Archived News
  2008
     November
Spectacle of Close Finishes fro A Grade
16.11.08
Senior A Grade provided a great spectacle at Friday night's track racing at the Velodrome with some extremely close finishes in the tussle for the first three places.
In the opening 15 lap heart starter a steady pace was kept throughout the race with the riders making their move in the final lap resulting in a very close finish and Rhyse Carpenter just ahead of Tim Fulton as they crossed the line.
Ben Young, in his first race of the season, finished close behind followed by Ryan Ware and Nicole Goldring.
In their final race of the night Carpenter led out Ware from the back around the outside of the bunch as they came down the back straight for the last time with the two of them side by side as they came to the line.
It was hard to tell who would be the eventual winner as they sprinted to the finish.
However, Ware's wheel was just in front as they crossed the line with Goldring third followed by Young and Werner.
Keith Gibbons, also in his first race of the season, threw down the challenge to the other Vets riders outsprinting Peter Werner in the eight lap scratch race while Adrian Wilson was third ahead of Neil Paterson, Gary Carpenter and Hayden Gill.
In the Senior B Grade 10 lap scratch race Dylan Starkey.
Jai Sutton lifted the pace while at the front half way through the race gaining a 10 metre lead on Pierce Sutton, Emma Mardon and Melissa Drogemuller.
They gradually increased this lead over the remainder of the race to be half a lap ahead of the rest of the field as they got the bell for the sprint to the line and J Sutton taking out the event from Starkey followed by P Sutton, Mardon and Drogemuller.
Novice rider Scott Litchfield (80m) made the most of his handicap holding off Chloe Hellowell (0m) who made up a lot of ground over the one lap distance but wasn't able to catch him before the finish.
In the Junior A Grade eight lap scratch race Dylan Fewster and Sam Campbell lifted the pace half way through the race splitting the bunch but slowed slightly two laps later.
This enabled Liza and Charlotte Wakeling to close the gap but unfortunately Jessica Shore punctured at this point and was forced to retire.
Fewster took out the event from Campbell, C Wakeling and L Wakeling.
Justin Burke led Tegan Wood and Dana Prater into the final lap of the Junior B Grade four lap scratch race and sprinted away from them to finish 10 metres in front of Prater and Wood.
Malcolm McLeod made the presentations for the first round of the McLeod's Points Series in between the round of handicap races.
Darren Anderson (46 points) came first in Senior A Grade ahead of R Carpenter (42) and Fulton (37) while in the veterans it was Wilson (43), Werner (38) and G Carpenter (33) with J Sutton (42), P Sutton (39) and Starkey (37) in B Grade.
In Junior A Grade Fewster (46) was first followed by Campbell (39) and sisters Charlotte and Liza Wakeling sharing equal third on 34 points.
Three points separated the first three places in B Grade with first Prater (25) from Wood (23) and Burke (22).
Novice riders Chloe Hellowell and Scott Litchfield received encouragement awards.
The presentations were followed by some teams races before the final round of scratch races to finish off the night.