Race Recap: 2013 Chris Cono Memorial at Encino Velodrome...

Considering it was Monday, a respectable sized group showed at the Encino Velodrome for the Chris (Cono) Contreras Memorial. And why not? It was a perfect Southern California evening. With the sun setting in its usual place to the west, there was plenty of action to watch around the tracks' banked oval, there were truly delicious tacos to savor, there was Jim of Recycled Jersey fame with his colorful collection of jersey's to ogle and maybe buy, there was music (granted, not rock n' roll, but still technically music), Coolass Mike was up there in the announcing booth doing his thing, there was a fantastic raffle to benefit the Contreras family, there were freebies of such quantity that kids were leaving with armloads of merchandise and had to choose between rolling their bikes out the gate or carrying all the stuff.

While the main purpose of the night was to provide the cycling community with an opportunity to help out the Contreras family, it was also a good evening to take in, or get into, some races. There were Flying 200s, Scratch races, Tempo, Miss n' Outs, Points races, Win n' Outs, and Encino Snowball. A, B, and C categories each had their opportunities, Juniors mixed it up with the older riders, girls fought out a competitive dance around the track with the guys. There was good stuff going around, no question about it.

Some thanks are in order, I believe. First off Bryan Yates, who seemed to have done the bulk, or at least a lot of, the organizing of the event. It doesn't go anywhere, unless someone takes the reins, right. Second, Team OTR Racing. What can you say about them, they are always a presence at the races, but really stepped up with the raffle and give-aways here; simply massive quantities of shirts, base layers, pants, shorts, lube, gloves, socks, arm warmers, caps, and whatever the heck else, clunking the heads of the inattentive, or snatched out of the air. Third, all the other nameless ones, who volunteered their time to help organize, set up and run things. And finally, everyone who showed up to race, or watch, in remembrance of Mr. Contreras.

Allright, so there you go. If you want more, there is a selection of 93 more photos you can see by making the jump here. By the way, just a little tip, Photobucket can be painfully slow at times, I have found it is best to click the first photo, then click slideshow and let it run.