Friday produced a cool night but conditions were still good for racing. Once again the good turnout for Wednesday night training has not been repeated for Friday night with only 8 starters. Fist event for the night was the 1 lap time trial. Thomas McFarlane was back from his week at the beach and posted a slick 30.8 sec lap. Matt Minogue chalked up another personal best at 34.8sec. Geoff Fraser having his first race night punched out a pretty good 35.84 sec lap which was just enough to keep him in front of son Aaron at 36.36sec.
“Austin Timmins also back from a summer at the beach clocked 37.82 sec”
Austin Timmins also back from a summer at the beach clocked 37.82 sec. Matt Winchester was at at 43.09, Alex Bennett 43.26 and Fleur Timmins at 46.78.
“The riders were then split into an A and B groups for scratch races”
The riders were then split into an A and B groups for scratch races. The B group raced over 4 laps and Matt Winchester was first to make the move at the bell. He was followed by Alex Bennett and Aaron Fraser.
“Aaron finally made his move and quickly hit the front to score an easy win”
Into the back straight Aaron finally made his move and quickly hit the front and went on to score an easy win. Alex Bennett finished well for second ahead of Matt and Fleur.
In the A grade scratch race over 4 laps, Thomas McFarlane was always in control and unchallenged to take the win. Matt Minogue had a close battle with Austin Timmins for the minor placing and secured second by a narrow margin.
The groups then had an Olympic sprint over 1 lap. In B grade the win went to Aaron and Fleur ahead of Matt and Alex. In the A group, it was a close battle but the final half lap by Thomas McFarlane after a good start from Geoff Fraser saw them home just ahead of Matt and Austin.
The B grade riders were next up for a 1 lap handicap. Fleur Timmins riding from 80m worked well and just managed to get the win ahead of a fast finishing Aaron and then Matt and Alex.
In the A grade group the distance was out to 2 laps. The previous exertions were causing Geoff to realise these short sharp rides are pretty taxing so he decided it was time to take a breather. This left Thomas McFarlane chasing 70m to Matt Minogue and 100m out to Austin. In another exciting finish the extremely close result at the line saw Thomas with the win by the narrowest margin from Austin and Matt.
Riders were then paired up for some sprint rounds. In the first ride it was Alex with the win from Fleur. The next heat saw Aaron grab the win from matt Winchester whilst the final pairing saw another close battle between Matt and Austin and once again it was Matt Minogue getting the job done. Thomas used the time to record a flying 200m effort. This left the sprint heat winners in a 3 up final. This saw Matt Minogue win from Aaron and Alex. In the other heat it was Austin winning from Matt Winchester and Fleur.
This left some tired rides to race an elimination over 8 laps with Geoff also fronting up for another effort. Thomas McFarlane was trying to race each lap from behind by getting over at least 1 rider and hence avoid the elimination. This perhaps confused Geoff who thought he was going well until the second last sprint when he was eliminated leaving Austin, Matt Minogue and Thomas for the last 3 places. Thomas decided it was time to get serious and quickly opened a gap on the other 2. This allowed Austin to get the better of Matt to claim the second placing.
Next Friday night the club has scheduled the track titles for racing. Wednesday night will be the normal training session.
Lindsay
updated 9am 25th Sept.
