Weekend Wrap-Up
June 18, 2005
by Blowin Doorsin

(Some of these results were conveyed to me second hand, but believe everything to be fairly accurate)

The track was finally able to get a night of racing in without getting rained out. The report is, the track is seeing a lot of new faces and the beginner classes have been filling up with new riders both young and old. It’s great to see the new kids trying out the sport. Why aren’t more racers in the Atlanta area giving track a try, especially the “fast” ones?

In the B class, 19 riders showed up to do battle with young gun Thomas Brown of the Land Rover junior team zipping all over the track giving CAT 1 roadies fits all night long. Thomas won the 10 lap point a lap and the points race while also taking 2nd in the unknown distance race. Winning the unknown distance race was Brian Tester.

The A class also fielded 19 riders. Smith Barney rider Steve Carrell made his first track appearance in several years while Steve Hogan made his first appearance since becoming a proud papa almost 2 years ago. The Smith Barney duo of Steve and Tony Scott brought their great road teamwork to the Velodrome taking the two top spots for the evening. Tim Barrett of Free Flite, rode a gutsy points race and showed a lot of promise. Unless more of the “fast” roadies start showcasing their speed on the track and giving guys like Tim, Chris Knetsche and Clay Parks some help, the Smith Barney train might just continue to roll through the track season like they have on the road.

Saturday was the inaugural Suwanee circuit race put on by Frazier Cycling, a great organization that’s doing a lot to promote cycling to the youth in our communities. The junior races had good sized fields, which shows you how this group is doing a great job of mentoring and getting the kids involved in racing.

The fields were much larger than most had anticipated given the relatively low amount of pre-race publicity the race received.

The Pro/1/2’s followed the CAT 4 race that was won by the duathlete turned cyclist (his name escapes me, sorry). A few breaks tried to get up the road, but nothing stuck until former pro Jake Rosenbarger and the cagey David Crowe took off with about 4 laps to go. The duo managed to hold on to the end doing well to represent Locos. Rounding out the podium was Tony Scott of Smith Barney who got the monster lead-out from team mate Big Jon Atkins.

Next up were the masters, which meant no rest for the Smith Barney team, but it turned out to be a moot point. The field stayed together for the most part after several unsuccessful break attempts were quickly reeled back in. Perhaps the most dangerous move of the day came from Rick Rheingans of Aarons Furnishings, who got a good gap and looked to be headed for the win. The chase was left to Smith Barney, and chase they did. With 3 laps to go it was all back together for a field sprint. Big Jon and Tony used the exact same tactic that worked for them in the pro race: get Tony to the last turn and let him go for the LONG sprint to the line. He managed to hold off Scott Edge for second. Not sure who was third.

In the women’s race, Travel Girl had the dominant numbers over The Forum squad. Following several attacks, Jennifer Cooper flew the coup and rode the rest of way solo for the win. The bunch sprint ended with Kari Bradley and Lee Ann Asbury taking 2nd and 3rd respectively.