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CycleWest Omnium Series
Illawarra Open
Ten lap scratch race 1 Tyson Lawrence 2 Peter Dawson 3 Brodie Cullen 4 David James 5 Vladamir Tuychev 6 Brett Russell 7 Jason Chilcott 8 Eddy Hollands Odd number derby heat 1 Brodie cullen 2 Eddy Hollands 3 Tyson Lawrence 4 Kristine Bayley Even number derby heat 1 Vladamir Tychev 2 Peter Dawson 3 David James 4 Brett Russell B kierin final 1 Ashleigh Western 2 Jason Chilcott 3 Daniel Vogels 4 Leeanne Manderson 5 Daniel Hall A kierin final 1 Brodie Cullen 2 Eddy Hollands 3 Peter Dawson 4 Tyson Lawrence 5 David James 6 Brett Russell 7 Vladamir Tychev 8 Kristine Bayley 60 lap points score 1 Eddy Hollands 15 2 Tyson Lawrence 21 -1 lap 3 Brodie Cullen 15 4 Peter Dawson 12 5 David James 7 6 Craig Cocking 0 -4 laps 7 Jason Chilcott 8 Scott McMillan 9 Gavin Wark -7 laps General Classification 1 Brodie Cullen 280 2 Tyson Lawrence 249 3 David James 199 4 Jason Chilcott 141 5 Ben Miles 122 6 Ashleigh Western 114 7 Daniel Hall 110 8 Vladamir Tuychev 104 9 Shane Chilcott 96 10 Chris Western 93 11 Craig Cocking 91 12 Daniel Vogels 81 13 Eddy Hollands 79 14 Peter Dawson 75 15 Steven Evans 73 16 Scott McMillan 64 17 Kristine Bayley 55 18 Leeanne Manderson 19 Brett Russell 39 20 Peter Wattenhoffer 36 21 Fiona Scarffe 33 22 Gavin Wark 29 23 Kieth Evans 24 Fran Watson 27 25 Kerry Cohen 25 26 Kurt Johansen
By Matthew Jones
The NSW Track Cycling season officially started on Saturday night with the running of the Illawarra Open.
The skies cleared for a magnificent evening of high quality racing, providing a magnificent spectacle for the crowd with a number of races decided by less than half a wheel.
The main event, the 1600m Festina handicap, could not have been more spectacular if it was scripted. After the qualifying heats, most of the fastest riders were unable to make the final, leaving Corrimal's Peter Jones as the Scratch marker for the final. The race quickly developed into two groups with the eight limit riders having a comfortable lead over the scratch group. With 2 laps to go the gap seemed to large as Turramurra's Phil Dixon was unable to gain any ground, but with half a lap to go and a 50 meter gap to the back of the front bunch, Jones kicked away from the scratch bunch with a turn of speed that could not be matched by any of the others, he made up the distance faster than anyone could think possible and, weaving his way through the limit group on the last turn surprising much of the bunch who thought that the gap they had would be enough to take the money easily. Whilst this was happening, Nowra's Roger Bird was leading out the sprint, unaware of Jones closing the gap with every pedal stroke. When Jones and Bird hit the line, most of the crowd were glad they were not judging as Bird took the race by little more than a tyre width, taking the win and the Festina Watch for first prize by a very close margin.
The 27km pointscore was the longest ever run at the end of an Illawarra carnival and will be the longest carnival race in New South Wales this year. After cleaning up the shorter races with sheer speed and class, Shaun Hopkins was not delighted with the prospect of a race he could not win and was an early casualty of the non stop grind of the race. His fellow scratch marker, Current Junior World Olympic Sprint Champion, Kial Stewart showed that sprinters can stay, lasting the while event, though without scoring any points. The race boiled down to a competition between Phil Dixon of Turramurra and the Illawarra's Peter Jones and Adam Rourke. Dixon had his Turramurra team of three working for him for most of the race which proved to be too much for the Illawarra pair who were constantly out manoeuvred by their opposition, with Jones only going down by 5 points. When similar standard riders compete, the one with a team willing to sacrifice their finishing chances for the win will almost always come away with the win. Dixon's team served him well until 20 laps to go when the toll of chasing became too much. At that time, Dixon and Rourke lost contact with the main field. Dixon regained contact to ride to victory, whilst Rourke rode to keep from being lapped. After a valiant effort Rourke was caught on the finishing line of the final lap to loose his 3rd placing to Dixon's team mate Alexander Sommer who rode strongly for Dixon.
IllawarraR17's Grant Law rode strongly to win the B Grade sprint and final scratch race, whilst Patrick Delahunty, riding his first track open rode strongly to finish third in the opening race and second in the elimination.
The Junior carnival was in the most part dominated by riders from the Penrith Panthers club, though a number of strong rides came from Illawarra juniors. Illawarra Academy of Sport rider Rebecca Borgo showed why she will be hard to beat when it comes to the championship end of the season, showing blistering speed in the Under 17 women's division.
U/17 men's division Illawarra's Josh Wall and The Southern Highlands' Stefan Wieland rode smartly to ensure that one of them was on the podium in each race. This was most obvious in the Scratch race and Handicap. In the scratch race Wall attacked whilst Wieland slowed the bunch, allowing Wall and Penrith's Phillip Stokes to lap the field, Wieland then went on to take the sprint for third. In the handicap Wieland buried himself to take Wall up to the front of the bunch where he was able to ride away from the more fancied Stokes. Wall and Wieland will be a force to be reckoned with at the upcoming Southern Cross Madison in early December and the State Championships early next year.
Riders and officials seemed to enjoy the night and are looking forward to an even better carnival next year.
U/13 Sprint Derby (3 laps) 1 Nicholas Spratt 2 Luke Davidson 3 John Kejda U/15 Men Sprint Final (3 laps) 1 Jackson-Leigh Rathbone 2 Gregory Beer 3 Jack Isaksen U/9-U/11 Combined Elimination 1 Daniel Nicpon 2 Henry Branch 3 Adam Phelan U/15 Men Elimination 1 Gregory Beer 2 Jackson-Leigh Rathbone 3 Luke Barrett U/13 Scratch Race (6 Laps) 1 Nicholas Spratt 2 Luke Davidson 3 John Kejda U/17 Men Elimination 1 Phillip Stokes 2 Christopher Young 3 Stefan Wieland U/9-U/11 Combined 2 Lap Handicap 1 Kirsty Mills 2 Phillip Arias 3 Scott Harding U/13 Handicap (4 laps) 1 Nicholas Spratt 2 Matthew Guillan 3 Andrea Joy Beer U/17 Womens Sprint Final (3 laps) 1 Rebecca Borgo 2 Jaclyn Kejda 3 Amanda Spratt U/15 Mens Handicap (4 Laps) 1 Jack Isaksen 2 Justin Tomlinson 3 Gregory Beer U/9 Scratch (4 Laps) 1 Scott Harding 2 Phillip Arias 3 James Nicpon U/11 Scratch (5 Laps) 1 Michael Phelan 2 Adam Phelan U/13 Scratch (8 Laps) 1 Nicholas Spratt 2 Luke Davidson 3 John Kejda U/15 Men Scratch (15 Laps) 1 Gregory Beer 2 Jackson-Leigh Rathbone 3 Christopher Guillan C Grade Scratch Race (10 Laps) 1 Craig Hopkins 2 Keely McNamara 3 Patrick Delahunty B Grade Scratch Race (12 Laps) 1 Joe Letti 2 Ross Harding 3 Keith Oliver A Grade Scratch Race (15 Laps) 1 Shaun Hopkins 2 Adam Rourke 3 Philip Dixon U/17 Women Scratch Race (10 Laps) 1 Rebecca Borgo 2 Amanda Spratt 3 Jaclyn Kejda U/17 Men Sprint Final (3 laps) 1 Phillip Stokes 2 Christopher Young Ride off for 3rd (3 laps) 3 Josh Wall 4 Stefan Wieland 5 Steven Phelan C Grade Sprint Derby Final (4 laps) 1 Craig Hopkins 2 Kirk Brown 3 Jeffery Barret B Grade Sprint Derby Final (4 laps) 1 Grant Law 2 Ross Harding 3 Joe Letti A Grade Sprint Derby Final (4 laps) 1 Shaun Hopkins 2 Kial Stewart 3 Phillip Dixon U/17 Women Handicap (5 laps) 1 Amanda Spratt 2 Rebecca Borgo 3 Jaclyn Kejda U/17 Men Scratch Race (15 laps) 1 Phillip Stokes 2 Josh Wall 3 Stefan Wieland U/17 Women Elimination 1 Rebecca Borgo 2 Amanda Spratt 3 Jaclyn Kejda Festina Watches Wheelrace Final 1 Roger Bird 2 Peter Jones 3 Jeffery Barret 4 Keely McNamara C Grade Elimination 1 Keely McNamara 2 Patrick Delahunty 3 Craig Hopkins B Grade Elimination 1 Keith Oliver 2 Joe Letti 3 Aron Scharfegger A Grade Elimination 1 Shaun Hopkins 2 Alex Sommer 3 Phillip Dixon U/17 Men Handicap 1 Josh Wall 2 Phillip Stokes 3 Christopher Young C Grade and B Graders not in Pointscore, Scratch Race (25 laps) 1 Grant Law 2 Keith Oliver 3 Jeffery Barret A Grade plus invited B Graders Pointscore 27kms (100 laps) 1 Phillip Dixon 2 Peter Jones 3 Alex Sommer