I thought I'd provide an update to what turned out to be a fun weekend of racing.
I recently upgraded to a 4 and wanted to put in a good showing in both Sat and Sun races. I also had high hopes of scoring some upgrade points.

For some background ... The Chris Thater Memorial Race is a 20+ year old race that's on the NRC calendar. It draws most of the top names including Mark and Frank McCormack, John Lieswyn, Vassili Davidenko, Mark Walters, Marty Nothstein, and current NRC points leader Scott Moninger. So regardless of my results, it would be fun to see some real pros race.

I entered the 30+ race with the hope of hanging with the pack. I had no sense of how fast the pace would be, but was pretty sure that 4's weren't going to be well respresented. Turned out the field was made up mostly of 3's and down. In fact, Frank McCormack decided to join as a warm up for the Sunday race ... great! [edit] Laura Van Gilder was along for the ride as well.
The pace was hot right from the start. Not rediculously fast, but fast, strong, and smooth. In fact, it was refreshing to ride with guys who didn't brake going into corners. I hung onto the back of the pack for 2/3rds of the race until, with 5 laps to go, I felt spunky enough to move up. With two laps to go, a buddy of mine decided to attack (mind you the main field was battling for 5th place as a break of 4 were up the road). He appeared to be holding it, so thinking I could get across without dragging the entire field, I bridged. We worked for literally 1/4 of a lap until we hit the only small hill on the course and pretty much blew up (it was into the wind as well). I had nothing left after that, slid to the back of the pack and finished the race. Mission accomplished, and the some. But, did I save enough for the 4/5 race the next day?

8AM ... 4/5 race ... field of 70 guys.
For some reason I expected the pace to be slower than the previous day ... yeah right ...
Maybe it was my legs, maybe it was my determination need to stay near the front in such a large field, but it hurt. I hung tight, fought off the idiots who tried to dive into the corners at the last minute, and screamed at others who had no clue about how to hold a line. Two guys broke off the front early and made it stick so the field was sprinting for 3rd on the last lap. Entering the last turn, I was in great shape ... probably 5th place and on a strong wheel. I stood to wind up and found my legs were jello. I cranked as hard as possible and took 8th in the field sprint, 10th overall.

The pro race was a blast to watch. Mark McCormack won a rare field sprint finish over Davidenko. What started as a huge field was whittled down to around 50 guys by the end. The pace just shelled everyone. Impressive as always.

Fun weekend! Fun racing.

Mark