Lea Wins Emmaus, Daniels Leads Series
Chambers Annihilates Roller Drum
Next Race Friday February 12th, Gusto Restaurant, Lancaster, PA

Bobby Lea, Bahati Foundation team, returning to competition after two weeks on easy pace due to knee tentonitis, was the class of the field in the Emmaus VFW Championship Roller Races last Thursday night. Lea gave notice in the qualifying time trial with fast time of 1:16. 97 followed by new man in Darrel Engle, Kutztown Cutters on a road bike with 1:19.89, Jackie Simes, Cycle Loft in 1:21.62 and Jon Chambers, Affinity in fourth and riding up in category after winning the human (open) class in the previous week. Fifth and sixth qualifiers were more new faces with,16 year old Nick Roeder of Orefield, PA at 1:23.30 and 17 year old Thomas Schubert riding for Tri State Velo with 1:25.77 followed by David "goliath" Espinoza – 1:30.87 and Wim Daniels, Services Environmental, riding a huge gear of 137", in 1:32.25. These top eight then moved on to the next round, But, not without incident.

To keep things fair, all qualifications are done on the same roller, in this case the blue one. First off in the TT was Chambers. To describe his monster mash roller style as spectacular is an understatement. Determined to show he could compete with the pros Chambers was all out from the gun, at times seemingly on the verge of a hair’s width of flying off the roller. The pounding was simply too much for the vintage seventy year old front roller drum as it exploded with a loud crack, spiting down the middle but still holding together enough for Chambers to come safely to a stop with 1/4 lap left in his TT. Although chief race steward Ben Miller offered to adjust his time for the mishap, the tired Chambers sportingly requested and was given a chance to re-ride later. From then on the red roller was used for the qualifiers while veteran roller afficianato Wim Daniels taped the blue somewhat together so the racing could continue. Which it did, although the blue proved to become progressively slower through the night and those losing the coin toss for roller choice were said by announcer Erik Mitchell to be under its curse. The question remains, can the roller drum be fixed properly in time for the next competition!

Quarter finals went to Lea advancing over Daniels in 1:36.8, Espinoza over a challenging Engle in 1;24.02, Chambers over Roeder, 1:26.97 and the real surprise of the day, Schubert in 1:24.45 over seasoned pro Simes – 1:36.28 who had arrived late for the evening’s events and complaining of sore legs from a six hour road ride he finished just before coming to the VFW. In the other 5th – 8th semi final,Daniels beat Roeder with Lea beating Chambers and Espinoza winning from Schubert in the 1st – 4th semi finals.

The red roller continued to prevail in the 1st – 4th semis with Lea over Chambers, Espinoza over Schubert setting the stage for Lea against Espinoza for the 1-2 finals. In the 5th – 8th semis, the veteran Daniels won over young Roeder and Engle lapped Simes who simply cruised at a diminished pace, perhaps the result of eating a hoagie just be for the ride off as he thought he was done racing for the evening. Simes actually de-mounted the roller before completing the distance and subsequently did not return to race the 7th – 8th final against Roeder, preferring to settle for a beer at the bar.

The ride off for 5th and 6th went to Engle digging in to nip Daniels, who seemed to be feeling multi efforts on the big gear, in 1::37.25 to 1:38.40. So, Engle became the sole victor on the blue roller. The race for 3rd, 4th was a little closer but not much as Chambers rode 1:26.51 beat Schubert, 1:31.84, who stayed even with Chambers until fading in the last two laps.

Taking no chances in the 1, 2 ride off against Espinoza, Bobby Lea started hard but by the half mile mark "Goliath" had clawed his way back even then surprisingly jumped ahead. Lea closed drew a bead coming onto the bell then really hit the gas to win spinning fluidly away in 1:24.76. Espinoza also put in a fine ride of 1:26.52 on the blue roller which by then was dragging heavily.

Kate Veronneau Kutztown Cutters and Kacey Manderfield, Cycle Loft, the only two women who showed up for their category, elected to test their fitness against the pro men. Both did respectable TT rides with Veronneau’s 1:33.05 almost good enough to advance her into the top eight. Addressing the lack of more women riders, a perplexed series promoter Jack Simes commented, "I don’t get it. They [women riders] complained last year at the first races because there was no women’s class. Now it’s here with a sponsor [Velo Precision Cycling] and they don’t show". "Well, you’re dealing with women, Jack" said Manderfield to Simes who didn’t respond.

Leading the overall pro series is Newark Delaware’s Wim Daniels with 52 points by virtue of his consistent placings in all four races to date He is followed by David Espinoza with 40 points and a tightly grouped third through fifth with Matt Diefenbach’ Alliance Environmental – 36 points, Jackie Simes with 33 points and in fifth with 36 points a stellar showing by female Kacey Manderfield riding two events so far with the pro men. Complete standings are listed below.

Gusto Restaurant in Lancaster PA will host the fourth stop in the eight race series on Friday, February 12th "It’s a great restaurant", said Lancaster promoter, Rich Ruoff. "I encourage people to get there early, enjoy the food and watch the races which will be upstairs in the martini bar". Qualification time trials start at 6:30 PM wth

Championship Roller Racing official suppliers include Mike Fraysse Sports, Valley Preferred Cycling Center , Phoenix Sports Technology,Velo Precision Cycling and Quality First Home Improvements.

Photos of Championship Roller Racing can be viewed at www.cyclingcaptured.com