Cat 6 serves up frosty mugs of pain at the track

Finally made it out to the track last night. This is a sweet track compared to the concrete bowls at Marymoor and Alpenrose (Seattle and Portland). From the history of the track: "Designed and built by Herbert and Ralph Schurmann from Munster, West Germany, its surface is made from Afzelia wood from Cameroon, Africa. This incredibly dense wood, a tropical hardwood similar to teak in density, does not absorb much moisture nor does it expand or contract with changes in weather conditions." We truly are lucky to have this track.
__It sounds like this was a good night to go, because everyone was saying the turnout was great. There was a large women's field, and people showed up that often don't, including our own Derrick, plus Velo Bella's Barb and some others. I can see why people can't make it out regularly: the track is truly in the asscrack of sprawlsville. However, if Brett can make it out from Mpls. towing Olive in a kiddie trailer, we don't have much of an excuse do we?
__Category 6 totally rocked the track! Derrick was f*cking amazing. He simply rode away from the field in the Category 3 Snowball* and took almost all the points. He did the same thing in the Win & Out* but rode more conservatively. Unfortunately he had to leave before the Scratch race, otherwise he would have swept the Omnium* but since he's car-free he had to leave with his ride. As it was he missed winning by only a point, which is awesome for missing a race entirely! Skidsy kicked ass in the highly competitive Category 1/2 field. He rode well in the Tempo* race, and got in the key breakaway in the Points* race, taking the final sprint and earning 2nd in points. This was good for 4th in the Omnium.* Former Cat6er Fil represented Grumpy's well, taking 2nd in the Scratch* race and 4th in the Miss & Out* for 5th in the Omnium* out of a huge field of Cat 4/5s. Speaking of numbers, Morgan drew the lucky 69 bib!
__The excitement at the track is infectious. I'm looking forward to doing the class series in August (I'm already booked through July), and maybe I'll come out before then to try it out, as a lot of people say they haven't needed the class. The track is spectator-friendly, with a fun game worth prizes for picking winners of various races, noisemakers, food vendors and an announcer explaining most of the events. If you haven't made it out yet, you must!

*Events explained, to the best of my understanding:
Snowball: this is a points race, with points "snowballing" as the race progresses. The first sprint is worth e.g. 4 points, the 2nd 8 points, the 3rd 12 points, etc.
Win & Out: this is like the reverse of the Miss & Out, in that the winner of each sprint is pulled from the race and gets to rest. The winner of the first sprint wins the race, the winner of the second gets second, etc.
Omnium: the overall results for the night for each category. Points from each event are added up for the final Omnium standing.
Tempo: This is a points race with sprints every lap, keeping the tempo always high.
Points: Like a tempo race, except sprints every few laps allowing a bit of rest in between.
Scratch: This is just like a road race, winner is simply the first across the line at the end.
Miss & Out: The last rider each lap is pulled from the race until three riders are left, at which point there is a sprint for the final result. The announcer was hamming it up a bit with this race, which the spectators were enjoying. When getting pulled from the race, sometimes the annoucer would say "Briiiiiiiing! Phone call for rider 32, you're wanted in the infield!" I thought this was funny anyway.