Published: 29 April 2010
With the season's regional omniums commencing at Portsmouth this Saturday, this second Reading Track League meeting was a good opportunity for youth racers to hone their early season form. With balmy April weather greeting another reasonable field of twenty-two riders the racing was sure to be hot. It didn't disappoint.
- Tactical racing starts early at Palmer Park
- Photograph courtesy of swarbrick.com
Kicking off the evening was a 1 lap time-trial. Special mention must be given to the whip and timekeepers. As ever, this was an exceptionally slick operation with riders firing off at, what seemed to be, 20 second intervals thus keeping the meeting on-time and fluid.
Times between the Under 16s and Under 14s ran close with Jason Pitt showing his strength in posting the fastest time of the night. Of equal note was the time posted by fastest girl Abigail Dentus who showed that, along with her obvious technical skills, she's developing power too. Jospeh Linehan and Callum Macleod were clear winners of their age categories posting times that would have seen them placed well in the age groups above their own. The fiercest competition was between the Under 14 boys with the first three, Daniel Lansley, Jamil Gaida and Max Steadman being separated by under a second.
Next up was the unknown distance race. With a staggered handicap-style start the younger Under 8 and Under 10 riders led off, followed by the Under 12s with Under 14s and lastly the Under 16s. Fairly quickly the groups started to merge and alert Under 12 Emma Pitt managed to latch on to her hard charging elder brother Jason. Pitt senior held a reasonable pace, but not full gas, allowing the race to regroup before attacking sharply for a second time. This time two Under 12s, Carl Jolly and Joseph Linehan anticipated the attack and held on while Pitt senior tried to ride them off his wheel. For the next two laps Pitt, with the two youngsters pinned to his tailcoat, rode in anticipation of the bell yet none was forthcoming. Finally, with the bell ringing out for the start of the final lap the only question was, could Pitt hang on for the win? Entering the final 200 meters all was still to play for. Joseph Linehan made his race winning move coming late out of the final corner dragging Carl Jolly past a rapidly tiring Pitt for a Linehan, Jolly, Pitt; one, two, three. The actual race distance remains unknown to me, as I suppose it should.
With the two stroke tones of the derny motor ringing out round the stadium the Keirin sprints were next up.
The first heat saw the pocket-sized Under 8 Euan Macleod taking the motor with the older Under 10 riders filing in behind. As the derny left the track Callum Macleod attacked gapping his pursuers. But 300 meters is a long way for a full-on sprint so with 100 meters remaining Damon King sensed his chance rushing the gap to come within a tire-width of taking the win. Anna Linehan rode a clever race coming in a close third.
Joseph Linehan took the honors in the Under 12, Heat 2, with Carl Jolly placing second and Emma Pitt, showing good leg-speed, taking third.
Heat 3 saw the Under 14 girls battle it out with Abigail Dentus taking her third win of the evening followed by Katie Metalli in second and relative newcomer Toni Griffiths in third.
Heat 4, the Under 14 boys, was an interesting affair with George Needham making a well-timed outside move to take the other riders somewhat by surprise as the derny exited the track. As the season winds on a move such as this will see George compete for a place but on the night he was overrun in the charge to the line. A charge that saw clever positioning by Max Stedman push first placed Daniel Lansley all the way with Jamil Gaida taking third.
The Under 16s, Heat 5, was taking by Jason Pitt followed by a lean looking Jack Smith with John Ellis in third.
The final two scratch races ran mostly to form. Joseph Linehan and Callum Macleod capped their excellent evening with category wins in the combined Under 8, Under 10 and Under 12 race, while Jason Pitt all but lapped the field in a super final 10 lap youth scratch. Abigail Dentus confirmed her form by leading home the Under 14 girls and Jamil Gaida rode with stamina and cunning to secure the Under 14 category win.
It would be easy to assume that a pattern of race winners is developing already but with close racing in all categories, and looking at the time-trial times, I anticipate a few surprises in the coming weeks. Well done everyone, an enthralling evening's racing.