Premiere Quatre

The NCVC Edition Cat 4 Member's Only Jacket

The Crystal City Classic marked my entry into the Cat 4 ranks - aka the oversized midgets. El Ocho and I made it to the course area seemingly on time, then proceeded to spend 20 minutes driving in circles trying to figure out where in the heck to go. As it turned out, the parking was in an underground garage, so we had to unload the car and then park. Not too big of a deal but annoying at oh dark thirty in the a.m. A quick sign in and out for a few warmup laps. Turn 3 figured to have the course's biggest feature - a gaping sinkhole, which the road crew tried to fill with yellow paint. After deciding that that was a total non-started, they constricted the corner to eliminate the hole. Good move. The other hazard was some water at turn 5. Other than that, the course was really cool, very fast and PANCAKE flat. So much for El Ocho's 8% incline.

I had a crappy start and spent the first few laps getting by bearings. I was perhaps imagining that I was CSC pro Allan Johansen at the CSC race, chilling at the back and biding my time before a quick zoom to the front. Unfortunately all of NCVC seemed to be back with me, while Route 1 had everyone near the front. Just being back in the pack like that is lame and makes things harder than they should be. A few laps in, I got to the front to do some blocking as Nate Wilson had slipped into a break. When they got swallowed up the race should have lit up, but didn't. After a few less than memorable laps I decided to try and get more towards the front, when to my surprise they announced one lap to go. F. I hadn't looked at the lap cards since 9 to go. I was too far back to really help Butter or anyone with a lead out, but maybe I could make something happen. Having done nothing all race I still had plenty of leg and lung, but as I was winding up my sprint I hit something in the road and nearly wiped out. So I had to reaccelerate and try to get a good result, but didn't wind up doing much. Which stinks. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Maybe I'll race RFK tomorrow if I get in, otherwise I think I am bailing on the thing in Richmond. I don't know. Hopefully Jim Wilson will have taken a snappy picture of me so this entry doesn't look so plain. It pays to be in the race with his kid.