Wonder Lake Crit

Wonder Lake Crit 4s and 30+ 4/5s

Great course up near McHenry with a good sized little lake for the backdrop on the main straight. On the way to reg J and I met Brian warming up for his race. Nice to put a face with the emails and auto racing videos! The race is held all on pretty narrow neighborhood streets (except for the main straight), no curbs, lots of mailboxes on the edges though and a few ankle biting haybales. The local residents were great, some having chairs out on the driveway cheering on all the races. It had a bit of Winfield Twilight feel to the atmosphere.

4s
Started relatively uneventful. Talked with Greg before and he said he would try to make or get in a move and I told him I’d watch for it and try to control the front a little bit (the best I could do by myself). There were a few SCW and a decent number of P-met guys present so hopefully if Greg goes with something one of those teams will be with him. My usual MO is to take the first few laps getting a feel for the course in a pack and testing the different lines through the turns, which I did. After a couple laps I found myself on the front so I just chilled. As we were approaching turn 2, I hear Greg tell me to move right, so I did and he came around with a solo kit. I soft pedaled through turn 2 and they got a little bit of a gap. I was managing to keep it a little slow and was hoping Greg and the other guy calmly started drilling it. As the gap grew a little more before turn 3 I had several guys come over the top of me on both sides. They weren’t going to let it go anymore. Fast forward to 2 to go, the pace picked up out of turn 2 and I was on it. I grabbed Trevor’s wheel from SCW and kept other riders at bay trying to take it from me, he was on the wheel of another SCW, the third SCW was nowhere to be found. We were somewhere in the 5-10 wheel. Bell lap:
The pace didn’t really jump all the much at the line as it sometimes does. However, out of turn 2 the ramp up began, I ended up sliding back about 5 spots, lost Trevor’s wheel but didn’t panic, we had a long straight before turn 3. I knew I had to get into firing range by turn 3 exit at the latest. Moving up was a little tough, not too bad though. I dove in the inside of turn three with the SCW and we hit the throttle hard out of 3 and through the big sweeper that is turn 4. Just dug it as hard as I could to the line. I ended up picking off 2-3 guys from turn 4 to the line, which wasn’t easy as it was pretty much a downhill run to the line! Ended up 7th right behind the good kid from SCW at 6th.

Race Speed:
Ave 24.3
Bell lap 27.8

30+ 4/5s
It was cool to have J in the pack and at the line racing with us. I put much more credence on her lining up and doing this race with the men then that 5 girl pseudo-track race she rode earlier. That wasn’t a race in my opinion and holding onto the men as long as she did, getting lapped and grabbing the whip as we came by her on 3 to go is a better ability assessment. Anyway, this race was directly after the 4’s so basically I rolled around after the 4’s back to the line, J cut off the first number, switched bottles, and lined up. I have never doubled up let alone back 2 back so I was a little nervous of the fresh legs that were present. Pretty much just raced in the pack, floated around a little bit. I didn’t really come into this race with a whole lot of expectation seeing as this was new territory for me. I felt ok for most of the time, not struggle free but not hard either. Pace picked up decently on the 3 to go and again on the 2 to go. I felt I was going to pop any second but didn’t, really didn’t think I had much left in the tank, when I hit the final stretch I realized I actually had just a little punch left. It was, however, too late to do anything with it. I didn’t know that Brian was on my wheel the last 2 laps, I would have towed him to the front and dropped him off. Sorry Brian. Oh well, I learned a lot from the day especially that I can double up and even go back 2 back if I want! Finished 18th overall, 12th of the 4's

Race Speed:
Ave 24.5
Bell lap 27.5