Club racing was held around the Leongatha North circuit on Saturday with racing starting in warm and windy conditions and finishing just before the rain set in. The senior race was over 2 laps with riders covering 33km. The start and finish is atop the hills at Leongatha North so the race is a challenging day.

Ken Barnes was first away with a 16min handicap. He was chased by Rick Whitehouse, Jake Laine, Malcolm Gin and Elliott Gin at 10 minutes. There was a further 4minutes back to Kerry Pritchard, Steve Wilson, Neil White and Tom Dudley on 6 minutes whilst the virtual scratch trio on 2 minutes were Thierry Roland, Tony Clark and Paul Taranto. Ken Barnes rode good tempo over the first lap and still had a 4 minutes margin to the chasing bunch which had lost Rick on the climbs. Meanwhile Steve Wilson was also struggling with a back complaint on the climbs and the scratch trio were not making much headway.

The second lap saw the gaps close but Ken Barnes made the climb back up the hills in good shape to claim the win. The chasing bunches split further on the climbs with Eilliott Gin cycling home alone on 2nd ahead of Jake Laine in 3rd. Malcolm Gin was also alone in 4th just ahead of the chasing duo of Neil White and Tom Dudley. Next home was the fast finishing scratch rider of Thierry Roland in 7th and fastest in 58.03min. Paul Taranto finished 8th, Kerry Pritchard 9th and Tony Clark 10th.

The Junior B grade riders welcomed new rider Liam McCull to their ranks as they raced from Leongatha North into a finish near the velodrome. This is a reasonably good down hill run until the few hills just out of Leongatha. In the sprint to the line it was Liam just edging out Mitchell Gin whilst Mat Dudley claimed 3rd.

The senior aggregate is still very close with Kevin Feely edging to within 6 points of the leading Paul Taranto prior to Saturday. Kevin missed the day allowing Paul to push the lead out to double figures once again. With only a few race days left it may be a sufficient lead to a very consistent Paul.

Next week racing will be at Pound Creek for Club titles. The club also sends its best wishes to young Morgan Clark who had an altercation with a car at Mirboo North during the week, suffering a broken collar bone in the crash.

Race report by Lindsay Love