We had a great day. Lots of fun, food and camaraderie. Good quality racing by those who were here considering the wind factor. Numbers were poor to say the least and the sad part was there were almost more from out of town than from Toowoomba.
Only 14 competitors of which 6 were from Brisbane or Ipswich clubs, 3 from Bikeline Racing, 4 from TCC and 1 from Highfields Rollers. We can only hope that it was the wind that kept the locals away??
Anyway 3 juniors manned up and had a go. Mitch Hawley having age on his side took the Flying 200, the 333 mtr time trial, and the combined C grade/Juniors Scratch race (with a 1 lap handicap). With Hamish Brown picking up 2nd in all but the Keiren. Like wise was Ben Lingard showing a competitive spirit and riding well to finish close behind in third. Mitch was bumped straight to A grade for the Keiren and finished a credible 4th in this event.
In C grade Garry Maddigan won the timed events and just pipped Rod Lingard on the line in the Keiren in the closest finish of the day. Garry also placed 3rd in the combined Scratch race.
In the girls it was Highfield Rollers vs the Qld Uni clubs. In good spirit and close level of competition the placings were shared with Deanna Bax taking out the timed events (A very quick Flying 200 and 333mtr Time Trial). Megan struck back in the Scratch race just beating Deanna with a strong sprint to the line. Maddie Jannsen was in the mix with 3 second placings and a third.
Rumours had been floating around this week about a sub 6 second 100 metres from a certain Nathan Graves . Nathan backed that up today and was keen to impress his home crowd. He may well have created a track record today with 10.9 second flying 200 metre run. This is only 0.2 outside the state record I am lead to believe. Aaron Osborne from the Ipswich club also showed he has been practising on the track with a pair of 2nd placings, a slick 11.37 in the flying 200 and a 36.74 in the 500 TT.
Nathan proved too strong in all the A grade events. Brian Schmacker proved his craft by taking 2nd position in both the Sratch and Keiren. Simon Burke showed he has some stamina with a third in the tough 500 TT. Paul Jackson from the Uni club went early to test his opponents in the the Scratch race. He picked up a third as a result getting caught with only 200 metres to go.
Flying 200 meter times:
Juniors: Mitch Hawley:12.65 ; Hamish Brown: 14.09 ; Ben Lingard: 19.08
Women: Deanna Bax: 12.75 ; Maddie Janson: 13.05 ; Megan Stevens: 13.85 ; Jessica Coats 15.12
C Grade: Garry Maddigan: 13.38 ; Rod Lingard: 14.14
A Grade: Nathan Graves: 10.90 ; Aaron Osborne 11.37 ; Brian Schmacker 11.85 ; Paul Jackson 12.14 ; Simon Burke 12.40
Time Trial times:
333 metre
Juniors: Mitch Hawley: 27.52 ; Hamish Brown: 29.97 ; Ben Lingard: 37.50
Women: Deanna Bax: 27.07 ; Maddie Jannsen: 28.00 ; Megan Stevens: 31.75 ; Jessica Coats 33.00
500 metre
C Grade: Garry Maddigan: 41.63 ; Rod Lingard: 45.84
A Grade: Nathan Graves: 34.13 ; Aaron Osborne 36.74 ; Simon Burke 37.34 ; Paul Jackson 38.22 ; Brian Schmacker 39.88
I hope these results inspire a few others to turn up next time. This is in no small way due to Lindsay Petersen and the TRC team who have repaired the track surface once again to a commendable standard considering its poor state just 3 weeks ago.
The day was finished by 2.00pm. A big thanks to those riders who travelled today. Thanks to Nathan for organising the day. Also Erika and Tony, Annika, Glenn, Mike, Karl and Cara for helping out. It is a shame so much effort is put in for such a poor showing, but we are keen to try again, so I hope all those track bike owners out there read this and make an effort to come along next time. It was a fun day.
Check out some pics of the day here.