A thrilling finish to the junior one lap handicap – “David Eastwood (60m) finished strongly to hang on for a win just ahead of Harry Herbert (55) with Kaleb Jans (30) a narrow third place.”
Friday night was a mild and warm night with some fluky east wind but generally a great night for racing. The opening 1 lap time trial saw Harry Herbert slice over 1.5 sec of his time to set a new personal best. Graham Jans also was into new territory with a 34.7 sec time. However, best senior time went to Austin Timmins at 31.55 sec just ahead of Steve Allen 32.54 with Bernadette Fitzgerald putting in consistent times at 34.45sec. The Saturday early bunch rides has given her increased strength to finish out the time trial.
In the Junior field Oliver McLean rode 35.94 with Thomas Fitzgerald at 37.20sec. Michael Eastwood at 39.67sec indicated he was on good form for the night had the third best time.
The Junior A group raced a 4 lap scratch race and in a good move Michael Eastwood made the first move down the back straight and forced the others to chase round him. Up the main straight Oliver slipped by whilst Thomas only just managed to get his wheel ahead at the line. The Junior B riders raced over 4 laps and it was a well contested race. Josh Wight made the most of his ride to grab a clear win ahead of Harry Herbert and Felicity Waddell. In the senior A 8 lap scratch race it was a hot pace all the way. Austin Timmins took the honours after a battle with Steve Allen whilst Bernadette Fitzgerald raced well into third place.
The next racing was a handicap and the junior 1 lap event produced a thrilling finish with the 9 riders all vying for a spot at the line. David Eastwood (60m) finished strongly to hang on for a win just ahead of Harry Herbert (55) with Kaleb Jans (30) a narrow third place. The senior 2 lap handicap saw Dylan Adams (50) finally get his racing together to take a win ahead of a fast finishing scratch rider – Austin, and Bernadette (40) staking a claim on third place for the night.
Junior Olympic sprint – Kaleb, Harry and Josh
The junior were split into 3 teams of 3 riders and raced an Olympic sprint against the clock over 1.5 laps. Team 1, Oliver, Felicity and Sulli Herbert rode 57.1 sec and that was too quick for the others. Next it was Thomas, Michael and David (57.88) and then Kaleb, Josh and Harry (58.940) who perhaps did not get the right starting order.
It was around of sprints for all the riders. Heat 1 saw Austin beat Steve, Heat 2 was a narrow win for Dylan over Bernadette and in Heat 3 Dane Herbert made an early break and stayed away ahead of Graham and Kevin. In the Juniors, Oliver took heat 1 ahead of Thomas and Michael, Heat 2 it was Kaleb, Josh and Harry and in Heat 3 it was Sulli taking the win from Felicity and David.
More sprinting but with endurance was next up as the groups raced an elimination. In the senior race it was Austin winning from Steve and Dylan whilst in the juniors it was Oliver leading all the way to win from Thomas and Kaleb.
The last racing for the night was another round of scratch races. The senior 6 lap saw Austin keep the pace high which split the field. It was an easy sprint win to Austin but in a close battle for the minor places Bernadette nailed second ahead of Dylan. In the Junior A 3 lapper Oliver took the honours ahead of Thomas and Michael whilst in the B grade race it was Felicity taking the win from Sulli and Harry.
Lindsay
updated 8am 2nd June
