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Anthony Rappo Memorial

Eastern Creek, Sydney, November 21, 2004

Libonatti solos to victory

Uruguayan strong man Jorge Libonatti (Hinchinbrook) won the 2004 Anthony Rappo Memorial race held at Eastern Creek with a strong solo finish. Libonatti had been active in the main break of the day before attacking in the closing laps to rid himself of any competition. Second place went to NSW road champion Klayten Smith (Clarence Street), who ripped through the remnants of the break on the last lap to finish alone, just ahead of Lidcombe's Charlie Topfer, who won the group sprint for third.

On a cool but calm Sydney Sunday morning, a record 205 riders made the trip out to Sydney's Eastern Creek International Raceway to compete in the Anthony Rappo Memorial. The field was spread across six grades, all racing at the same time on the undulating 3.9 km circuit. Despite the size of the field, there were no major problems with grades passing each other.

The 37-rider A grade race got off to a quick start with plenty of attacks in the opening laps keeping the pace high. Approximately 15 km into the race, a large group of around 10 split off the front to form the break of the day. Several teams were represented in the break, which included Jorge Libonatti (Hinchinbrook), Troy Glennan (FRF Couriers), Nash Kent (Clarence St), Luis Trueba, Charlie Topfer and Dave Whyman (Lidcombe), Matthew Lucas and Jeff Jones (Randwick Botany), among others.

The break cooperated reasonably well, but could only eke out a 20 second lead over the rest of the bunch, which did not want to let them go. Eventually, just before the one hour mark, Libonatti attacked to whittle the break down to five: Libonatti, Lucas, Trueba, Kent and Glennan. The rest of the break was absorbed by a chasing group driven by NSW road champ Klayten Smith (Clarence St) and Peter McDonald (FRF), who were keen to close the gap to the leaders, despite having teammates up there.

In the end, Libonatti proved to be too strong for the rest of his breakaway companions as he repeatedly attacked to get away alone and win the race. The four remaining riders almost stayed away to fight it out for the remaining places, but the chase group made contact on the last lap as Smith attacked on the climb to rip through the front riders and stay away for second. The rest of the group came together on the downhill finishing straight where Charlie Topfer (Lidcombe) pipped Brian Appleyard (Clarence St.) and Trent Butler (Lidcombe) for third place.

Troy Glennan was unlucky to break his chain on the climb and spectacularly crashed, and hopefully was not seriously hurt.

Reminder: Marconi-Fairfield is holding racing every Tuesday night at Eastern Creek, beginning at 6:30pm. The racing will be run on the flat, non-technical Western Sydney International Dragway (N.B. not the Raceway).

Results

A Grade - (1hr 15min + 2laps) 37 riders
 
1 Jorge Libonatti (Hinchinbrook)
2 Klayten Smith (Clarence St)
3 Charlie Topfer (Lidcombe)
4 Brian Appleyard (Clarence St)
5 Trent Butler (Lidcombe)
 
B Grade (1hr 5min + 2 laps) 55 riders
 
1 Anthony Bennett (Lidcombe)
2 Michael O'Brien
3 Anthony Iannacito (Caravello)
4 Michael Stacey (Penrith)
5 Shaun Hopkins (Marconi)
 
C Grade (55min + 2 laps) 52 riders
 
1 W. Gray
2 Neil Morris (Randwick Botany)
3 Jeff Smith (Penrith)
4 David South (Waratah)
5 Dean Venturato (Marconi)
 
D Grade (50 min + 2 laps)
 
1 David Zullian
2 P Galvin
3 M Stevens
4 G Wilson
5 S Murray
 
E Grade (45 min + 2 laps) 20 riders
 
1 Christopher Wilkins
2 Gus Silva (Lidcombe)
3 C Cremen
4 Steve Twist
5 George Barford
6 Carlo Gaholfi
 
F Grade (40min + 2 laps) 8 riders
 
1 Gary Balding
2 Les Taylor
3 L Lolato
4 L Jaegli
5 M Holland                                 

Local results 2004

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