I hadn’t seen but one Little 500 race in the 20 years since I had ridden – 20th anniversary for Team Posers! An old teammate got me an infield pass (Nice!!) and I just happened to have a brand new lens for my camera to go with the unbelievably perfect weather.
2007 Little 500 Photos
The bikes have advanced a good bit from our old spot welded AMF Roadmaster. Aluminum frames, rims, spokes bar and stem but still have the one piece crank and block pedals. And the riders still have to ride the cinder track at Armstrong stadium! What’s cool about this race is you only get four tries tops. There’s no practice races, no way to simulate it. You win or you loose and never get to try again.
The race got off to a smooth start and within the first ten laps the key teams – Cutters, Phi Kappa Psi, Dodds house, Black Key bulls and Major Taylor began to make their presence felt. From that point on it was pretty much a five team race that busted the field up and left teams one or more laps down. There were many attacks with one or two teams getting a gap but it was always shut down by fresh riders after an exchange. Some of the leaders bobbled exchanges and had close calls but all managed to stay upright and on the lead lap.
In the closing laps all teams had their sprinters setup and on the bike. The pace slowed. The tension and pressure built as it was coming down to a one lap race. The Cutters grabbed the inside lane with three laps to go and continued to lead on the last lap into a headwind down the backstretch and the dicey final turns. Coming out of turn four onto the final straight with a tailwind the Cutters were unstoppable. Victory number eight for team Cutters.
All and all a great race and a great weekend – Enjoy the photos!