The weatherman was fortunately a little off with the weather forecast with morning rain and afternoon showers replaced with morning showers and a clear sunny afternoon. The riders had a dry track with a clear sky and a tough wind at turn three. An impressive 38 riders made the trip to Johnston Park, ensuring that the fields were large and the racing meaningful.
The programme was made up of graded short points races, with under 15 riders racing short scratch races instead. The next event was 4 lap team pursuits for the over 15’s these were followed by graded one lap scratch races, the programme concluded with long handicap races for all grades.
A number of riders had stand out performances with a few earning special mention. The first race of the day was the Under 15’s 3 lap handicap race, Anna Stewart caught every one off guard as she made the most of her 150 metre lead on the scratch riders and exploded from the start to reel in the riders ahead of her before the completion of the first trip and stayed well clear from the fast finishing scratch riders.
Jordan Castle continued on from last weeks performance to dominate the A grade points race and completed the one lap scratch race in an unofficial time of 29.39 sec, a time that would have broken the under 19 record set by Westley Gough and also the Senior Mens record of Simon Van Velthooven. Jordan’s immediate target is to perform well at the Oceanania Track cycling meet in Invercargill mid November, breaking records held by current New Zealand representative riders must be a good indicator.
The final performance of the day was the endurance feat of George Roberts. A large field of A graders took on the 15 lap handicap race. While the scratch riders reeled in the field with ten laps to go, George managed to kick 75 metres clear with another rider and then with six laps to go rode solo to keep the distance and win comfortably. The feat was more impressive as the wind began to pick up during the race, with riders being buffeted around turn three, for George to cope with these conditions on his own without the protection of the group showed great strength and endurance.
The Sunday racing proved its worth as the meeting was able to begin at 2.30pm and took all of 3 hours to complete, daylight was in good supply. The next track cycling meeting is 2.30pm Sunday 3rd of November after the Tour De Manawatu.
Results for Sunday 27th October:
Under 15 3 Lap Handicap race:1 Anna Stewart, 2 Dylan Simpson, 3 Peita Ransom, 4 Dineth Rajapakse
A Grade points race: 1 Jordan Castle (10 points), 2 Jaycob Humphreys (5 points), 3 George Roberts (4 points), 4 Carne Groube (2 points)
B Grade points race: 1 Michaela Drummond (7 points), 2 Kate Stewart (6 points), 3 Brent Zimmerman (5 points), 4 Megan Blatchford (2 points)
C Grade points race: 1 Frazer Allen (10 points), 2 Toshi Yamauchi (3 points), 3 Fergus Bryan (3 points), 4 Mike Groube (3 points)
Under 15 2 lap scratch race Heat 1: 1 Dylan Simpson, 2 Dineth Rajapakse, 3 Samara Fenn, 4 Peita Ransom
Under 15 2 lap scratch race Heat 2: : 1 Fergus Washington-Smith, 2 Max Cousins, 3 Anna Stewart, 4 James Gardner
Team Pursuit 4 lap
Jaycob Humphreys, Campbell Stewart, Jordan Castle, James Denholm 2.06.71
Joel Yates, Carne Groube, Fergus Allen, Jake van Lienen 2.16.48
George Roberts, Hamish Mikkelsen, Hayden Washington-Smith, Cody Simpson, Andrew McKenzie 2.13.19
Michaela Drummond, Libby Arbuckle, Ruby Perry, Kate Stewart 2.27.06
Brent Zimmerman, Megan Blatchford, Bradley Stevens, Greg Bryan 2.28.01
Mike Groube, Frazer Allen, Steve Perry, Megan Gardner 2.31.76
Liam Brown, Fergus Bryan, Gorgi van Lienen, Toshi Yamauchi 2.41.81
One lap scratch races
Heat 1: 1) Anna Stewart, 2) Max Cousins, 3) James Gardner
Heat 2: 1) Dylan Simpson, 2) Peita Ransom, 3) Denith Rajapakse
Heat 3: 1) Michaela Drummond (35.10 sec), 2) Kate Stewart, 3) Ruby Perry
Heat 4: 1) Brent Zimmerman (33.43 sec), 2) Bradley Stevens, 3) Greg Bryan
Heat 5: 1) Liam Brown (34.40 sec), 2) Fergus Bryan, 3) Steve Perry
Heat 6: 1) Campbell Stewart (30.60 sec), 2) Fergus Allen, 3) Carne Groube
Heat 7: 1) Jordan Castle (29.39 sec), 2) Jaycob Humphreys, 3) George Roberts
Heat 8: 1)James Denholm (31.39 sec), 2) Cody Simpson, 3) Andrew McKenzie
Under 15 6 lap Handicap: 1) Peita Ransom, 2) Samara Fenn, 3)Fergus Washington-Smith, 4) Dineth Rajapakse
B&C Grade 10 lap Handicap: 1) Megan Blatchford, 2) Brent Zimmerman, 3) Frazer Allen, 4) James Denholm
A Grade 15 lap Handicap: 1) George Roberts, 2) Jordan Castle, 3) Campbell Stewart, 4) Carne Groube