Nationals or Bust!

Jake Hansen
is
qualified.
by
John Benenate

With a head full of flem,
and a headache screaming in one ear,
tension was palpable in the car flying north on I-5, as the unspoken conversation enunciated volumes about the rain beating down on the windshield at five in the morning Saturday August 7th, 2010.

Leaving Portland at four in the morning,
we set out to get Jake qualified for Nationals in the Points Race at the National Qualifier event at Marymoor Velodrome in Seattle.
Qualifying for the "Endurance events can be done with The Pursuit,
The Points race, or the Scratch Race."

We wanted to get him qualified with the early morning Points race so we could hurry and get home, and rest before the Pursuit Class at Alpenrose that night.

As the race unfolded, an opening Bazzooka took most folks out of the race in the first lap.
But after waiting much longer than his impatient coach liked, Jake finally attacked again and made a selection including last year's Pursuit Silver Medalist Dan Harm.

After towing that group of three to a veriety of scoring sprints, Dan HArm said "hey man, I am already third in this series, I am not into working too hard today," Jake finally attacked for real.

After five laps off the front Jake finished the race with a win.

Now, we have the Portland Qualifier next week and job one is to get Bedford qualified.