Wolfpack Hustle Midnight Drag Race on the 6th Street Bridge
The Midnight Drag Race is an annual event put on by the Wolfpack Hustle folks. This was its biggest year ever, held on the 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles, which soon will be torn down.
Best race faces of 2012
Here are some of my favorite racing photos of the past year.
Tela Crane, left, and Alissa Maglaty sprint to the finish at Elite Track Nationals.
Zak Kovalcik at Elite Track Nationals.
Katie Compton, left, and Cari Higgins in the Madison race at Elite Track Nationals.
Guy East and Austin Carroll in the Madison at Elite Track Nationals.
Dana Feiss racing the Keirin at Elite Track Nationals.
Matt Baranoski vs. Andy Lakatosh, one of the great battles at Elite Track Nationals.
Amgen Tour of California, downtown Los Angeles.
Girls field at Junior Track States.
Junior Track States. I’m amazed he kept racing.
Keith Ketterer breaks the world hour record.
Damian Alfonso at Paralympic Worlds, representing Cuba. Damian was severely injured retrieving a kite from power lines as a child. He is a very determined competitor.
The awesome Sarah Storey at Paralympic Worlds. She won gold in everything she entered.
Craig Maclean and and Anthony Kappes win the gold medal in the tandem sprint at Paralympic Worlds.
Greta Neimanas wins gold in the scratch race at Paralympic Worlds.
Tim McGee kills it at the Wolfpack Hustle 2nd Street Tunnel race.
Elite track nationals, Sunday
Here’s a photo gallery of the Sunday races from elite track nationals. Click on the photo and it will take you to the gallery on SmugMug.
This is one of my favorites of the day — T.J. Mathieson racing the kilo.
Wolfpack Hustle’s 2nd Street Tunnel bike drag race
Here’s Los Angeles’ historic 2nd Street Tunnel as I’d never seen it before. I drive through it every day and had never seen the dirty white tiles up close until Wolfpack Hustle held their first legal bike drag race there  last Saturday. Here are a few photos that give a sense of what a fun night it was.
First, here’s James Zaldua, the second-place finisher, at the end of the tunnel several hours before the racing started. James rides at the Encino and Carson velodromes.
A contingent of tall bikes raced against each other.
And here’s the winner, Tim McGee, who was training with the U.S. national development team earlier this year.
Olympians, revisited
Inspired by the Olympics, I re-edited a couple of photos from Elite Track Nationals. One is of sprinter Jimmy Watkins, now in London, and the other is of past U.S. Olympian Giddeon Massie.
LAVRA upgrade races
Andrew King and Mikael Weitze battled it out several times Saturday. Each race was very close. King won this sprint.
Portrait of Christopher Reed at the rail.
Big women’s field for a change.
Adams Avenue in the lead. Some riders came up from San Diego to race.
Ryan Barrett leads the group.
Favorite photos from SCNCA Junior State Track Championships
The kids who raced at the Southern California/Nevada championships last saturday at the Encino Velodrome showed a lot of speed, skill and heart. I picked these photos mainly for the “heart.”
Jules isn’t the biggest rider in his age group, but he is one of the fastest, and you can see how seriously he takes racing by the look on his face.
All I can say is, go girls, go!
Donavon went down hard on the cement track, but got up and kept racing.
Girl power!
Quinn Hatfield vs. Jack Lindquist
Here’s video of an exciting race between Quinn Hatfield, owner of one of the best restaurants in L.A. — Hatfield’s — and Jack Lindquist, an elite rider and host of my GoPro. They are riding a match sprint at the Encino Velodrome.
Favorite photos from LAVRA’s time trials
Here are some of my favorite photos from the racing last Saturday at the Velo Sports Center. The full set is at http://www.patbenson.smugmug.com
LAVRA Winter Classic
Here are some of my favorite photos from the Los Angeles Velodrome Racing Assn.’s Winter Classic.
First shot of the day.
Looks like some bumping is going on here.
This is World Famous Johnny Walsh, involved in the aforesaid bumping..
Tara McCormick
Kate Wilson
A rider congratulates Kevin Schiller on his win.
Jay Wolkof
IT IS ABOUT THE BIKE 