success , failure , and opportunity . Several major changes were implemented that should increase the competitiveness , intrigue , and opportunity to race at each of the scheduled ten events for this year .
The changes for 2021 are as follows :
• Introduction of a new “ AA ” class for the fastest fast guys to complete for the “ overall ” championship . These riders are not broken into age or displacement classification and always start on the first row of each race . Bike selection is per the individual race eligibility ( i . e . AA Post Vintage class may include PV and Historic , etc ).
• Novice and women riders will no longer only start in the morning race , but rather will be placed into the appropriate race associated with their bike ’ s eligibility .
• Due to the increased popularity of 1980s and 1990s disc brake equipped machines , a third race is added to each event that includes the Pre-Modern ( single front disc ), Early Modern ( dual disc to 1994 ), Pre-2K ( dual discs to 1999 ) classes .
• The sight lap is eliminated due to time constraints of three race format .
Rocket Raceway is once again the site of the season opener and the first chance to test the new format . After last year ’ s rescheduled event , which pushed Rocket ’ s date into the fall , gracious host Mark Carlson was hard at work harvesting a swath of marketable timber from the property . This complicated the work of trail bosses Mike Zydbak and Dave K ., but with the help of a generous group of volunteers they were able to extract the best of last year ’ s course and connect it to some newly created trail to navigate the perimeter of the clear cut area with little , if any , degradation in the experience .
With nearly universal praise for last year ’ s course and the excitement of the first green flag of the year , the threat of rain was doing little to dampen any spirits heading into Sunday ’ s event . However , the weather turned out to be more than a threat , as a soaking rain set into the area on Saturday and only began to retreat as participants lined up for registration Sunday .
While the course is known to drain relatively well , the absence of a sight lap would make the true impact of the precipitation a mystery until competitors took the green flag .
THE GOOD : As is typical for the Rocket Raceway property , the course layout is wonderful and takes full advantage of the elevation changes , valleys , tight forest single track , and open flowing two-track .
THE BAD : The rain preceding the event was not to be denied . Its
VOL . 6 ISSUE 5 - MAY 2021 // PAGE 175