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Wanagaratta Track Carnival - 77th Northern Victoria Wheelrace
Wangaratta, Victoria, January 21-22, 2005
The famous Northern Victoria Wheelrace at Wangaratta was up for grabs for the 77th time. In recent times many Carnivals are compunded to one day, but for the second year the enthusiastic committee of locals opened the weekend with a Friday evening Criterium. The main Track Carnival on Saturday began at 12.15pm, with the treasured last event - the Sid Patterson Memorial Aces 20-lap scratch race - at 9.50pm. On Sunday, the Wangaratta Cycling Club conducted an all-Junior Carnival.
There were 66 senior entries, together with 37 juniors from the under 15 and under 17 age brackets lined up for keen racing on Saturday.
For the first time, three women qualified for the Final of the Wheelrace. They were first heat winner Livia Glochowska, Hanna Bush and Erin Peoples. From the limit mark, their heat time was five seconds faster than the fourth heat, won by the lone scratchmarker and winner of the race the previous two years - Todd Wilksch. The second and third heats both went to riders in the veteran category - backmarker Laurie Noonan, and middle marker Tony Jones.
Wilksch had strong company in the fourth heat, taking fellow backmarkers Joel Leonard and Daniel Thorsen through. After the completion of the first round of heats in the afternoon, no one was run between 15 and 135 metres in the Final. The three heats from the second round saw wins to Scott Peoples, Aaron Salisbury and Toby Lennon. Four riders qualified in the large gap, but it still didn't look likely that there was enough power from the back of the race for those riders to win through. With 10 riders on marks between 135 m and 240 m - the winner had to come from that area.
The four backmarkers chased hard, but were in no position to win at the bell on the big 492 m track. At the 200m mark Laurie Noonan loomed as the main danger. The red colours of Ryan Worn moved to the front with 150 m to go and he was not caught. Todd Wilksch put up a terrific effort to manage fifth in a fast race. Worn is just 17 years of age, lives in Castlemaine and rides with the Bendigo Club, mainly to gain continual strong competition. He is coached by another string former cyclist from Castlemaine - Brad Robbins. Worn has just grown a beard to look like Sean Eadie, but of course with Eadie now fresh faced - Warn may have to get the shaving cream out. He had a bad run with injuries, but worked on his sprinting and won the Bendigo Club handicap the previous Thursday night.
The race this year carried the title of the Glenn Clarke Appeal Wangaratta Wheelrace. The local former star cyclist had suffered a stroke recently and this race launched an appeal for a fundraising drive, to help him with recovery expenses. Clarke, who won the Wheelrace in 1990, made the presentation to the winner. He is making a good recovery and it was good to talk with him after the very exciting Final. The 1000m h'cap went to Simon Barkla, with a strong sprint from the front.Joel Leonard took the coveted double, just getting to Todd Wilksch on the line in the Keirin and snatching the Sid Patterson right on the line from Richard England.
Results
2000m Wheelrace 1 Ryan Worn 2 Laurie Noonan 3 Aaron Salisbury 4 Josh Gundry 5 Todd Wilksch
