I spent the weekend in Las Vegas! This was the 2nd of 3 national weekends in a row. It really is great to get to race a lot of races in March.
Pasco last weekend was awesome. 6th in cruiser- yup- I was in that amazing race where Brandon Smith won! He put on an amazing move on a guy in the last corner...the same one I went down in. I had the best view of Brandon in that race- cuz I was on his back tire from where he passed me on the 2nd straight to the last corner where he solidified his win! Nice job Brandon!
Class was a blast. I lead the race til the 2nd corner. I got pushed up high an went from 1st to 4th. The legend Pee Wee Lee passed 3 of us to take the trade spots with me. I battled back and picked up the 2nd place in class! I'll lose to Pee Wee any day. (check him out at www.peeweelee.com) He doubled at the grands last year- class and cruiser. He also won in Pasco this weekend with his clavicle broken on both sides, and a busted foot! Crazy legend!
Recap- 6th in cruiser, 2nd in class! and FUN racing all weekend!
Vegas this weekend was busy. I left Thursday night and stayed at my brother's in St. George. I had a cute 3 year old neice and a 9 month old nephew to keep me company Fri. Morning. (My bro. does criminal defense and Family Law in St. George. If ya'll get in trouble with the law in Dixie- then give him a call!
Amy's Uncle just opened a restauraunt in Vegas on Wednesday so we went there to carb up on some amazing Vietnemese noodles. Who says there's no such thing as free lunch!
. He's opening a place on 1100 South and State in the next year. Dim Sum!-Yum!
Practice on Friday was awesome. Amy even took 4 laps! She loved it. The Nellis Track is great! It's super fast! I just got to the fun part of jumping everything when practice ended. I was stoked for racing on Sat.
Friday night I heade to UNLV to do some volleyball coaching for the SLCC men's team. They had an awesome night. My guys played better then they ever had! We stole a 2nd seed from a team that came in as a first seed sending us to the sweet 16 of the 58 team tourney! My boys tanked on Sat. loosing their first two matches to BIOLA and Air Force Acadamy. Nationals are here in Salt Lake for the first time in 6 years in the middle of April. I'll be spending the next few weeks in the gym getting my guys ready for the big show. If any of you are volleyball fans, let me know, I'll let you know when we play!
Sat. Racing was crazy! The weather forcast predicted wind gusts up to 60 mph. The weatherman was right! It was a steady 20 mph all day with crazy gusts that seemed to all come when I was in the gate or on the track.
I was bumped up to race the 35+ experts. Jason Melton was killing it all day in qualifiers. He was matching up well against Brandon Good ? from Wyoming. That dude is fast! He ended up winning the main. ( I think Melton could have taken him because the wind finally stopped for that main!) It was so nice to get a lap without battling the wind. I ended up coming from 4th to take the 2nd right at the line. What a fun race- especially one where I was able to come from behind and finish 2nd. There was no pressure because I was the only one in my class so I got the 1st place over all in class! NBL=No Body Loses
Recap-2nd in the main, 1st over all! No wind on that lap...
Cruiser class was a battle all day. David Moser gave a great showing in a really stacked class. Way to come race the big boys- Dave! There was a mix-up in the moto sheet. They had Drew Downey on the sheet so we thought we had a boat ride. This ended up not being the case. They didn't tell us, so it messed up the points thing, and Dave didn't get to race the main!
I had a battle with the same guys I raced at BC (the other Vegas Track). I drew an inside line which was great. We went into the first AND second corners 3 wide! I battled a guy for 2nd, then chased the leader down only to fall about a foot short at the line. I had nothing in the tank those last few pedals! My legs were shot! I took a second place, but was happy with the effort.
The wind changes everything. This track was a jump track! My kind of style! I started to jump and realized If I keep this up, I'm gonna crash. I turned into a Novice out there! I pumped everything! No jumping, or manualing allowed without getting blown over! I even fell over in the gate in one of my qualifiers. The wind was horrendous.
All in all, it was a pretty miserable day for spectators and racers fighting the winds. It wasn't "fun" and "fair weather" racing at all. It was a struggle to balance, ride hard, and not sustain a career ending wreck in that kind of wind.
Dinner was great! Back to the "Little Siagon" to eat "barbeque on the house! The spring winds was still blasting through the city of Vegas as I drove out of there. I dropped in on my brother and his family at church. (He spoke) then finished the drive Sun. afternoon.
Tonight is recital night for my 7 violin students! I have to get soup bowls ready and make final preparations for my peice. Thanks all for reading this long windyed race report.
Recap- Fun practice, good food, challenging racing, good volleyball, good food, good family time, and good food! 1st in class, 2nd in cruiser!
I'm looking forward to Phoenix!
JS
Mitch Ropeloto, Mike and Cody Kelly, The Mosers, The Meltons- send in your race reports! You all did really well this weekend!
What were conditions like on Sun?
taking that trophy, lame rule if you ask me.
