Marymoor isn't considered a great track, but it's the only one I've ridden on. Not far from my home, but I only raced there a little while. I liked the racing a lot but hated driving there in rush hour traffic. Never rose above Cat.3, never won anything in the 3's, but was in contention in a lot of sprints (in Points races or Miss-and-Out mostly) which is the most exciting thing I can think of. My heart rate is rising just from remembering it.

Have also been there a lot (though not lately) as a spectator, especially when we hosted Nationals, Goodwill Games, and various meets called a Grand Prix or some such. Watched Vails and Berryman break the chain on their sprint tandem, just from hard pedaling, right in front of where we were sitting. Also got to see the tandem piloted by Swift (forget his first name) crumple to the track at full speed when the fork crown sort of exploded. I forget who made the bike, but a known good USA framebuilder. The crown had been fabricated from thin sheet steel in a way that looked massive from the outside, but once it was apart it seemed obvious that it wasn't near strong enough! I wouldn't have put that crown on a single bike let alone a tandem.

I took no pleasure in Swift crashing, but he was on my naughty list because I'd made him a sprint frame (single) that he was supposed to "pay for" by racing it with our (Davidson) decals on it. But then he got a better offer from Cannondale, who gave him cash as well as a free frame, so he never raced our frame, and wouldn't give it back either, he thought it was his to sell. (Jerk!) The frame I made him was better than any stinky old Cannondale. He came to us because I'd built the frame that multi Natz champ and 2x Olympic team member Ken Carpenter was using to beat him on the regular, and he'd got it into his head that if he just had the right frame, he could beat Ken — but he never did. He had us paint it a fade, from silver to gold — get it? Needless to say if he hadn't burned his bridges by stiffing us, I could have made him a way better sprint tandem. Demonstrably better since my tandem forks never break!! Only made a couple track tandems, and never for anyone with a chance of winning Natz, but they are super exciting even with amateur talent aboard.

Also got to see other medals won on several other frames I built, always gratifying. Had a run of success with track bikes for a while there, maybe '86 - '94 before plastic totally took over. Ken got 5th in the '92 Olympics, and was on the '88 Oly team as well. His girlfriend (later wife) Renée Duprel got Silver at World Championships in '90, missing Gold by millimeters. Unfortunately I wasn't there for either of those, Barcelona and Utsonomiya respectively. Oh right, I just remembered Ken came to us because he was impressed with Renée's frame. His frame got Specialized decals since that's who was paying the bills. Later his team switched sponsors and he was supposed to ride a Merlin, so they painted it titanium color and put Merlin decals on it.