That was awesome! Fort Garry Bike Club and Red River Racing really exceeded any expectations people may have had. The course was really fun, fast and fun. There were tons of people, and it seemed like all those people had lost their mind or at least they yelled and heckled like lunatics. Even the beer garden had expanded their beer selection to include some appropriate beverages (with the help of the organizer). You know it's not very good when MGD is probably the "best" of the standard selection.
It's was the usual C, B and A event with kids race and open race mixed in. 30 something C racers opened the night followed by kids and open. The B race had over 70 starters making it pretty massive race. It was a constant flow of racers for 40 minutes or so. A race was quite a bit smaller, but don't get me wrong. My first race in Manitoba was a 'cross race at Civic Park in the fall of -06 and I'm pretty sure the entire race was smaller than A start yesterday.
The start was OK, I thought Paul would go for it bit harder, but I felt like giving it bit of gas from the gun. Ended up going pretty much all out for the first lap, and we all know what happens after that, yep...you blow your legs. The run up up the grand stand was crazy loud and the vicinity of beer garden was almost equally loud. Maybe three laps in I had recovered enough to start riding bit harder. Young Chris a.k.a. "Monster Boy", Pauly B, Cricket and Donny were hammering away up front with a chase group maybe 20-30 seconds behind and I joined the chase. Some crashing, mechanicals, beer spilling and heckling later (I wasn't involved in any of this) Boy Wonder lead Donny over the line and onto the podium. Because guys crashed and broke their bikes on front of me, I moved to third spot to take the last spot on the podium.
I don't know how you can one-up this race or if it's even necessary. I don't even think that all the races need to be like this. Even the level of racing appears to be higher than before (or then I'm just getting slower) with young guys getting freakishly fast. You definitely missed out if you skipped this race.
Photos are starting to show up on the interweb. More will likely show up and I'm sure there is a kick ass video in production.
Dave Benson
Birch Mountain Club
ABES
Nice report. Don't forget to mention your contribution to the event. The Finnish Funkmaster and his tune selection kept the whole thing moving along at a good pace.
VastaaPoistaThanks for helping out!