Club racing was held at Pound Creek on Saturday with the seniors racing 2 laps of the 24 km circuit for the Lex Watt Trophy whilst the juniors had the Watchorn Trophy over 12km on the Pound Creek road. Conditions were mild with a light breeze down Pound Creek road. Twenty starters lined up for the senior race.

The handicapper had the field spread over 5 bunches with the scratch bunch of four riders giving the limit a start of 11 minutes. However there were four riders at 1minute, another 4 riders at 2minutes whilst at 5minutes there was a bunch of 5 riders. The first lap saw Rick Whitehouse and Stuart Ward leave Tony Giles on the run over the hills past the Golf Course. First time round the second limit bunch had cut the gap to the leaders by half but the big movers were the second scratch bunch who had picked up the minute on the next bunch, cut the gap to the second limit from 3minute to 1 minute and actually ridden away by 15 seconds on the scratch bunch.

The run up the hills past the herb farm saw the powerful 8 rider bunch sweep through the leading riders and take control of the race. Phil Camenzuli, Steve Piasente, Tom Debenham and Peter Hollins and David Lumby were the driving force and scratch had to hope they would ease for them to bridge the gap. However, it was really 12 riders against 4 riders and scratch were not able to close the gap. The dash to the line saw plenty of riders consider themselves a chance. Judges were ready for a tight finish and the close finish saw David Lumby take the race and his third win of the season just ahead Phil Camenzuli and Steve Piasente. Jamie Grenville pushed home for 4th, followed by Tom Debenham, Neil White, Paul Taranto, Kerry Pritchard, Peter Hollins and Phil Hanley rounding out the top ten. Phil Camenzuli with second place also took fastest time.

In the Junior race, Liam McCall was on scratch with Will Lumby on 30 sec, Mitch Gin on 1 minute and Thomas McFarlane on 2 minutes. The race had the hard work on the 6 km run to the turn with a slight head wind and uphill section. By the turn the field had come together and Liam seized his chance to skip away from the others. Even though the other 3 swapped turns in a hard chase they could not quite close the gap and Liam took the trophy. Thomas McFarlane sprinted home for second just ahead of Will and Mitch.

Next week racing is at Leongatha North so it will see the climbers in action and with second scratch taking the time honours on Saturday, a restructured race field should come from the handicapper.

Race report by Lindsay Love