Published: 31 July 2007
Palmer Park's, AW Cycles track league was a blaze with sunshine on what could be described as the first day of summer at the track.
The Youth numbers were down as many riders were away in Belgium doing a junior tour or having competed at the Youth Omnium on the weekend but this didn't stop their action from being fast and exciting. Several riders have shown big improvement in speed and tactical awareness this year and they were to dominate tonight's youth league events. John Paul winning the under 14's 6- lap Scratch, Keirin and 10 lap Scratch, Georgie Hardy winning the same three events in the Girls, Daniel Maslin continuing his good form also winning these three events in the Under 12's. .
The nights first Senior event was a Hare & Hounds which had the A's having to chase hard to get on parity with the B's but with 3 laps to go they did this and a late attack from Guest rider Ross Muir caused a flurry of activity from the speedsters in the bunch and as they hit the home straight it was Michael Wilmot who powered over the top of Muir, chased by Alex Aldham-Breary and Ian Greenstreet and at the finish it would end in that order, with Muir 4th. Of course, these guys don't realise that Ross Muir was racing the Sutton CC Town centre Crit the day before and even though he finished second yesterday, the narrow twisty and lumpy crit circuit would have caused some pain in his legs. .
The nights main focus was based around the Derny Motors and one of the most exciting races was the ladies event. With 6 starters going straight to a final it was a mad start as the women wound up their gears, looking for their pacers to come past and then fight to get on their wheel/rear fender and set off down the track as fast as they could to get a good position. .
With the pace at over 30 miles an hour, Dani King held the front position followed by Janet Birkmyre, with Emma Patterson and Rohan Battison riding beside them. With 4 laps to go the pace picked up further and the extra speed put Battison in trouble. This gave Birkmyre the opening to move up and around her competition and with experienced Derny Pacer, Sean Bannister keeping her in good position, they preceded to overtake King and Patterson , creating a small gap. Patterson did her best to up the ante and keep pace with Birkmyre, which she did up until the final 300 metres, where Birkmyre and Bannister powered away to win by a good 60-70 metres, with Patterson holding onto 2nd and Battison finished steadily to take 3rd.
The Senior A's Derny final was dominated by guest riders as regular Premier Calendar rider, Ross Muir showed a great turn of speed to win from classy junior Alex Aldham-Breary with another junior Douglas Dewey third. .
The Senior B's has been a close battle all season between Rob King and John Warnock and so it was to continue with Warnock leading all the way till the 150 metre mark where King and pacer rolled slowly over top of them to win by 2-3 bike lengths.
As usual the night is completed with the AW Cycles 20 km endurance race and with all riders taking part it was great to see a field of 40 in a coloured formation as they rolled out. .
The first serious attack was from the juniors, Sam Serruya, Alex Aldham-Breary and Michael Wilmot, but they were just showing the field that they had some great speed in their legs as after 2 laps they swung up. The pace picked up markedly as Ross Muir, Ian Holt, John Warnock and a few others wound the speed up to over 30 miles an hour, reducing the main field by 2/3rds. A small group of chasers kept up the pressure but didn't get on as attacks from the leaders kept the pace high.
With small attacks going but being brought back quickly it looked like a bunch sprint was the order of the day and even a last lap attack from Muir was closed down in the final 200 metres as Michael Wilmot claimed his third win of the night, Muir coming second and Neil Cooper taking third. The Senior B's had Rob King hold off the ever improving John Warnock with youth rider Matt Gittings taking third. The Womens placings had Janet Birkmyre take the sprint from Emma Patterson, and increase her overall league points tally.
Thanks to all the Derny pacers for giving up their evenings. Lets hope the weather continues to shine.