RECONFIGURED COURSE MARS USUAL STELLAR LA CIRCUIT RACE

By John McKee

It was March 29th, 2009 and the LA Circuit Race was conflicting with the Redlands Criterium. Tough decisions for 55/60+ racers. It was important that we as 55/60+ racers showed a presence at both venues so we get asked back in the future. Brad House the race promoter for LAC did the 60+ guys a great favor and doubled his purse to include a separate but equal amount of prize money after being asked by you know who for some recognition/respect for 60+ racers. To me it isn't getting the money that's important but being recognized as competitive racers like younger riders. THANK YOU BRAD HOUSE!
Over 40 guys lined up to contest the 2009 version of the LA Circuit Race. Pretty darn good considering over 35 showed up at Redlands. There were about 10 guys that did both eventhough the race courses are 80 miles apart. There was good news and bad news about the race course at LAC. The good news and I worked on this before hand but I didn't actually talk to Brad about this. Bob Llamas had mentioned about the course being coned in at the finish causing problems in the past. I thought the officials shack could be pushed back up the cross street and thats exactly what happened. Full street racing right to the finish. Now the bad news. We started warming up on the course and everything looked ok until we got to the line to start the race. Now I don't blame the promoter, officials or anybody for this. It just something that had to be worked around. There was a permit for a production company to do some filming at the upper end of the course. This is near LAX right so filming would be a natural but on March 29th and at the last corner before the finish wasn't good. At the other end and it wouldn't have mattered but this last turn was less than 300 meters from the finish line. I maybe wrong on the distance but it use to be 1 mile from the finish. Quite a difference. Too bad but the race went on and no one hit the pavement which was the most important thing.
The race was scheduled to go off at 7 am so most of us got to the location in the dark. I assume the early bird twins(Pollack and Springer) were there first there or pretty near so. I got there before 6 am and they were already spinning on there trainers and Headlamp Leo was there chatting. The sign in process went great and that made it easier. Good job there.
The race was scheduled for 20 miles. 5 laps of the full course. We got 6 laps of the new course and I got around 16 1/2 miles and it took 40 mins or so to saw this off. The average speed was near 24 mph but far short of the pace at Redlands although the 180s slowed the overall pace.
Its hard to get a break going here but there were attempts but none were able to stick. Breaks have worked before but there were so many different teams that nothing worked. Kal made what I thought was the best effort at a break but was chased hard by many riders. The pack was churning constantly through the race. It's hard to make this sound exciting. Every race is different but this came down to a few things. Good position going into the last turn. Making a good turn with some mo. Acceleration out of the turn with the right gear. It was easy to be over geared here. Then the sprint for the line. It was a full on sprint after the turn. Al Shorts shouted out "Sprint to the line". Must have been a tip to a friend or teammate. Monty Pettus heard this and was on Al's wheel and a light went on. He got out of the saddle and did what he does best. Finish a race. Monty won the 60+ category. The 55+ race looked like UCC was lining up for Kal but at the end Dale Ludetke came across first. Kal second with the Mule third in 55+. Paul Springer was second and Joe Wells doing his first race this year rounded out the podium for 60+. Thanks again to all the 55/60+ racers that came out to LAC or Redlands and especially those that did both. I didn't mention Ben Maciel yesterday and Ben did both. Also thanks to those that signed up and hadn't planned on racing just to show support like John Rubcic and Bill Langstaff. Here are the placing for LAC:

LA Circuit Race (Rank 1.5)
Masters 55+
Place	License	Name	Team	SoCal Points
1	47262	Dale Luedtke	UC Cyclery/JW Floors	21
2	54522	Kalman Szkalak	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	17
3	219983	Richard Pollock	Citrus Valley Velo	15
4	230085	Albert Shorts	Velo Allegro	13
5	49110	Rino Barbagiovanni	Santa Clarita Velo	12
6		Michael Vanlandingham		10
7	50911	Richard Stahlberg	Ironfly	9
8	155459	Thomas Reilly	Pasadena Athletic Assoc (PAA)	7
9	47380	Carlos Soto	Unattached	6
10	142249	Rich Keegan	Ironfly	4
11	55635	Pedro Ordaz		3
12	189814	Leo Longo	Citrus Valley Velo	2
13	125634	William Tippets	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	0
14	257503	Philip Walters	Encino Velo Cycling Club	0
15	271566	Alex Gonzales		0
16		Paul Anderson		0
17	195618	Stephen Horine	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	0

LA Circuit Race (Rank 1.5)
Masters 60+
Place	License	Name	Team	SoCal Points
1	219074	Leo Pettus	Paramount Racing	21
2	33679	Paul Springer	Citrus Valley Velo	17
3	48252	Joseph Wells	EDGE Racing	15
4	234791	Loren Stephens	EDGE Racing	13
5	236498	Bruce Steele	South Bay Wheelmen	12
6	195498	Donald Kimper	ACQUA AL 2/San Diego Bicycle Club	10
7	171652	Stephen Whitsitt	South Bay Wheelmen	9
8	129293	Michael Fleming	Coates /On Deck Foundation	7
9	17063	Richard Hughes	Unattached	6
10	61278	Mario Seri	Kahala LaGrange	4
11	50498	Richard Rodriguez	Nytro Racing	3
12	37370	Charles (Chuck) Watson	South Bay Wheelmen	2
13	177403	Timothy Marquez	Platinum Performance Cycling Team	0
14	275832	Benjamin Maciel	Citrus Valley Velo	0
15	45763	Robert Paganini	Pasadena Athletic Assoc (PAA)	0
16	220804	Michael Barnes	Rock Solid Cycling	0
17	163415	James Heise	South Bay Wheelmen	0
18	223119	C Kevin Post	South Bay Wheelmen	0
19	180386	John McKee	Paramount Racing	0
20	266647	Allen Kizuka	Velo Allegro	0
21	168704	James Fitzgerald	PAA / RE/MAX	0
22	57726	Ernest Hoffer	EDGE Racing	0
23	48063	Barnett Feigenbaum	Ironfly	0