Pacific Raceways 4/21

Well, I can say that two of the three did NOT happen last night. I didn't win and it didn't rain. After missing a couple of races due to travel I was back in the mix last night and what a beautiful night it was. Hoyt and I were driving down yesterday and I looked at the temp and it said it was 76 degrees outside. My only problem it that with this nice, warm, Spring, tree blooming weather my allergies were exploding and I felt terrible. If it would have been weather like today I wouldn't have shown up but if it is April and this nice you have to go. While we were warming up my ears were plugged up, my nose stuffed and my throat dry. I had pushed so many fluids during the day that I stopped to hit the bathroom four times while we were warming up. All I could think about was when I decided to quit where would I pull off the course. We were supposed to do the standard counter clockwise flat course that I won on a few weeks ago but as we lined up they made the announcement that because of the nice weather the track crew was trying to get in some extra painting before the weather turned and we would have to change the course. They decided we would do the course using the escape route that has a hill. Normally I would have been excited but I was completely dreading it. We would do about 40-45 minutes with two prims mixed in. Once we started and was focusing on racing I guess I didn't have time to think about how bad I felt. After the first lap I realized I was riding strong and so was Hoyt. There were about 50 in our field and I really wanted to stay up front. The hill is pretty small but it is enough really break up the group. I told myself I wasn't going to try to win a prim this week but when the bell rang out and we hit the turn 4 there I was up front so I decided to go for it and I took off at just the right time and I took it. I needed the points to stay in the top five for the series. I was really happy but It took me two laps to recover but and then they official decided to be evil and call out the last prim and that we had two laps left which meant you basically had two sprint laps in a row. I knew that if I went for the prim I would have nothing left for the finish so I stayed up front with Hoyt by my side but didn't get in the mix. I thought Hoyt was going as he really moved up fast but on the final straight away he pulled up to save his energy. We had to work hard after the sprint to get contact with the guys that did gut it out so we would be in good position for the finish. At the hill I was surprised by how weak most of the riders were and Hoyt and I just cruised right past everyone. That was my big mistake. Coming around the final turn I was third wheel and two guys made a break. I should have know that they were not the strong riders but I tried to gap them and everyone marked me and hit my wheel. I was hung out to dry. When I decided to go I blew past the first two guys and was out in front but with about 10 meters to go the guys drafting off me went by we all finished side by side but I ended up 6th. Hoyt finished somewhere in the main sprint as well. I wish I would have been sitting somewhere between 6th and 10th wheel but that is how it goes. I'm paying for it today is I can barely function but I feel better than if I wouldn't have raced. Until next time.