Friday night saw racing conducted at the velodrome with a strong and cold easterly wind blowing consequently it was not a night conducive to riders doing fast times. The one lap time trial efforts were all around a second slower than last weeks times. Tom Dudley posted 34.73sec, Morgan Clark 36.19 sec whilst Ben Patterson was doing a Shane Kelly. After pulling his foot out of the pedal twice he gave the time trial a miss. In the Junior B group, Matt Dudley was quickest with 40.08, just ahead of Mitch Gin 40.43 and Thomas McFarlane 40.84 sec. Will Lumby was at 41.38 whilst Riley Smith was 44.38sec.

The next event for the night was a teams sprint over 2 laps. This event saw the 4 rider teams drop a rider out after each 200m and it needed the stop watch to separate the teams at the finish. Morgan Clark, Ben Patterson, Thomas McFarlane and Will Lumby recorded 1.14.44 whilst Tom and Matt Dudley, Mitch Gin and Riley Smith were at 1.14.90.

With these teams proving very equal the handicapper had the teams race a 9 lap scratch race where every 2 laps a rider from each team had to contest a sprint and then drop out of the race. Again the teams went alternate winners so it came down to the last sprint as the decider and this time it was team Dudley that claimed the win.

With a few extras around for push starts, the riders had a 1 lap dash. This saw the outmarkers make the most of the early use of the tail wind and a wall of outmarkers swept across the line keeping the judges busy. Mat Dudley showed he was having a good night as he claimed a narrow win from Thomas McFarlane and Will Lumby.

After a short rest the riders were called for some sprint heats. In the first heat, Thomas McFarlane caught Will and Riley napping as he dashed clear before the bell and held on to take the win. In the second heat, Mitch Gin managed to keep Matt Dudley on the hip and take the win. The third heat with the Junior A riders saw Tom Dudley come round the outside to score a clean win.

The Junior B riders lined up for an elimination for their last event. This was keenly contested with Will Lumby almost edging out Matt and Mitchel in the sprint for 3rd place. In the dash for first and second Mitch thought he had a clear break but was caught just before the line by Matt and had to settle for 2nd place. The Junior A riders finished of with a scratch race and in the dash for the line it was Morgan Clark claiming the win ahead of Tom and Ben.

Race report by Lindsay Love