40%

I have to have ridden 10 Tuesday night races in the Pacific Raceways series, held from the end of March through August, to qualify for the swag giveaway on the final night. That is my real goal this year. Not to win, place or be a real factor. Just to do the 10 so I can get a free pair of socks, or fenders, or jersey-just something!
Washington has had a very wet year so far-approximately 62 days of measureable moisture. Although I train in the rain and snow, I do not race in the wet. I am not a pro, am not paid to race, do not have a lot of confidence in my abilities in wet, slick, racing conditions, and just don't want to race in the wet. But last night I did.
I had only done 3 of the first 10 Pacific Raceways series, all because of the weather. I knew I had to start showing up to get my 10. Yesterday started very nice, and my hopes were high. We were to race the flats. By the time I showed up an hour early, the clouds were back in earnest. The prediction was for a lot of rain around 10pm, but this storm arrived early. I started in the 4/5s, and we were to race the flats for about an hour. The first 30 mins were dry, but I could smell the rain coming. I did move to the front on 2 of the first 4 laps, not attacking, but bringing an attack back on the 4th lap, staying in 3rd position for most of the lap pulling the pack along. Soon after the rain drops began. They told us at the start that the course would change to "down the escape route" if it started raining, as the flats became very slick and dangerous (the drag strip we raced on became an ice rink in the rain). With 3 laps to go, at around 40 mins of racing we were directed down the escape route. I stayed well off the back down the ramp, but easily worked my way to the top 1/2 on the rollers that followed. I was very happy to finish as it began to pour with 2 to go. Now I have down 4 of the 10, so I am at 40%. I am relatively confident I can get 6 more in as there are 11 races left. It can't rain every Tuesday night, can it?
The team was well represented as coffee was given away as primes for all 3 races. Thank you Evan! There is also team stuff to give away as swag at the end of the series. BUDU Racing, the organization that puts on the series, was quite thankful for the goodies. So was I.
I have a tt on Mercer Island on Sunday as part of the Senior Games and am riding my single speed. Speaking of singles, a guy raced one last night in our group and did quite well.

Side note-any suggestions on how to lessen/dampen the vibrations in my Sibex titanium cross forks? I just put them on a new Lynsky/Scattante ti cross frame and they vibrate horribly on steep descents. Someone suggested dampeners. Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you and keep the rubber side down.

Ty (Saddledancer)