Another bumper crowd for Round two of the Bontrager Summer Sprint Series. Not a sellout like last round but great numbers given the long weekend, the horible weather forecast and the pull of the Wagga Track Carnival. In the end, 21 riders enjoyed some fast and furious match sprinting in warm but windy conditions with many riders achieving personal best times.

In A grade, Barry "The Wizard" Woods was once again the dominant rider. Barry had a couple of close calls in the rounds but went through undefeated and comfortably beat Brunswick's Chris Ray in the final. In the shock result for the day Dino Apolito beat another Brunswick rider, Brent "Turbo" MckEnzie in a thrilling nailbiter to take 3rd place reversing the result from earlier in the day.

B grade was once again the most closely contested grade with only 0.15 seconds seperating the fastest and slowest qualifiers. In the end it was Martin Lama who triumphed over Jason Ploughman  after a long sprint in a very close finish. Mick Thomas showed all his experience in beating Carnegie-Caulfield webmaster Adam King in an entertaining "cat and mouse" affair, taking the 3rd place final by a whisker.

Odd numbers in C grade meant a bye was needed to even out the draw giving one lucky rider a rest each round. Neil Robinson once again showed his Flying 200 times are not indicative of his ability finishing the day un-defeated and accounting for Carnegie-Caulfield's Nicole Holt in the final. Chris Dann, new to track racing let alone match sprinting, continues to improve with each outing and showed he will be a force to be reckoned with over summer. Chris defeated Julian Vince in the final for 3rd place.

D grade welcomed newcomer Rob Wylie for the first time and Rob had a great day as seen by the big smile on his face at the end of the day. Despite being new to match sprinting Rob took 3rd place from another Blackburn "veteran" Merv Tracey. Brunswick's Greg Heasly was the slowest qualifier in D grade yet went through the day undefeated, proving too strong for Marika Kahle in the final.

In the junior invitational, both Emily Apolito and Krissy Dundas put in PB's for their flying 200's before Krissy defeating Emily 2-1 with all three races decided by half a wheel or less.

A big thank you to all the helpers on the day especially chief commissaire Pat Dougherty, race director Sue Dundas and entry and results officer Ann Apolito. Will and Erin Thomas kept the canteen running smoothly, while Emily and Jodie looked after the videography and generally helped. Special thanks to Nathan Frazer from Brunswick who couldn't race but came along to help with timing and judging the many close finishes.

Results

Photos

Video