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Kona Week-In, Weak-Out Dirt Crit #9
Westgate Park, Vic, May 20, 2004
Former Team MG-ZT roadie Simon Morcom took out the overall honours of the first of the Kona Week-In, Weak Out Dirt Crit Series.
Heading into the final round Morcom held the smallest of margins over Frankston-ite Craig Borham. Morcom needed to do something he has been unable to do since the series began, that was to beat Borham. Borham only need to cross the line ahead of Morcom to take home the first prize, a set of Mavic Cross-Roc wheels, but it was not to be. The course this week was reversed from that used previously, so the skills and familiarity honed over 9 weeks of racing on familiar turf were thrown out the window.
The A-Grade field took to the course in a mad dash to be on or near the front of the bunch leading into the first of the singletrack sections, it was here that the podium places were decided (with over 30mins of racing to go). Kiraly (Mongoose-SRAM), Godfree (Kona) and Snorrason (FGP-Kona-Adidas) escaped the bunch and were never headed, growing their lead with every lap. Eventually Godfree outsprinted the feather weight Kiraly, with Snorrason rounding out the podium.
However behind them in the bunch Morcom was keeping Borham within striking distance. Perhaps it was a poor choice of gearing on his new singlespeed that lead to Borham's only loss to Morcom, for on the final lap Morcom attacked leading into the "Railway Line" - a bone jarring 100m stretch of track in between a set of railway lines, complete with sleepers. Once alone on the Railway Line, Morcom drove a big gear away from the spinning Borham to seal the series victory. As a somewhat ironic twist, Borham walked away with some SRAM componentry for his series efforts, perhaps a none too subtle reminder of the nights racing.
B grade was taken out by the Jeff Weymouth, on a short sojourn down from A Grade, whilst Peter Hyslop and Karri Golding rounded out the B Grade podium. Lewis Rattray finally got the win his been chasing all season in C Grade, the youngest rider in the field, accounted for Hester Hutchison the only female to race the night.
Series Two gets underway next week @ 6:30pm @ Westgate Park. All new points, all new prizes. Thanks to Parks Victoria, Kona, Mavic, Marzocchi, Adidas, Gerber Tools and SRAM for their efforts in supporting this series.
Final series standings
1 Simon Morcom 95 pts 2 Craig Borham 94 3 Craig Depaola 74 4 Kristjan Snorrason 70 5 Chris Carr 69 6 Mikkelli Godfree 59 7 Paul Ripp 40 8 Angus Tye 38 9 John Groves 32 10 Nick Kiraly 32 11 Christian Lloyd 31 12 Ross Morcombe 28 13 Chris Lopez 27 14 Brian John 26 15 Alastair Davies 24 16 Nick Colwell 23 17 Carl Maroney 22 18 Dennis Moore 22 19 Peter Horak 21 20 Geoff Vietz 20 21 Alex Brown 20 22 Jeff Weymouth 19 23 Rob Davis 18 24 Lewis Rattray 17 25 Nick Bond 16 26 Bodin Pollard 16 27 Chris Pinn 15 28 Craig Findlow 14 29 Tory Thomas 14 30 Justin Mansfield 12 31 Vinca Low 12 32 John Harvey 11 33 Hester Hutchison 11 34 Peter Tepper 11 35 Rowan Lamont 10 36 Ross Edwards 10 37 Steven Brown 10 38 Hugh 9 39 Scott Chancellor 9 40 Bevan Newell 9 41 Andrew Chisholm 9 42 Dean Robinson 9 43 Andrew Rocco 8 44 Erica Gurner 8 45 Ingrid Phyland 8 46 Greg Norden 7 47 Steven Barnett 6 48 Rob Eva 6 49 Tim Joiner 6 50 Chris Winn 6 51 Dylan Newell 6 52 Peter Hutchison 6 53 Bernie Rowell 6 54 Karri Golding 6 55 Chris McKendry 5 56 Damian Auton 5 57 Leigh Barratt 5 58 Stuart Daw 4 59 Chris Hemphill 4 60 Ben Monroe 3 61 Bruce Lindsay 2 62 Anthony Caffry 2 63 Peter Hyslop 2 64 Chris Fice 2 65 Pip Ffrost 2 66 Kristin O'Keefe 2 67 Peter Beaupre 2 68 Mark Gabler 2
