Hot Wheels

Cherry Bomb Daisy Mae Damage gets comfortable on the jam line while Rhinestone Cowgirl Mummy Dearest hunkers down (Photo by Richard Whittaker)

Banked track Roller Derby is like any other sport: Just knowing you're on a hot streak can keep the streak going.

Take Sunday's TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls' bout. From the initial roll on to the tracks on Sunday night, it was obvious that the Cherry Bombs thought it was their night. More assured, more aggressive, far more confident than the Rhinestone Cowgirls. Of course, it's reasonable to be confident when you're running on a 3-0 perfect season, but with the Cowgirls running 2-1, they were also motivated. If the Cherry Bombs lost, then that would leave both teams plus the Hellcats tied 3-1 heading into the championship.

But the Cowgirls in crimson couldn't do much to stop the yellow-clad rockers. The first six jams yielded six straight lead jammer slots for the Cherrys, and 15 points. The Cowgirls struggled to put much on the board: What's worse, due to the mercurial nature of the penalty system, what they did put on kept coming off (getting on the wrong end of a push-kart duel will do that to you).

So by jam seven, when Kategory 5 finally wrenched the lead jammer status from Rocky Casbah, even though they scored eight points, the board saw them trailing 5-15, and then closing out the period 8-17.

The Cowgirls' fortunes seemed to turn for the better in the second quarter, as they started to cut into the Cherrys' lead with a solid four point to two point jam, leaving them within spitting distance on 12-19. But three jams later, Kate or Dye took advantage of the infamous Cherry blocking to lap Kategory 5 and bring home five points.

For a while there it looked like it was all going to come down to the blockers, with neither team really achieving much. Then Kategory 5 came back again, breaking the logjam and putting the scarlet skaters back into contention with a grand slam of their own.

Unfortunately for them, that was the last time the Cowgirls were truly in contention. Even with some stiff blocking and some fast jamming, there was little they could do to slow down the Cherry's remorseless scoring or their control of the pack. Even with their own share of penalties, the Cherry Bombs came out of the night with a dominating 60-33 victory, and their perfect record intact.