Are you at home thinking that it is too hot to race anywhere this weekend? Have you ever thought about racing at night under the lights of the Baton Rouge Velodrome? Do you want to win some cash money? Well, now is your chance. It is time to get the single speeds out again and head out to a fun and exciting evening of mass start track cycling put on by Matt Rinard and Chad Harris. Even if you do not want to race this is a great opportunity to bring the family out and watch the most exciting spectator sport in cycling. You can see the whole race from the bleachers. We will also have music and an announcer to explain all the events so you don't feel lost.
We have a great evening planned for you. The first event is a 10 lap scratch race. A scratch race is a road race on track bikes except much, much, much shorter. No points in this race, baby, straight up first man to cross the line after ten laps of racing wins. The second event is a Miss and out. This race is about as confusing as it gets on the track but it is also one of the most fun. In this event the last rider of each lap is pulled out of the race until the pack is dwindled down to 3 riders. At this point it becomes a three rider matched sprint.
The next 3 races are of strategy and math, both of which are extremely difficult to figure out at 30mph. The third event is a 15 lap snowball. The first rider to cross the line every lap gets points. On the first lap, the first rider gets 1 point, on the second lap the first rider gets 2 points. This goes all the way up the first rider to cross on the 15th lap gets 15 points. Do you go early and scoop up the low point or do you save your legs for the big daddy at the end? You decide.
After this, we get into the oldest and most all around race of all the track event. This is the 30 lap points race. Sprints are every third lap. First place gets 3 points, 2nd place gets 2 points, 3rd place gets 1. Double points are awarded at the half way, and final sprints. If you lap the field you are awarded 20 points.
The second to last is the 20 lap point a lap. It is exactly how it sounds, every lap awards one point to the first place rider. Rider with the most points at the end wins.
The last race is my favorite but that is only because I am not racing it. It is the unknown distance. The riders will start with no idea of how long the race is, only to be saved by the bell to let them know they have one lap to go. Is it going to be 1 lap long or is it going to be 1 million laps long (race across America has nothing on LAMBRA). Well, it won't be nearly that long, but I will be the only one to know how long it really is. Heck I am not even going to tell the officials. If the racers have to sort out a race after only 333.33 meters of warning than so should the officials.
So come on out and squeeze into your lucky skin suit. Get a chance to ride a disc in a pack. Get you butts out to the track on Saturday, you won't regret it.

Go to the LAMBRA website at http://www.lambra.org/calendar/2007/SummerTrackSeries.pdf for full race details.