Stu Crooks narrowly won a thrilling A/B 34-lap points race at Seddon Park Velodrome, preventing Chris Henderson from taking a clean sweep of the evening’s racing. Mark Spessot attacked early and splintered the large field. Henderson and James McKellar chased strongly and caught him before the first sprint. Crooks then went on the attack, chased by Henderson Chris Harvey and veteran Neil Derbyshire who lapped most of the rest of the field. Henderson was leading on points into the final lap, needing just one point to stay ahead. He could not feature in the final sprint, however, and Crooks crossed the line first, tying the points and taking the win.
After a long absence from the program, keirin racing was featured. In the first heat, Ewan Syme attacked soon after the derny pulled away and led all the way to the finish, ahead of Steve Green and Greg O’kane. It was a similar story in the second heat where Bailey Saville showed her power and sprinted away from Phoebe Swale and Olivia Kennedy. Swale held off a determined attack by Kennedy to take second place.
In the C-grade scratch race an attack by Olivia Kennedy and Megan Foley saw them force a split. Foley crossed the line ahead of Kennedy, with Ray Lucas finishing third. Bryan Murray continued to dominate, winning the points race ahead of Ray Lucas and Michael McGowan after riding 10 laps solo off the front.
In junior-A racing Bradley White had a strong evening, finishing second to Mark McCormack in the scratch race, and tying for first equal in the 3 minute Australian pursuit.
Jody Syme featured in her first night of track racing, tying for first equal in the Australian pursuit with Richard van Aalst. Syme also won the 6-lap handicap race ahead of Sian Remon and Emma Howell.
The roadsters took one race each in the handicap racing. Strong riding saw Caleb Rollo overtake Olivia McDonald in the first race, but he could not catch her in the second race.
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