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The Thunderdrome

This past weekend I did my first race at the Thunderdrome. Devin (Stewart) had asked if I wanted to go and watch, as this event has been happening for a few years now at the Velodrome, which is an old banked-oval track that was built back in the 60's down in Detroit for bicycle racing. It had recently been brought back to life to house mini-bike and scooter races, building some popularity over the past few years. After Devin's text, I went on the site and realized I could enter the fifty in it and actually race. Even better! A quick signup and looking over of the rules and everything seemed pretty simple. We loaded the bike up and headed down there with Aubrey (Devin's wife) and would see what it was like. Devin and Aubrey had raced their bicycles there a year or so prior, so they were pretty familiar with how things worked. The event was all for fun, but as with anything – there was some people who looked to be taking it pretty seriously.

The track was great – sort of. Picture Nelson Ledges' bumps, but on an oval track with 45-degree banking. Turns 1 and 2 were fun, with the trick trying to hold it wide open throughout. Turns 3 and 4 were sketchy, with bumps big enough they could rattle you off the bike. Running a high-line was the smoothest way around, I was learning from the regulars. Within a few sessions of practice I was getting the hang of things and just like Nelson, the faster you go, the smoother it is – sort of.

The races happened under the lights, which was really cool. It was like a NASCAR race at night. The organizers had a food cart, beer, apparel to buy, a band and all kinds of other stuff going on. There were probably 60-70 bikes entered, from mini's like mine, to a large majority of scooters and vintage mopeds. Some were really cool. Others .. you could tell they had some time on them. :) The biggest surprise was that there were easily several hundred people who turned out just to watch. Crazy.

All in all, the event was pretty cool. Our class, "the Hot Damn class" went last and had 8-10 bikes in it. I won the heat race and then finished 3rd in the final, behind fellow road racer Eric Spector (on an XR-100) and another guy (forgot his name) on a 2-stroke 85cc mini. The rules were 100cc max, so his bike was the best choice and fastest thing around the track that night, but Eric edged him out in the main. I gave 'em all I had and came up short. Next time I need to do better with the LeMans-style start and try some different lines. :) Thanks to Devin and Ollie (Gooden) for sticking around while we hung out and people-watched most of the night. Good times.

I posted some photos over on the right in the Flickr section. Apparently all the money raised from the event is going towards improving the Velodrome and eventually repaving it one day. For more information and to see some videos on the races, check out www.thunderdrome.com. The second photo is courtesy of etx313. Find his Flickr photo feed from the Thunderdrome here.

Monday, September 17th, 2012 | POSTED AT: 5:14 AM
FILED UNDER: General

2 Comments on “The Thunderdrome”

Doug Cornett wrote on 19 September, 2012, 7:31 PM
Mini racing eh? I’ll just have to get busy on my little Kawi. Glad you are cross training for the GNF.
Eddie wrote on 20 September, 2012, 7:00 AM
You’ll have to try it next year Doug. It’s pretty cool running a little bike around on some pretty narly banking. Good cross-training as well. :)