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Track Chit Chat 3 – With Ian Gray

It was a real good days racing at the first WCNI Carnival, the renown Manawatu westerly was the only problem for the riders.

Luckily for officials and Spectators they received shelter from the wind, which made it somewhat more pleasant for them.

Thanks to all the officials that helped on the day- all did a great job!

A reminder to all riders- remember to check your track bikes every week prior to racing. On Sunday one rider turned up with no handlebar plugs which is a no-no for rider safety!! Handlebar plugs can sometimes mysteriously fall out and riders don’t notice them disappearing.

The standard of riding on the day was quite high for early in the track season and the riders that impressed me on the day were Damian Hussey and Dannielle Porteous in the U15’s and Campbell Stewart and Carne Groube in the A Grade section.

Bike Manawatu riders will be presented with their prize money this Sunday as we had insufficient change to make up all individuals totals. It seems that today people carry little cash with them but they all go to the money machines and get $20 notes. A lot of people paid $20 for their $5 entry and this used quickly all our float change up.

This coming Sunday is a special award presentation day when 2 promising rookie U17 riders will be presented with track bikes.

Track records

It is noted that 2 new Feilding track records are to be added to the official lists- that is Gemma Payne’s new one lap open women’s record mentioned last week, and also a special newly established Masters 2 record “The hour event when Marcel Hollenstein rode 38.548km on 15 February 2014. This is also a newly established outdoor WCNI record.

Talking of track endurance records (24 hours) our local endurance man Colin Anderson rode 673.452km at Feilding in 2005. This has been surpassed in NZ when Stu Downs, April 2012 rode 691.764km on the Levin track.

Finally I would like to acknowledge the outstanding job Kate Stewart is doing in the preparing and putting all the track information on Facebook and the website- I have received many positive comments, well done Kate!