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Once again, Local 124 has successfully
completed another covert operation. 16 skaters got the cryptic message
on Friday to meet at the shop early Saturday morning "for breakfast".
Everyone knows the shop ain't open in the morning, and Mike and
Frenchie don't cook, so "breakfast" could mean only one thing: outlaw
race.
All the racers piled into the back of a
U haul cube van to ride in complete darkness to the secret location,
trying to figure out where the hell they were going to. Soon enough the
van stopped, the big door was rolled open and everyone squinted in the
sunlight as they realized the race was going to be down Colonel
Sander's S-Curves, a fairly high speed set of hairpins on a bicycle
path that are pretty steep with really bad pavement with big cracks at
critical places. The finish line was underneath a bridge, and racers
had to thread their way at speed through a couple of dangerous looking
posts forming a gate between the road and the bicycle path.
As joggers went by curiously looking
over the group outfitted in their colorful racing leathers, the group
took a couple practice runs and then within 20 minutes the race was on.
The race was in bracket format, meaning each heat contained two racers,
the winner advancing in a playoff-like format. Most of the heats were
fairly tight through the curves, and so many results were determined by
who came out of the last curve with speed, or who pushed hardest across
the flat after it. There were still a few minor crashes and some of the
favorites were eliminated early.
The final was once again contested
between two bitter rivals, Mike "Conspiracy Theory" Grochawalski, and
Colonel Mike "I love chicken" Sanders. Colonel Sanders and Grotch
scratched their way neck and neck through the pins, with Sanders
getting the lead after the final corner. But Grotch surprised Sanders
with a furious foot attack on the flat, pushing by the chicken man for
the win.
A good day. Just an observation that has
nothing to do with racing or riding: Damn, motorcyclists must be color
blind, because some of the leathers those longboarders are getting off
ebay are BUTT UGLY.
Thanks to Heavy D and Jeph for marshalling and snapping some photos.
-Don Kraften
Pics Here
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