The Racing season for Norcal High School League has begun. Our first race was last weekend. Some of you will remember I'm the Team Mechanic and an Assistant Coach for El Cerrito High School. Last year we placed 2nd in league (Norcal, Southern Conference, D1), behind perennial powerhouse Salinas, but ahead of local rivals Albany and Berkeley. This race was down in Fort Ord (near Monterey). We drove down Friday, pre-rode the course, and had a team pot-luck in the hotel parking lot. Saturday was race day.
I had several highlights: Both my kids came with me (17 and 14) and both said they'd do it again. My 17 year old put a lap down on the race course. I finally got to use my epic toolboard that I was showing off last Fall. It's better equipped than my own workbench. Our own MH was 2nd in every race last year, 2nd to MG every race. She leapfrogged over Sophomore into JV Girls, and WON. MG was 2nd and she was not happy Brand new rider, Sophomore girl MW started from basically zero in pre-season. We must have worked her hard because she won off the front in her Soph Girls race. Our most promising Freshman boy EN, crashed during pre-ride, banged up his shoulder, and couldn't pull on the handlebars at all. He dug deep and got 3rd in Freshman Boys anyhow Our stars, twin brothers MG and EG, raced Varsity for the first time against some unbelievable competition, and placed 4th and 7th We frantically were estimating the scoring for the team totals (top 8 finishers) and it was clear we were top-4, but we weren't sure our place. At the podium, they gave trophies to the top-3. Third Place....Albany. Second Place....Salinas! Our hearts were in our throats. First Place.....Berkeley. Dangit! Next morning, I log into the Norcal website to see how close it was...CORRECTION! They had a math error! The official results went 1. Salinas, 2. El Cerrito, 3. Berkeley. Order was restored. I'm not sure when or how we'll retrieve our trophy, but who cares. It was particularly gratifying to place that well, because even though this was our largest field of racers ever, with 20 riders, Salinas had 41, and Berkeley had 64 racers. We have a feasible plan to reel in Salinas, potentially in the next race on March 10th. There is no real Riv-content here, but some RBW Group Members did donate generously to help purchase our trailer last year, so I hope you enjoy updates from time to time. Other potential Riv content is that the March 10th racecourse overlooks Laguna Seca Raceway, and I'll be camping there the night before, with coffee outside and lots of various Riv campgear. Bill "coach" Lindsay El Cerrito, CA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
