By Marc Vettori
Susquehanna 12hr Race
July 18, 1999

Overview: The up side was that the race was very fun. Susquehanna offers a variety of challenging and technical trails. The race course offers a number of tough climbs that make the loop challenging.
      The down side of the race is that the promoter Aaron, while being very kind and polite, was not very organized. Throughout the day, Aaron said a number of times he didn't understand why more businesses didn't support the race. The course was poorly marked; a number of teams got off course early on. In addition the scoring system wasn't clear. I'm not sure that if we didn't keep track of our own teams results, that he would have known the correct scoring at all. I hate to be a complainer, but this race is a great idea, and as it was it was very fun, but without some improvements in basic areas it could just get ugly in the future.
      The meat ... Now that I have moaned about the promoter's lack of organization, let's get into the guts of our race.
      We had two teams Wooden Wheels I with Andy Green, Alex Shapiro, Ted McDaniel and Dave Williams.
      Wooden Wheels II 's line up had Jon Kane, Jason Hand, Mark Fitzwater, and Marc Vettori (me). With about three quarters of the race complete, Wooden Wheels I was leading with Lateral Stress Velo in 2nd Wooden Wheels II in 3rd. There was 3 minutes separating 1st and 3rd. Before Mark Fitzwater left for his final lap he said, "I'm going to make something big happen today." He was right as on the 16th lap of the race Mark passed both the riders from LSV and Andy Green of Wooden Wheels I. Mark not only took the lead but also built a 3-minute gap. Mark finished the lap and let me out on the course.
      As I started my last lap, I thought about FairHill and the opportunity for a win that slipped through my fingers. I attacked as hard as I could. When I finished the loop I had added 2 minutes to our gap. Jason Hand, who had been riding very strong all day, remained consistent, and added another minute to our lead.
      At 7:30 p.m., a man name Kane took off for our19th lap and final lap. I cannot think of anyone else I would want to have closing out a team rely such as this. Jon started the day strong and improved his lap times with each run. Jon rode strong as ever capping off the hard-earned victory.
      Wooden Wheels I was successful in continuing to ride strong and fending off LSV for second. In the end, the Wooden Wheels teams were the only teams in the race to complete 19 laps. This was due to excellent support and teamwork between two teams.
      Dennis Dicshler worked as the team wrench with help from Brian O'Donnell. Diane Crampton was the camp strategist, and score keeper. Terri Kane helped keep everyone focus and made sure everyone had plenty of fruit to eat during the race. Overall it was a proud day for the Wooden Wheels race team. - Have fun - Marc Vettori