Dana Point Grand Prix- May 26th

This is my hobby. BUT, when big money races pop up the competition comes out of the woodwork. $1500 cash for the M45 race, $1750 cash for the M35 race. I traveled to Southern California to race with teammates Wayne Stetina and Rich Meeker at the 1st annual Dana Point Grand Prix. Long-time friend, competitor and funny guy (http://www.truesport.com/Bike/mka.html) Roger Worthington promoted this race, so we supported his efforts.

Well, that, and there was the celebration of Star Wars turning 30 in Los Angeles and I didn’t want to miss that. My son and I have this tradition going as we attended the 10th and 20th together. No costumes for us, but lots of fun.

Back to the racing. M45+ @ 8:30am for 45 minutes. 8 tight corners over 1200 meters meant Rich, Wayne and I HAD to stay near the front. Chris Walker (Time) was hyper-active in this race but Specialized-Sonnace (with 2006 Worlds M45 Champ Thurlow Rogers, 2006 US Crit M45 Champ Steve Strickler and six other strong teammates) pretty much dictated the pace by whom they allowed off the front. Even though Rich has not raced much this year due to a hip injury we were confident that he could finish it off for us So, instead of waiting around for a proper lead-out I jumped away from the dwindling pack with 4 laps to go, waited a bit for the bridging Jay Wolkoff (Specialized-Sonnace). With two strong teams away there was plenty of blocking. I worked with him until the bell when I attacked into a tight corner. Jay stayed away for 2nd and Rich took the field sprint for 3rd. Thanks for the great teamwork Wayne and Rich.

After a nice breakfast Wayne and I lined up for the M35 race. We knew we had to stay near the front on this one. Roger offered primes in each of the first 20 laps so it was critical to be up front. Strongman (and former Olympian) Dirk Copeland (1st- Giant Strawberry), always dangerous Mark Scott (2nd- Synergy) and wheel sucker Mike McMahon (3rd- Team Velocity) had the same idea as me. With all these primes on the line the pace stayed high until there was a split to the field. Wayne bridged to us and with two teammates in the break we pushed the pace to ensure our taking two top five finishes. Unfortunately, we pushed it a little too much and didn’t have enough left for the sprint, settling for 4th and 5th. One hour in the break at 27mph and we were both pretty tuckered and satisfied with almost $1000 cash and the 7 primes we had earned.

Lar