With another great night for racing and a reasonable number of riders officials proceeded with running the annual track titles. With 6 riders pairing up with 2 riders in each of the 3 age groups the riders faced a different format of racing for the night.

First event of the night was a 1 lap time trial. This formed the first of 3 events for the club titles. In the Under 17 division Elliott Gin continued his recent good form to clock 31.58 sec whilst Ben Patterson recorded a 34.45 sec time. In the Under 15 division the improving Matt Dudley posted a 34.82 sec whilst Mitch Gin was on 38.40 sec. In the Under 13 division, Thomas McFarlane recoded a personal best of 35.96 sec. This is the first time he has beaten the 36sec mark so it was an excellent ride. Will Lumby posted a 40.05 sec lap.

Next event was a 6 lap scratch race to get the legs moving. As expected Elliott claimed the win ahead of Ben and Matt with the others close behind.

The riders then moved into the next event for the titles. This was a 2 lap sprint match race. In the Under 17 section Elliott proved too quick for Ben although Ben challenged all the way to the line. In the Under 15 section Matt carried the highest position through as they had the bell for the last lap and when he made his jump Mitch was in trouble so a second win went to Matt. In the Under 13 division, Will Lumby did everything right and made it as hard as possible for Thomas. However, Thomas showed the benefit of his season’s competition and training and handled the situation well leaving his charge to the line until the right moment. This enabled him to grab the second win right on the line.

After some recovery time the riders then faced up to a 4lap (1600m) pursuit with riders starting on opposite sides of the track. In each of the heats, the favoured riders went out hard in the first lap opening a lead on their opposite number and then watching and racing to the line. All they needed after gaining a lead was to hold the lead over the 4 laps. The winners in each section were Elliott, Matt and Thomas and that also coincided with the overall placings in the titles.

To finish of a tiring night the riders were then given a teams race over 9 laps with 3 sprints. There were 3 teams of 2 riders and each team had to get both members to the second of the intermediate sprints. The other constraint was that the ace in each team could only take part in 2 sprints out of 3. The teams matched a senior rider with a junior rider. The teams were Elliott and Will, Ben and Mitch and Matt and Thomas. In the first sprint, Matt surprised the others jumping away to claim the first sprint. His team mate Thomas secured the second sprint and the end points showed Matt and Thomas with 7 points won the event from Elliott/Will on 6 points and Ben/Mitch on 5 points.

Some of these riders were also in action on Sunday at other events at Moe and Preston. Senior riders are also clocking up the kilometres and many are very fit leading up to the start of road season and to some special events around the state over the next few weeks. These include the 3 peaks challenge at Falls Creek, the Otway Classic and the Murray to Moyne relay run over 24 hours.

Race report by Lindsay Love