Stafford Springs Race Report

Liam, Steve, and I made the drive to Stafford Springs, CT for a day of racing at the motor speedway on Saturday.  It was a typical July race day – humid with temps reaching into the mid-nineties… absolutely perfect!  Even though the course is in Connecticut, it isn’t a bad trip from Maine.  The drive took about 2.5 hours, which is 45 minutes to an hour closer than most other Connecticut races.

I like racing at Stafford.  The course is short (1/2 mile), so the number of laps can be a bit mind-numbing, but there is an interesting chicane through the infield, and the races are always filled with attacks, and the winning rider typically finishes in a break-away.  Even though the racing is fun there, a good finish has always eluded me – The chicane and subsequent bumping that can happen had put me out of position for the finish on two previous occasions.

Since I was coming off strong results from racing in Pennsylvania, I was really hoping for a podium spot in this one.  My plan:  absolutely do not let a break go away, and win the sprint in a small bunch of riders.  If a break of less than two is up the road, sit in the front of the field and be prepared to surf with any riders bridging across the gap.  I had planned on doing the 40+ and Pro-3 races that day, so knowing that I had Liam as a team-mate in the first race gave me confidence that I would not miss the move as he had committed to riding support if I asked for assistance.

We lined up with a relatively strong field.  I recognized several strong cat 1 and cat 2 riders, so I knew it would be a fun race.  The race immediately started at a brisk pace, not fast enough to put people in the red zone, but fast enough to require some serious wattages on almost every lap.  Attacks actually started on lap 1, so I was confident that this race would be the typical Stafford finish with a subset of the starting group.  I bridged/covered every substantial break, and I was in three breaks that looked like they would have a good chance of success, only to be pulled back by the field.  With about 8 laps to go, a break of 3 went away which included a Subaru rider and Danbury Audi rider that I recognized as being a big threat.  I jumped and spent ¾ of a lap chasing in the 53x11 and finally caught them.  We had a decent gap on the field, so I thought this might be it.  I was hoping to catch my breath when I tagged on the back, when the Subaru rider yelled “No free rides!” at me, so I subsequently rolled to the front and took a big dig.  The other riders subsequently took their turns, but it was futile as the group was closing in fast.  I stayed toward the front as we were caught, and another break immediately formed.  This time I was attentive enough to roll off the front with the 4 other riders.  This break was quickly swallowed up, and I knew another attack would come.  It came within seconds and I jumped across a small gap.  Within ¼ lap, another 12-15 riders closed the gap, causing a split in the field.  At this point there was about 3 laps to go, I could look over my shoulder and see the gap to the field increasing, so I knew this was going to be the finishing group.  Job #1 complete, make it into the winning move.  The group continued to keep the pace extremely high until the finish and unfortunately between the heat and previous efforts, I was too gassed to position appropriately during the final lap.  I still threw down a sprint at the end and ended up 12^th on the day.  That “good finish” eluded me once again!

The final sprint felt like I was sprinting through oatmeal, but a download of my data later showed that I hit 38.2 mph in the sprint, so I could have ended up with a good result if I had been in a better position... 

I rolled around the course for a cool-down lap – I was tired and extremely hot.  The P123 race was lining up, but I needed to recover, hydrate, and cool down, so I opted to skip the second race.  I had already told Jon that I would race in New Britain with him on the next day, and the P123 race would have crushed my recovery.

Liam rode strong throughout the race, and it was great to have a team-mate out there with me.  He spent a good amount of time toward the front, put in some big efforts, and offered to chase groups several times throughout the race.  I am looking forward to lining up at the start with him again soon.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff