May 10/05 10:34 am - Forest City Velodrome: Upcoming Weekends Update, May 7th Report and Results

Posted by Editoress on 05/10/05
 

Upcoming Weekend Races at the Forest City 'Drome

In order to plan for the racing events on Saturday night this week and on the long weekend, we need to know which racers are planning to be racing on the Velodrome, the next 2 weekends. My main concern is the Long weekend (May 21st). In order to put an event on we require 10 Madison racers and 10
London Track league racers. We found out this past Saturday that with a low rider turn out we have to shift things around, not giving enough rest for the riders.

Please respond before Thursday at 10am. This will allow us to send out the correct information to the media and race fans.

Thanks in advance. Just email to: Rob.Good@ypg.com, letting me know the dates you are planning to race at the track.

rg


Forest City Velodrome, London ON, May 7th

Racing last Saturday night in London, was fast and furious. Highbury Ford of London sponsored the night of racing which got off to a fast start with Keith Gauld (Waterloo Flying Dogs) of Simcoe out sprinting Chris Helwig (Coachchris.ca) in the Unknown Distance event that Kicked off the race night.

Members of the London Track League continued to race in 3 other events on the night. Helwig and Gauld were the strongest riders dominating the action with Gauld taking the 15 lap scratch race, Simon Dearing (coachchris.ca) squeaked into 2nd position just ahead of the charging Helwig. In the 10 lap sprint race the finishing positions were reversed with Helwig holding off Gauld for the win with Dearing crossing the line in 3rd position.

A crash involving Mary-Ellen Ash from Bay Cycle in Ajax put Mary-Ellen out of the race on the final lap of the Handicap event won by Independent rider Jim Henning from Guelph, Vince Delong ( Hamilton Cycling Club) finished 2nd with Phillip Thuss (London) coming home in 3rd position.

All Eyes were on Ash who lay on the infield for several minutes. Mary-Ellen came out of her crash with 6 stitches above her eye. Her protective eye wear broke on impact and that is what caused the cut above her eye. It was good to see she was all right I spoke to her father today and Mary-Ellen is to resume training later this week.

The other action that filled the racing program were 4 teams of Nas-track Madison Racers who put on a great spectacle by racing there way through 4 events on the night. In Madison competition the teams make exchanges between their partners to place the teammate into the race. Each event has designated points which are accumulated through-out the night to include all the events, many times the winner of the race is not known until the final sprint in the last race of the night.

In the first 20 minute (150 Lap) Madison, The racing was very fast with lap times in the 9.7 second range which works out to 53 KPH on the 50 degree high banked corners of the 138 metre Velodrome. The high speed separated the teams for most of the event. In the final sprint Adam Thuss (London) of the Red Team out gunned the Yellow team of John Craig Jr. (London) and Taylor Martin (Hamilton). In hot pursuit for third place was Andre Champoux (Ann Arbor, Michigan) and Piers Davidge (Burlington). Sprinting home in 4th place was the Orange Team of Amy Maher (London) the first woman to compete in Madison Racing at the Forest City Velodrome and Kurt Schreiter (Waterloo) a rookie to Madison racing.

The next event was the "Devil" in this race the last rider across the line is eliminated. Thuss again came home the winner just out sprinting the Yellow team riders Martin and Craig, with their second and third place finish the Yellow Team took over the points lead after 2 events.

In Sprint race event Madison rookie, Kurt Schreiter surprised the other riders in the race as they fell a sleep and Schreiter attacked to gain a 1/2 lap lead in the short event and gained his first victory of the season.

In the final Madison of the night again saw Maher and Schreiter attack the other teams who were all caught by surprise, the attack was short lived as the Black team of Davidge and Champoux counter attacked to spread the field out again. It wasn't until the final sprint of the night where the Red team picked up the pace with 5 laps to go and crossed the finish line first with the yellow team of Craig and Martin closing very quickly in the final metres to come home in second place.

A very entertaining Madison team race on the night.

Special thanks to Highbury Ford for their sponsorship of the event, and to all of the riders who participated in all the races on the evening.

Racing Continues next Saturday night at 7pm with more thrills and action on the indoor Forest City Velodrome in London Ontario.