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Friday night winter track racing
Dunc Grey Velodrome, week 7, July 28, 2006
With NSW state road titles pending this weekend it was expected that numbers may be down this week, however, this was not the case as the loyal crew, as well eight newbies, took to the boards to participate in what proved to be an exciting night for participants and spectators alike.
The feature race of the night was that there actually was no feature race due to my inability to attract a sponsor for week 7. This eliminated round 2, which meant I could actually increase the length of the endurance rounds. I also converted the ½ field sprints into 1/3 field sprints to give everyone more room to show their stuff. Additionally I also gave div 5 four races instead of their usual three.
The Hillbrick Series is in full swing with this week’s event being round three’s 1/3 field sprints. First prize for this 5 event series is a Ryan Bayley signature Hillbrick track bike. Paul Hillbrick was present to proudly show off his fantastic package. The complete track bike retails for $950 and would suit a seasoned professional or even a first time track rider.
The riders who performed most impressively where Patick Bolan, Jackson Law, J-L Rathbone and Tom Harvey. Coupled with their performance last week, sees them leading the series. Shaun Hopkins showed glimpses of his former speed to move into a position a few points shy of the leaders. This series will accumulate with the Top 10 pointscores riding off in a final wheelrace.
Try and Keep up at 70km/h Bolan
Round 4’s endurance race was spectacular. The lower grades participated in the infamous Madi-lead. Unfortunately Div 4 got a little tangled up with the tactics and a fall took out two riders. In future I will revert to a simpler race for this lower grade. The Madi –lead always results in a true endurance champion as it becomes a race of attrition. Only the toughest actually make it to the finish and the sprint is more like a drag to the finish.
The div 1 riders lined up for the month ending Madison, 8 teams, 50 laps! After the initial get to know you period a violent attack by Phil Stokes initiated the first of many chases for the night. Phil, partnered with one of the nations best pursuiters (J-L Rathbone), held on to a 100m lead for over 10 laps only to be shut down by the impressive riding of team Hopkins/Roberts. Immediately after the catch, as if reading from a text book, Michael Lewis attacked to create the next serious chase. Michael was partnered by another Time trial Champion, Josh Wall. Together they held a 60m lead for several laps ahead of the drastically reduced bunch.
Upon the catch of the leading team Andrew Hermann, unfortunately split the change of Stokes and Wall in a moment of confusion. The resulting collision translated into both Hermann and Wall hitting the ground. Neither were seriously hurt however, it did take a length of time to get their machinery in order. This put a lot of pressure on their team mates, Anthony Bennett and Phil Stokes who had the fortune of going in and out with Hopkins (Non Championship’s Madison Rule)
In the final 15 laps things seemed to settle down slightly with each attack being controlled by the attentive bunch. Then, with 2 ½ laps remaining Phil Stokes saw an opportunity to launch his final attack. The ensuing change gave J- Rathbone 50m lead with 2 laps to go. Now, it is common knowledge that if you give J-L a lead at the business end of the race, you can kiss the win goodbye and this was certainly the case for this Madison. Hopkins scrabbled home to take the second prize with Luke Davidson sneaking in for third.
Our monthly Madisons are always exciting and are run on the last Friday of each month. Augusts Madison will be the last of the 2006 series.
The final event for the night was the Maersk Logistics + CNSW Time Blaster. This is an event where competitors can win $100 so long as they win the event in a time under the previous record. The record stood at 9:08 for the 7.5km set by J-L Rathbone. The riders started the event fully aware of what was required and Peter Barnard, complete with race computer, hit the early laps at 49km/h. Barnard held this early pace for several laps until he was exhausted and swung out of the competition. This allowed the 20 odd remaining riders to start all doing ½ lap turns to maintain the initial speed.
The calculations worked out perfectly as the bunch traveled through the 10 lap time check 0.28 seconds up on schedule. By the 20 lap time check the seriously depleted bunch came through 0.89 seconds up, not much but enough to get chilli powder up the remaining rider’s arses, as they began to blast around the track well in excess of 50 km/h. With 6 laps remaining Phil Stokes hit the front holding a constant speed of 55km/h. He pulled off with 2 lap to go and it became a case of every man for themselves as the final 3 riders scrambled over each other with what energy they had left to try and finish this grueling race. J-L proved he was the strongest by pulling away from the floundering group to record yet another financially satisfying win.
As of yet I have not got a sponsor for next week’s wheel race, but will keep you informed if one eventuates. The racing will be red hot with round 4 being the calculating Point’a’Lap. Round 3 will be another interesting event in that each division will be equally split into 2 groups for an Italian pursuit. The winning team will acquire 3 points for their efforts.
Till then, stay off the drugs
By Paul Craft
Results
Junior Development Demonstration 1 Will Power 2 Scotty 3 Princess 4 Bonnie Grant Round 1 Warm up scratch race Div 5 1 Marika Kahle 2 Ben Creber 3 Greg O'Brien 4 Ben Grant Div 4-a 1 Stephan Sanders 2 Graeme Heap 3 Paul Miller 4 Mark Anthony Div 4-b 1 Tirian Mcmanus 2 Scott Harding 3 Timothy Mararik 4 Andrea Beer Div 3 1 Jackson Law 2 Ross Harding 3 Bruce Wyllie 4 Adriano Maradini Div 2 1 Alex Carver 2 Paul Connor 3 Keith Oliver 4 Ben Elliott Div 1 1 Shaun Hopkins 2 Scott Law 3 Michael lewis 4 Luke Davidson Round 2 No Race Round 3 Field Sprint Div 5 heat 1 1 Ben Creber 2 Marika Kahle 3 David Macefield 4 Caraline Smale Field Sprint Div 5 heat 2 1 Jacyn Mellish 2 Ben Grant 3 Greg Obrien 4 Jayme Paris Field Sprint Div 4 heat 1 1 Paul Miller 2 Steve Swain 3 Scott Carver 4 Zara Doering Field Sprint Div 4 heat 2 1 Manny Cachia 2 Scott Harding 3 Phill Hutt 4 mark Anthony Field Sprint Div 4 heat 3 1 Graeme Heap 2 Tirian Mcmanus 3 Mathew Hynes 4 Pete McCrystal Field Sprint Div 3 heat 1 1 Tom Harvey 2 Bruce Wyllie 3 Bede Kelly 4 Andrew Grant Field Sprint Div 3 heat 2 1 Jackson Law 2 Ross Harding 3 Michael Stokes 4 Paul Meehan Field Sprint Div 3 heat 3 1 Andrew Herlehen 2 Simon Ball 3 Adriano Maradini 4 Tony Unicomb Field Sprint Div 2 heat 1 1 Jock Murray 2 Tim Dawson 3 Grant Fraser 4 Joel Chant Field Sprint Div 2 heat 2 1 Paul Connor 2 Brad Craft 3 Alex carver 4 Simon Llewellyn Field Sprint Div 2 heat 3 1 Alan Townsend 2 Ben Elliott 3 Keith Oliver 4 Neil Leifels Field Sprint Div 1 heat 1 1 Jl Rathbone 2 Michael Lewis 3 Grant Law 4 Mark Copeland Field Sprint Div 1 heat 2 1 Shaun Hopkins 2 Anthony Bennett 3 Gavin White 4 Phil Stokes Field Sprint Div 1 heat 3 1 Pat Bolan 2 Brent Dawson 3 Jason Roberts 4 Martin Millwood Round 4 Scratch handicap Div 5 1 Marika Kahle 2 Ben Creber 3 Ben Grant 4 Greg O'brien MadiLead Div 4 1 Tirian McManus 2 Stephan Sanders 3 Tim Mararik 4 Graema Heap Madilead Div 3 1 Jackson Law 2 Simon Ball 3 Andrew Herlehen 4 Tony Unicomb Madilead Div 2 1 Paul Connor 2 Keith Oliver 3 Alan Townsend 4 Ben Elliott Div 5 Miss N out 1 Greg O'Brien 2 Ben Creber 3 Jacyn Mellish 4 Marika Kahle Div 1 non madison kierin 1 Pat Bolan 2 Gavin White 3 Grant law 4 Michael Mellish Madison Div 1 1 Rathbone /Stokes 2 Hopkins/Roberts 3 Davidson/Donnelly 4 Herrmann/Bennett Round 5 Fast group Combine 1 Bede Kelly 2 Stephan Sanders 3 Darren Kelly 4 Manny Cachia Faster group Combine 1 Grant Fraser 2 Steve Chapman 3 Jackson Law 4 Ben Elliott CNSW + Maersk Logistics Time-Blaster Target time 9 min 08 sec for $100 1 J-L rathbone 2 Michael Lewis 3 Luke Davidson 4 Jason Roberts
