Full Program for Last Night of Track Racing
21.12.08
It was a full program for the final night of track racing for the year at the Velodrome on Friday night.  The Senior A Grade began the night with a 15 lap heart starter with Rhyse Carpenter making an attack with 6 laps to go and gaining a handy 20 metre lead over the rest of the field.  The rest of the bunch were ready for it and responded immediately and soon closed the gap and although Nicole Goldring was just off the back of the pack three laps later they were all together as they got the last lap bell.  There wasn't a lot separating the riders as Carpenter crossed a line ahead of Daniel Anderson, Ben Young, Tim Fulton, Darren Anderson, Ryan Ware and Goldring.
In the combined Vets and Senior B Grade 12 lap scratch race the three Vets riders lifted the pace with 7 laps to go, dropping Dylan Starkey and Jarrod Hamilton slightly off the back.  Starkey was able to get back on during the next lap but the pace was a bit too fast for him to maintain and he lost contact.  Keith Gibbons put in a strong last lap to take out the event a bike length from Peter Werner, Neil Paterson, Starkey and Hamilton.
Junior A Grade were together on the bell in their 10 lap scratch race with Sam Campbell first to the line followed by Charlotte Wakeling, Liza Wakeling and Jessica Shore.  Justin Burke took off on the bell in the Junior B Grade 4 lap scratch race with Dana Prater chasing after him but he had got too much of a lead for her to catch him by the line while Corey Gibbons was third.  Scott Litchfield (60m) made the most of his handicap in the novice 1 lap race to hold off a fast approaching Bailey Kesby (0m) to the line.
After a round of handicap races for each grade Shane Boundey conducted the presentations for round two of the McLeods Point Series.
The closest competition was in the Vets category with three points separating 1st and 4th place and K Gibbons and P Werner tying for first on 42 points, N Hellowell (40) third and Adrian Wilson fourth (39).
R Ware (50) was first for Senior A Grade ahead of T Fulton (46) and R Carpenter (35) while in B Grade it was P Sutton (57), J Sutton (41) and D Starkey (38).  In Junior A Grade it was C Wakeling (47), J Shore (41) and J Hamilton (39) while in B Grade it was T Woods (52), J Burke (46) and D Prater (23) and for the Novices C Hellowell (50), C Gibbons (38) and S Litchfield (32).
After some team pursuits and two up sprints Santa arrived on an electric push bike and after completing two laps of the track spent some time with the younger spectators and riders.
The final race of the evening was a combined Senior scratch race set at a fast pace from the beginning and the Vets and B Grade completed 15 laps did well to match the pace of A grade who did 30 laps.  The A Grade riders pulled up to the top of the track after 13 laps to allow the other riders to group together for their sprint finish with K Gibbons first from Starkey, Werner, Paterson and Hamilton.  Almost as soon as the Vets and B grade were off the track Fulton launched the first attack which split the bunch as they tried to regroup which they did when the pace slowed slightly.  It wasn't long before another attack was launched with the pace slowing a few laps later and the riders together as they got the bell for the final lap.  It was a close finish with Fulton first to the line followed by Carpenter, Ware, Young, Daniel Anderson, Darren Anderson and Goldring.