Rain causes confusion, controversy during race

Within minutes the riders were soaked, their gritty faces covered with cinders, making them look like battle-hardened warriors fighting for survival in the race of their lives.

Black Key Bulls rider Jordan Bailey described it as “epic.” Phi Gamma Delta rider David Ellis said it showed who wasn’t going to quit until the finish line. Phi Delta Theta rider Nick Sovinski said he could have done without the wet cinders in his eyes.

All 33 teams on the field had to fight through pouring rain and changing track conditions.

“At the beginning, the track was probably the fastest it’s been all year because it had rained earlier and they had packed it real nice,” Cutters rider Michael Schroeder said. “I was out there as it started to get pretty heavy, and the gear just got really big. It was like riding through wet sand. The turns were a bit loose, but it wasn’t too bad.”

Through downpours, thunder and lightning, the 32 other teams of the 60th running of the Men’s Little 500 were unable to hold off another Cutters victory.

Riders had been informed last Tuesday that the men’s race could officially be ruled complete if a red flag was waved after lap 101. Little 500 race director Pam Loebig said that part of the rain rule also states that if it’s past 100 laps, IUSF will do everything they can to complete the race on the same day.

Therefore, when the race was paused after lap 104, Cutters thought the championship was in hand.

“We’d spent a lot of time before the race talking to officials trying to figure out what exactly occurs when they drop the red flag,” Schroeder said. “As far as we had understood it, when it’s past 101 the race is over — so that’s kind of what contributed to us thinking we had won the first time.”

Loebig said, though, that officials were able to get the track back to riding conditions.

“We were watching the radar closely, postponed the race until the green wave on the radar went moving through, and we had a big opening gap,” Loebig said. “We postponed it, brought the blower out and dried off the track and got the race going again so we could finish all 200 laps.”

Fifty minutes later with a semi-dry track, the riders were lined up NASCAR style, beginning with the teams on the lead lap arranged by their elapsed lap time.

Essentially, some teams gained ground with the restart, because they were set directly behind the wheel of the person in front of them.

At this point in the race, an error was made in the press box as to which lap Phi Gamma Delta was actually on.

“In the press box, there are lots of cards, and for every team there is a spot for every lap, and their times for every lap, and then those are entered into the computer,” Loebig said. “FIJI’s time when they completed lap 102 was 104:43. In the computer, they typed in lap 101, 104:43.”

Ellis and his cycling team realized the mistake was made when announcer Chuck Crabb announced after the restart that Phi Gamma Delta still had two laps to make up to be on the lead lap.

That is when Phi Gamma Delta’s coach first started trying to straighten everything out with race officials.

The lead pack’s speed slowed while first and second place exchanged between Phi Delta Theta and Cutters, and Phi Gamma Delta worked to fight back to their lap.

“We did a ton of work to catch back up to the pack to make up the extra lap,” Ellis said. “Because the race is televised and it was recorded, we knew they would be able to go back and count our laps.”

The rest of the field was unaware that Phi Gamma Delta was still in contention for the title, even when the team led with seven laps to go.

Phi Gamma Delta coach Todd Cornelius said one team on the field knew that Phi Gamma Delta was still a threat.

“Surely, the Cutters were counting our laps,” he said. “We weren’t trying to do something sneaky. I have 10 guys on the fence watching other the teams. If you’re concerned about a team, you should count their laps.”

With two laps to go, Delta Tau Delta rider Jon Myrvold came in for a mount-dismount exchange with teammate RJ Stuart, who had practiced mainly bike-to-bike exchanges. The exchange did not go cleanly, starting with Stuart falling to the ground and ending with him trying to make up the time his team had lost.

“When I went down, I was like ‘There’s no way this race is over, because I have been training all year,’” Stuart said. “So I gritted my teeth with all the dirt and just came home. It was do or die, kind of. It was lap 198, and you’ve ridden 198 laps already, and you have people in the stands cheering for you — I just had to do it.”

When the race ended, Delta Tau Delta was announced as the third-place finisher, but Phi Gamma Delta contested their finish in the race. Loebig and the race officials looked at the footage and realized the mistake. Rightfully, Phi Gamma Delta finished their laps with the lead lap and should have been announced as the third-place winners.

As the Cutters celebrated the official win, they knew they had won off the strategy they returned to after the rain delay.

“We went back to our original race strategy that we were going to blow up the race like we did before and just hurt people if we can and get off the front and see what happens, and that’s what happened,” Schroeder said.