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Eastern Suburbs Cycling Club
Heffron Park Summer Series #10, Maroubra, NSW - Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Vintage Heffron
Handicapper: "You can only race tonight if you ride A grade!"
B Grade Rider 1: "Gee Frank, that's a bit tough, I haven't won a
B grade race all season?"
Handicapper: "Doesn't matter, if you don't like it, you can just
&*%$# off!"
B Grade Rider 1: "Well I guess that sounds like a reasonable and
logical explanation, thanks"
Handicapper: "And, you're in A grade too"
B Grade Rider 2: "How come, I've never ridden A grade"
Handicapper: "Doesn't matter, if he's going up, you're going up
too"
B Grade Rider 2: "But I'm leading the B grade comp."
Handicapper: "Doesn't matter, if he's going up, you're going up
too"
Handicapper: "Hey maaaate, you're racing in B grade tonight"
C Grade Rider 1: "Oh, I guess that's OK because I've placed in five
C grade races and won two races outright already this year"
Handicapper: "Not you maaate, you're staying in C grade"
C Grade Rider 1: "Oh alright then Frank, I'll do whatever you tell
me to do"
NSW State Champion: "Can I ride C Grade please, I've only been riding
100km a week..."
Handicapper: "Hmmmm, whats your name again, nahh I dunno, you better
ride B grade"
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Welcome to the balanced and completely unbiased process of grading at the sign on table at Tuesday night's penultimate round of the 2007 Summer Series. After last week's much hyped and much debated outcome when A grade where timed out of the overall win, round 11 was always going be a much more equitable race. As one rider commented, "it was the fairest race all summer".
Apart from the almost bizarre decision to re grade some riders, but not more credentialed riders, the race epitomised the true grit and determination which has made Tuesday night summer racing at Heffron the benchmark of crit racing in metropolitan Sydney for over 20 years. A grade got off to a flying start driven again by powerhouses Pete McDonald who was fresh from his impressive victory in The Gladiator crit on Sunday, Troy Glennan, Dave Early and of course mountain bike guru Paul Rowney. Also good to have Clarence St Cyclery boys Anthony Challinor and Brent Skippen mixing it up. There was one A grader who seems to prefer the comfort of last wheel and that is former big motor Stewart 'Computer' Campbell who seriously needs to get his hard drive repaired. There's clearly a damaged sector under the 'do a turn' command.
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B grade got along OK led by Master Blasters John Kenny, Scott Callum, Antonio Iannacito, Frank Fortuna and Ricky Vial who gave NSW Junior Sprint Champ Luke Davison (oh, but I've only done 100km a week) and Ben Elliott an armchair ride for 15 laps. B grade's efforts where over and done with after 8 laps when the A grade train came roaring through and the novel concept of actual catching C grade looked like a reality.
Despite losing Series contender Mark Ardouin and Andrew Duggan to B grade where they acquitted themselves well, C grade still had Scott Simpson and Wayne Firncarne to maintain the lap and bit advantage at the start. Four laps to go and the C grade dream run finally came to end as the combined A and B grade field began to sniff the sweet scent of victory and some very valuable series points.
The closing laps where vintage Heffron. A strung out field with everyone trying to position themselves for the last lap finale. Despite the Heffron Park sprinting prowess of series leader Anthony Spurgeon, not to mention Robbie Cater and Pete McDonald, it was Luke Davison who caught everybody off guard when he bolted in between Cater and Antman Challinor to almost effortlessly take the sprint. "Oh, but I've only been doing 100km a week!" You can relive the action on Youtube along with some entertaining action from last week.
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With B grade series leaders John Peppard and John Sunde newly promoted to A grade, the B grade points easily went to Ben Elliott who accounted for Matt Carter and Tony Iannacito both putting in good rides to be in the placings. Surprise, surprise Scott Simpson won C grade - "I'll do whatever you say Frank."
Series leader Anthony Spurgeon surprisingly finished out of the placings and goes into next weeks final round with a technically beatable six point lead, but given that the contenders are now B grade riders, it's unlikely they will be up for overall honours. But then again, based on the scientific grading criteria, anything's possible. A much happier vibe permeated at the conclusion of the race this week with much of the banter of old evident, although there was one incident when the subject of many of last weeks photos took offence to the prying lens of the paparazzi and the words 'legal action' were mentioned. Or maybe it was 'regal acting'.
The thanks for getting the night focused back on the racing must go to Helen and Fred Vella, who along with Jenny Spurgeon, Colin Ironmonger, Carl Bellamy and Big Nev made a huge effort to run a safe, well managed event. As a result everyone's looking forward to a great night of racing for the season finale next week. Make sure you all get your 100km in for the week.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Mariano Enjuto Mangas
- A change of faces on the starting line in B grade.
- Troy Glennan gets A grade off to a flying start.
- B grade being lead by Scott Callum and John Kenny.
- Not afraid to hurt himself - Dave Early doing what he does best. Driving it!
- Still a got a few turns left - John Sunde pulls a big one out for old times sake.
Images by Rocky Fortuna
- Luke Davison was quite comfy sitting second to last wheel in B grade.
- Scott Simpson still happy to race in C grade with the girls.
- Luis Trueba loves Heffron.
- Pete 'The Gladiator' McDonald doing the hard work down the Heffron straight.
- Luke Davison splits the other podium finishers, Robbie Cater (left) and Anthony Challinor.
Results
Overall 1 Luke Davison (Randwick Botany) 2 Robbie Cater (FRF Couriers/NSWIS) 3 Anthony Challinor (Clarence St Cyclery) 4 Peter McDonald (FRF Couriers/NSWIS) 5 Luis Trueba (Macarthur Collegians) B Grade 1 Ben Elliott (Randwick Botany) 2 Matt Carter (Easts) 3 Antonio Iannacito (Caravello) C Grade 1 Scott Simpson (Easts) Summer Series Pointscore 1 Anthony Spurgeon 25 pts 2 Mark Ardouin 19 3 Andrew Duggan 17 4 Tim Willing 13 5 Peter McDonald 9 6 Jeff Hopkins 7 6 Fergus Bermingham 7 6 Rochelle Gilmore 7 6 Luke Davison 7 7 Steve Fitzpatrick 6 7 Jason Webb 6 7 Ben Isaksen 5 7 Peter Fitzpatrick 5 7 Frank Conceicao 5 8 Robbie Cater 4 8 Aaron Richardson 4 9 Jose Rodriguez 3 9 Chris Garrad 3 9 Anthony Challinor 3 10 Stewart Campbell 2 10 Warren Scott 2 10 Joe McDonnell 2 10 Michael Lynch 2 10 Kevin Vlahos 2 10 Wayne Firncarne 2 11 Gemma O'Brien 1 11 Liam Kelly 1 11 Luis Trueba 1 B Grade Series 1 John Peppard 10 pts 2 Ben Elliott 9 3 John Sunde 8 4 Stan Genakis 5 5 Matt Carter 4 5 Nic Rathborne 4 6 Brent Dawson 3 6 Steve Griffiths 3 7 Adam Socha 2 7 Brad Glennan 2 7 Dave Stevens 2 7 Mark Newton 2 8 Warwick Edwards 1 8 Scott Callum 1 8 John Kenny 1 8 Sean Vale 1 8 Todd Sinclair 1 C Grade Series 1 Andrew Duggan 10 pts 1 Mark Ardouin 10 2 Scott Simpson 8 3 John Greally 5 3 Frank Conceicao 5 4 Rochelle Gilmore 3 4 Fergus Bermingham 3 4 Dave Stevens 3 5 Kevin Vlahos 2 5 Sen Mitsuji 2 5 Aaron Richardson 2 5 Jason Webb 2 6 Gemma O'Brien 1 6 Chris Garrad 1 6 Steve Fitzpatrick 3 7 Jose Rodriguez 1 7 Ben Isaksen 1 7 Stewart Campbell 1
