This sounds like a job for a couple of the Native
American casinos. There must be a dozen of them in
the I-5 corridor between Portland and SEattle. They
will eventually look for other marketing hooks besides
has-been country singers and rock bands!
David Feldman
iced in in
Vancouver, WA
>
>
> Dennis,
>
> WOW! Sounds like a heck of a good time. Let's dig
> the joint up and move it to San Diego! I wonder how
> something like this developed in Japan and not here
> in the US? I suspect the Americans may lack the
> dicipline to make something like this work here. I
> do recall that several years ago there was a
> movement afoot to start up betting on bike racing,
> in New Mexico of all places, that never got off the
> ground. Too bad. I'd love to watch track racing like
> that. Interesting that the pacer is a rider and not
> someone on a motor. I suppose it's more pure that
> way.
>
> Thanks for the report, Dennis. You did a good job of
> making me want to join you.
>
> Brian Baylis
> La Mesa, CA
>
> -- Dennis Young <mail@woodworkingboy.com> wrote:
> I made it over to the Maebashi Keirin track, a three
> hour drive by car
> through mountains and plains. It was really only to
> visit a bike shop in
> the good sized town, and didn't expect a race
> session to be going on during
> the new years holiday, but upon passing the place I
> noticed that the parking
> lot was jammed, so I parked and payed my 100 yen
> (about a buck) and entered
> the track lobby. What a gorgeous pista track! It's
> completely enclosed
> indoors with a very tall domed roof. The course
> appears to be about a 400
> meter oval circumference, with the track surface
> exceptionally ultra clean
> looking and light brown in color, perhaps concrete
> with some antislip
> coating on it? The banks are very high, perhaps
> about twice the height of
> most amateur tracks that I have seen. The infield
> is astro turf, and there
> are large seating capacity folding seat grandstands
> completely surrounding
> the track and going up very high. In the carpeted
> lobby are the many
> windows where you place your bets, guys hawking
> something I couldn't quite
> figure out, colored television monitors showing the
> race results and odds
> for the next race, refreshment and souvenir booths,
> and a crowd of people
> milling around and squinting over odds sheets and
> who knows what? Basicly,
> a real gambling palace where you might bring the
> kids too. It all looked to
> be very serious business going on, and I can't say
> that I saw very many, if
> any, athletic looking types. In the background is
> some strange kind of
> electronic music going on that tingles the skin with
> expectation. There is
> notification when the next race is about to start,
> and most everyone filters
> out to take a seat in the stands, except for those
> content to watch the race
> on the lobby monitors. A few minutes before the
> race, photos on the big
> scoreboard introduce the racers wearing suits and
> ties, along with the odds
> and possibly their recent race results. The race
> monitors come out and in
> military like fashion do a quick check of the track
> surface and go to their
> respective race observation posts. The bikes
> holding mechanism is wheeled
> into place and the racers come out from under the
> stands and take their
> positions at the starting line, all wearing very
> brightly color matched
> riding shorts, jerseys and helmet covers. Most
> races had ten participants.
> The pacer takes position about forty meters or so in
> front of the starting
> line, also on a bike. The outfit that the pacer
> wears is wicked! It's a
> deep purple colored shorts ensemble trimmed in
> black, very hawkish and
> striking! I noticed that there were both men and
> women serving as the
> pacer, and very well developed sprinter's leg
> muscles revealed these
> individuals as highly conditioned athletes in their
> own right. Possibly
> they are less advanced class riders serving duty,
> although there are no
> women riders in the pro ranks since they were ruled
> ineligible for the sport
> years ago. The gun goes off and the way the racers
> start cranking would
> suggest that very big gears are being used. The
> riders fall into position
> directly behind the pacer for about four laps, and
> at a pace that looked to
> be a rather "brisk" 40km per hour or so. A guy in
> the infield clangs the
> heavy bell, an object in it's stand that appears to
> have a somewhat
> religious looking significance about it, and then
> the pacer pulls off, and
> the pace really kicks up with jockeying for position
> going on. The crowd,
> somewhat subdued until this point, gets into it and
> starts letting their
> preferences be known. They come around for the last
> lap and all hell breaks
> loose with the riders going full out with speed and
> positioning and the
> crowd responding with very vocal approval or
> contrary to what is
> transpiring. It is a wild finish down to the line,
> after which the riders
> take a few cool down laps while experiencing praise
> or all manner of insults
> from some rather vociferous types in the crowd. One
> guy yelled that
> Yamazaki made him a fortune last week, but on this
> day was as exciting as a
> piece of day old raw fish on a plate going around
> and around at a conveyor
> belt sushi restaurant, as well as some more quaint
> and picturesque
> expressions more equated with one's ancestry than
> food, and beyond the scope
> of this internet discussion group of ladies and
> gentlemen! It is thrilling
> to attend these race sessions. The professional
> riders are obviously highly
> skilled and in incredible shape, and the color and
> atmosphere of the place,
> along with the people, makes for a great time. I
> doubt that few people in
> attendance are much interested in the equipment
> being ridden so expertly
> there, but the polish and shine of the beautiful
> bikes, and the quietness
> with which they haul, much revealing very in-tune
> machines, made it all the
> more exciting for me. The finish times and speeds
> are posted after the race
> is over. I believe this to be the last half lap
> speed, and most of the top
> place finishers were at over 60 kilometers per hour.
> There were ten races
> that day, and what a fun experience it was!
>
>
> Dennis Young
> Hotaka, Japan
>
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