thoughts on the Racing
- Starting in the spring, there is a great training race on the Claremont Speedway every tuesday night. It's one of the best sprinting workouts around.
- The speedway is a small banked oval which is fairly fun to race around. The turns are banked enough to be a lot of fun, but they aren't crazy banked.
- Race entry is 8 bucks ($5 if you are a claremont bike club member, a membership that costs $25. So, becoming a member is worth it if you plan on doing a lot of the races).
- There is an A and a B race. I would say most Dartmouth students should do the A race. The B race ends up being a lot of old dudes.
- Rain cancels, and they are very strict about this, so even if it is hardly drizzling they will cancel--you've been warned. If it starts to rain during the race, what happens depends on how many laps have occured. If there are more than 30 laps to go, the race is called off, while people can still get prime prizes. With less than 30 laps to go, the race is finalized.
- Format of racing: the A race is 60 laps long. There are points sprints every 4 laps, and prime sprints ~every 4 laps. There are cash/prizes for the prime laps, and cash for the final classification. Some of the prime prizes include:
- cash ($1)
- random merchandise (eg shitty hats)
- random gift certificates ($1 gift certificates to bike shop, auto shop, pizza place, clothing place)
- random good prizes, like blocks of local cheese.
- Note that you can still contest primes if you get lapped, but you'll be out of contention for the overall (i.e. for the points race), as laps trump points.
Getting to and from the Race
- Most people end up driving to the race. Most people leave Hanover at 5pm-ish to get to the course around 5:30ish, which affords plenty of time to get dressed, sign in, and have a good warmup.
- Cooler people ride to the races. If you're doing this, you'll want to leave at 5pm. Taking rt 120S to the race-way is 26mi. It takes ~1:20hr to get there. If you plan to bum a ride after the race, you're all set. If you plan to ride back, you can either take 120N, or take 5 north. In either case, you'll need to bring serious lighting equipment.
Info from the series organizer:
Claremont Points Series
Each Tuesday, May through September, weather permitting, points races are held by the Club at Twin State Speedway in Claremont, NH. The "B" race, 30 laps of the 1/4-mile oval, starts at 6:00 pm, with registration starting at 5:30 pm. The "A" race follows.
Points are scored for the top five places every five laps, with double points the halfway through the race and at the finish. Rules. Scoring. Primes are called throughout each race. Competition can be fierce, with current and former NCAA (Mike Barton) and master national champions (??) competing in the "A" race, and everyone from up-and-coming Juniors to Master 65+ racers in the "B" race.
The Claremont Points Series is a USCF-sanctioned training series, and a vaid racing licence is required to compete. (One-day licences are available at the event.) For additional information, contact John Lambert at (603) 543-0188 or email
(from http://www.claremontcycle.com/club/racing.html)
