By PIERCE GREENBERG
For Brentwood Home Page
It’s hard to imagine Brentwood ever housing a NASCAR track, but residents still have an opportunity to fulfill their need for speed.

The Criterium of Brentwood — a series of high-speed bicycle races — is returning to Maryland Farms on Sunday for the second year in a row. As opposed to road races that cover a span of miles and hours, the Criterium has cyclers whisking around a short track multiple times.

“In this kind of race, we do laps around a short course. So, if you pick one spot where you’re going to sit, you can see the whole race unfold,” event organizer Nathan Taylor said.

The Criterium will feature amateurs and professionals in non-stop races between 8:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. There will be 10-minute breaks between races to allow the cyclists to familiarize themselves with the track.

The event also marks the return of the Edgar Soto Memorial Cup after a two-year hiatus. The Cup was created in honor of Soto — a member of the Middle Tennessee cycling community who died in a car accident.

“The focus of it is to bring a lot more young people into the sport and get more racing here in Middle Tennessee,” Taylor said. “A lot of times we have to travel several hours to do these races.”

Thanks to a big marketing push by Harpeth Bikes and radio station Lightning 100, Taylor expects a bigger turnout than years past.

“Last year, we had approximately 250 racers,” he said. “This year, I think we will exceed that number by about 50 to 100 racers. The fields will range from 20 to 60.”

In addition to organizing the Criterium, Taylor will be lacing up for the Cat 4 race at 10:50 a.m.

“The thing I really like about this kind of racing is they’re really fast, there is a lot of intensity and they are a fairly short amount of time,” Taylor said.

“This is more like a sprint as opposed to a marathon.”