As always it begun with the juniors & our pre-race yarn. This year Brownie told us about the road rage episode he saw on the way down between two cars racing at high speed and eventually pulling each other over to the side of the road.
This year Dulwich Hill had a team of 3, me in A grade & Tim & Christian in C grade. The two Bici boys; Brownie & Stewie made up the Tempe onterage, both in B grade.
This is the track.
Here's the infamous third turn & though you can't really see it in the photo it has a submersive speed hump which was specifically lit up with a generator this year!
The opening scratch races were of about 18 laps of a 250m track in lenght.
Tim does up the straps with the pre-race jitters.
Tim & Christian rode well in the opening scratch with Christian picking up 3rd!!
A grade was well represented with some of the best enduro A graders in the state showing up to battle. I love the reflectors on my knicks!!!
I had real difficulty in the opening laps with navigating the very bumpy and tight velodrome, sitting on the back at very high speeds. We avaraged over 50kms/hr & I did manage to finish the race moving closer to the front, I was no where near in contention. From memory Richard Lang riding for the NSWIS won in a break away.
The next event was the sprint derby's. Tim & Christian both drew the first heat of C grade, riding against 3 illawarra boys. Tim struggled with his first real ride in a bout 8 weeks but Christain rode a very good tactical race not seeing the wind till the final straight. As only the winner qualified however he was unlucky to finish second & miss the finals.
In my heat I drew Scott Law, Ben Isaksen & another st george rider. I remember Chris Brown saying to me prior to the heat 'ow hope I"m not in that heat' prior to my name being read.
I put in my two cents & went to the front as usual to lead it out. Ben Isaksen tried to hit the front with just over one lap to go, I held on the hip so he couldn't get past but as predicted Scotty Law came flying round on the outside bringing the St George rider with him. There' nothing which can be done when someone is a second quicker over 200ms.
The camera shorted out about here as the flash was not good enough but me & Christian both rode our way into the wheel race final. I got a good run off Brownie who was just in front of me in the heat & Christian rode well with the front markers.
The wheel race final was very difficult as it had such a large number of front markers & it was such a difficult track to pass on. I caught the winning bunch but it was so big and bunched up the track I had no chance of winning.
In the other races we had a missing out which we missed out relatively quickly & B&C grade had a consolation race for non place getters & A grad had a mystery 30+ lapper mystery race with two intermediate mystery sprints. It was again very quick & I was a spent force only last about a 3rd of the race, as did a number of others.