Major Taylor Velodrome's Hot Summer Nights

*Special thanks to Ed White for this fantastic photo-Val

The Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis, IN held weekly racing for both cat 1-2-3 and women racers this summer in an alternating schedule between Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. Val and I made the surprisingly easy drive down for several of the Saturdays this summer. For any one who has never been there, despite not being one of the faster tracks in the country, Major Taylor Velodrome has one of the nicest facilities and some of the friendliest people, we highly recommend visiting it if you’re ever in the area. For experienced track racers they have some great racing and the banking is a comfortable medium with very smooth transitions making it a great track for beginners as well.

On the first outing (6/28/2008), their rather huge parking lot was nearly full of people getting ready for the NITE ride. By the time racing started, the stands were packed and people lined the rail of nearly half of the track. Val took full advantage of being the unknown out of town racer and cleaned house winning two of the three races and placing second in the other, which gave her a clear win for the omnium. I had a bad day on the bike but made some new friends and enjoyed the great crowd and atmosphere that usually only accompanies larger events.

For the second visit (7/26/2008) Val found herself up against a field that contained three women from the same team including Brooke Crum, who is good competition on her own with out teammates blocking and boxing for her. The rest of the field were very content to just watch and draft which forced Val to chase down countless attacks from Brooke and her teammates. Despite being up against some very well executed team tactics, Val ended up with second place for all three events. I didn’t fare quite as well, placing a depressing fifth place in the Keirin (my all time favorite race) but later turned the night around getting third in both the Miss-N-Out and Points Race. Keeping with the often fun Major Taylor atmosphere, after the races they inflated a huge screen in the infield and people from the crowd and a number of racers and officials hung out in the stands and some even laid on the track to watch the classic local favorite Breaking Away. Val and I opted to venture out with our prize money in hand to gorge ourselves on burritos from not one, but two burrito joints that the locals suggested (thank you Tom). They were decent, but thus far nowhere compares to what we have accustomed ourselves to in Southern California and Arizona (can you say Filibertos).

The final visit for the season was for the Major Taylor Velodrome Championship on August first and second, which was also the Indiana state track championship and an elite Nationals qualifier race. First up was the Keirin, in the final half lap of the women’s final Val launched off the front with perfect timing to win by a nice margin against the likes of Kendi Thomas and Brooke Crum. This marked a very significant turning point for Val, as previously she had significant reservations about racing Keirins and sprint events in general, but now she is starting to like them. Next up was the men’s Keirin where I once again choked in the final, finishing a frustrating fifth place, again. Val got second in the women’s Scratch Race and then third in the Points Race where Kendi Thomas rode off the front early in the race and eventually lapped the field. The men’s Points Race was action packed from start to finish. During the neutral lap one of the local fast guys, who will remain anonymous for this comment, said “I’m going to punch anyone who jumps on the whistle”. Sure enough, less then one second after the whistle a very strong attack was launched, which resulted in momentary laughs that quickly changed to gasps as the pace ramped up. The race continued with a steady stream of strong attacks and counters, non of which got more then half a lap ahead before eventually being reeled in usually only lasting just long enough for the attackers to pick up points from one sprint. It was a hard fought race, but I ended up falling short of third place by only the difference that two inches in the third points sprint made.

Day two held the Match Sprint which, despite being significantly rusty at, are my second favorite event. I qualified second fastest in the flying 200, and advanced through the rounds to the final but then got absolutely slaughtered by Tom Hanley. Tom finished nearly four tenths of a second faster in the flying 200, which is huge, and he won several of the other events so it wasn’t much of a surprise. This was Val’s second time doing Match Sprint. She qualified well, but unfortunately was matched up in the semifinal round against a local collegiate rider who goes to school literally across the street from the track and has loads of match sprint experience and a great jump.

Another fun weekend in Indianapolis came to a close with both of us qualified for Nationals in both sprint and endurance events. Thank you to everyone at Major Taylor for putting on fun races and being so friendly and inviting to out of town visitors.