During the summer the Carolina Cycling Time Trial Association offers Time Trials at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and we were there to check it out.
According to the website the series dates back to the 1990's and credit goes to the vision and support of the Charlotte Motor Speedway family of owners and employees.
From April through September six races are held at this great venue and almost 30 volunteers make that possible, but the TT series is not USCF sanctioned. CCTTA used to offer 40k and 10 mile options but that was too much to handle and manage and currently only the 10 mile option is run. Two of the six events also offer a kids race and last night was one of these times. The kids took off at 5:30pm and the adults raced from 6:30pm to 8pm in three distinctive heats.
The green bibs were the first to go off between 6:30pm and 7pm, followed by the faster yellow bibs between 7pm and 7:30pm and finally the fastest folks with red bibs closed out the night. This was set in place that only athletes of equal abilities are on the together at given times and that an athlete going 30 miles an hour wasn't charging hard past someone going 16 miles an hour. Plus the benefit is that the temperatures are a bit cooler by the time the really fast guys go who most likely care the most about personal records.
Last night about 350 cyclists took to the Speedway and some traveled as far as 2 to 3 hours. The current track record was set by Thad Dulin on July 25, 2007 in a time of 18:50.49 or an average speed of 31.84 mph.
You can find more images of that TT evening on our facebook page at facebook.com/slowtwitch
More info at: carolinatt.org/v4
All images are © Herbert Krabel / slowtwitch.com
The Charlotte Motor Speedway hosts cyclists once a month during the summer.
Once the registration is done it is time to pick up the timing chip.
The early bird catches the worm, or in this case a spot inside the garages.
To get a spot in the garages it is best to be here before 5pm. That leaves time to relax and play on the phone.
The younger group of kids goes of first and they only do a small loop in pit row.
As the kids do their thing others are warming up on the race track.
Most folks had to deal with parking spots outside of the garages.
Joe Price is the president and MC of the series.
It is time to line up for the start and folks go off every 5 seconds.
Yup, we are at a race track.
There were quite a few interesting bikes here, including several fixed gear ones.
The Trek Speed Concept seemed to be a very popular choice here, at least among the newer bikes.
Mark Peterson seems to fit in quite well at the race track here with his Hooters Racing kit.
Usually race cars fly along here.
Ready to take off.
Some folks warmed up on the infield course.
Mike Giraud of the A2 Wind Tunnel very focused during his warmup.
A few tandems were out on the track too.
Most of the athletes with the red bibs looked very fast.
Results were up immediately.
