Harrisburg PA - Indoor Event

From: "Timothy Mathewson" tmathewson677@prodigy.net
To: "Kim Gregory"
Subject: Harrisburg PA. Indoor event.

Everyone, Just to let you know, a small but dedicated bunch of Speedway enthusiasts DID brave the elements and make the trek to Harrisburg, PA. during last weekends winter storm.

For you California guys, winter storm as in SNOW, SLEET, ICE, FREEZING RAIN and RAIN. It really didn't matter until we had to drive home though, because we were inside! This show was HUGE! If any of you haven't checked out their web site you really should www.motoramaassn.com.

You want Junior potential?! How does 285 kids riding 50cc through 80cc short trackers?! It's really too bad we didn't have a couple of Junior bikes to take with us(there is always next year!). Words cannot adequately describe the potential of this show, both in exposure to the general public or potential speedway riders. Remember there is a Speed Show going on with the indoor races and we are talking THREE DAYS! The only down side of the whole event was we ended up waiting all day to ride. Speedway was the 23rd class of competitors on the schedule(that is class NOT heat!).

Some classes had up to 12 heats each! The wait was well worth is considering the attention we got. Every time we staged to go on the track the fans that weren't staring bug eyed at our speedway bikes, were filing past to get into the stands in time to see up blast off the line! And just so you don't think our ego was getting the best of us, we were the last group of competitors to race before the intermission! As far as the racing goes, we only had 7 riders show up. We ended up running four man D-1 heats and three man Support heats. We got one practice session then ran two heats and a Main per division.

The promoter gave us $500. to split up the way we wanted. The D-1 winner ended up taking home $125. with the Support winner pocketing $75. The track was a combination of clay and bark and would have been really cool if the corners were just a bit wider(20' wide all the way around), and if we didn't have to deal with the short trackers tearing things up, but alas, this is the kind of show we need to do more of. There was tons of traction so it took some creative gearing and tire pressures to make it work but work it did! Our competition was actually enhanced by the absence of the faster riders. There wasn't a huge gap from the first place to last in any of our races.

D-1 Main 1) Kelvin Herrala (GDN) 2) Russ Cornell (GM) 3) Tim Mathewson (GDN) 4) Joel Monell (JAW)

D-2 Main 1) Craig Lane (JAW) 2) Craig's Buddie(sorry, didn't catch his name) (JAW) 3) Eric Sherwood (JAW)