From the Archives: The Pits, Los Portales Grand Prix, 1993

I don't know, maybe I go to all the wrong races these days but, over the past … oh, I don't know how many years ... the pit mechanic seems to have disappeared from the scene. It used to be fairly common practice at your friendly regional criterium, that the local bike shop, working in tandem with the race organizer, would set up in the general vicinity of the pits where they would perform last minute adjustments to race rigs, bring them up to performance standards. Of course it also used to be that bikes had to undergo a pre-race check at certain races, make sure one would not fall apart mid-race, to cause mass mayhem amongst the racing Cat 4's.

I guess these days it is expected that everyone properly maintains their bikes throughout the racing season (which they should), and pits tend to look like the space of a wheel dealer at some bike swap - pairs of wheels lined up against the curb, strewn about some patch of lawn, or leaned against one another in tipi fashion, and a USAC official standing around waiting for something to happen.

Anyway, this months From the Archives has a couple Warner Velo racers at the pits during the 1993 Los  Portales Grand Prix, downtown Whittier.