Friday nights always draw out a big crowd on beautiful summer evenings in Hellyer Park. Here's how it went down:

Fact 1: When Anthony Borba tells you to not initiate a break in the scratch race, you initiate a break in the scratch race. With a few laps to go, it was just me and Mario Hernandez from Audi. On the final lap, Mario started pulling up in Turn 1 and I went for it hard down the sprinters lane and caught him off guard. Win 1.

Fact 2: Points races are hard, but with careful attention, they are winnable. Unless you're superhuman, trying to win every points lap (every five or ten laps, with points going 5-3-2-1 to the first four riders across the line) is going to result in dead legs. I was careful to keep track of my points vs. Mario's, and while Mario won the final lap, I ended the race with the most points. Win 2.

Fact 3: Whoever made the Win and Out is a sadist. It's 15 laps, followed by a bell on each successive lap for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on. The nasty part is that if you commit your effort for first place and it doesn't work out, then you're unlikely to have the legs for any decent place. Our 3/4s race was very slow for the first 12 laps, with nobody wanting to take a premature risk. Mario went with 3 laps before the first bell. I had him marked and quickly made the bridge (I think the sudden surge from slow to very fast caught many legs off guard.) On the final bell lap, I came around uptrack hard and hoped to god that I would have the legs to hold everyone off. Thankfully, I did, and the (very tense) race was over. Win 3.

Fact 4: Track makes me make crazy faces.

Fact 5:Track is crack.