Hanging Rock n Roll
Madison, IN
The second race in NSLA's inaugural season was held in the small picteresque town of Madison, IN perched on the edge of the Ohio Valley. The town sits, literally, on the edge of the valley. This means that half of the town is down next to the Ohio River, the other half of the town is several hundred feet higher. There are some really nice (read knarly) hills in this town. Next year the locals would like us to run, I believe its called, Michigan Hill. The roads about a mile long, with quit a few 180's. A couple are so bad there are mirrors for the nearby driveways! Unfortunately the road needs to be paved in a bad way.
The Hanging Rock N' Roll race was not very technical, but it did have a fast finish. As I arrived in Madison Friday night before the event, I was trying to find my hotel room. I started driving up this road with some mild turns, thinking this was the course, but hoping it wasn't. This portion of the course was almost a straight line. To confirm that this was the course, I started looking for the waterfall. I wasn't paying much attention to the road when I thought I spotted the waterfall. At this point I realized that the road had disappeared from in front of me. Turns out there was a hard 90 in front of this waterfall. There was a hard enough 90 to finish off this s turn. To make it more difficult the turn in front of the waterfall had a hump down the center stripe. Because this was a tight corner, you want to take it as wide as possible. Yet the hump help drag those riding the outside lane towards the wall. This turn was the key to the race. The person who navigated through it correctly had the best shot at winning.
This corner was home to the Hanging Rock, and a small waterfall. Thanks to the near drought conditions, the waterfall was a mere trickle.
Bama lives about an hour away in Louisville, KN helped organize this event. Because the race was on Sunday Bama invited the riders to come out and hit some of the local roads on Saturday. Bama decided to try some butt boarding. I think he misunderstood how the butt is supposed to be used in this sport, as he tried to use his as a brake. He broke alright, something in his butt.
Bama arrived on Sunday morning, in the Lobotomy mobile. He had a cane and could barely walk, but he arrived in style.
As usual luges were on display in the pit area. Perhaps the slickest looking ones were the ones that Team Bod Rodz rode.
Dondo's Body Rocket luge was also nice looking.
The breaks down to fit in the case on the right.
As usual there were delays in getting started. Unfortunately it was a hot and humid day. It was hot enough, that we moved that start line forward about a dozen yards because the tar in the road was melting! Thankfully we were allowed to hang on under the tree in front of a neighbor's house.
A few people demonstrating how to take the Hanging Rock Turn:
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Catfish demonstrating how not to:
Michael Shannon does a fine job coming up with awards:
Juniors: Scooter Schwartz, Mark Stroman:
Amateurs: Doug Anderson, Michael Gilmore, Jim Glasscock:
Pros:Travis Tripp, Beagle Jarvis, Dave Auld:
Here's a picture of me about 50 feet in front of the starting line.
