Halesowen A&CC Friday Night Track League
Event Date: 9 May 2008
Halesowen Friday Night Track League got off to a great start on 9th May, all be it a week late due to poor weather conditions on the 2nd May. The weather was kind to the riders, although, being a little bit on the warm side, but more importantly, no rain!!
The evening started with a couple of presentations, Jess Varnish and Jess Booth were presented with flowers from the club for their effort in representing GB recently.
The racing started with the youth U16 riders, a field of 17 riders and a mixture of U14 and U16 boys and girls completing four laps in their Unknown Distance race with a very close finish resulting in the talented U14 rider, Emily Kay winning, with U16 rider Jess Wieckowski finishing a very close second, and third place going to James Locker from Solihull CC.
A big field of Senior B Cat riders were up next for an eight lap scratch race, the race started at a quick pace with an early break of four riders off the front, Tom Baker, Jess Booth, Danny Harris all from Halesowen A&CC and James Cowan from Solihull CC stayed away from the main bunch for most of the race, the closing stages saw the main bunch closing down the four riders off the front, with a lap to go the gap had closed down considerably, but it was all too late with U16 rider Tom Baker from Halesowen A&CC winning with James Cowan of Solihull CC a close second and third place going to vet Nick Selibas from Birmingham CC.
Above: Jess Booth leads through the break away in the B Senior eight lap scratch
The A Cats were up for the third race of the night, another eight lap scratch. A closely contested race, with some good performances from Dom Jelfs from Wyre Forest CRC, Dane Percival from Cardiff Ajax CC and Jack Hibberd from Sandwell CSC finishing 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Good performances also came from Matt Bailey and Tom Gregory from Halesowen A&CC.
An innovation for 2008 has seen the local coaches working hard to accredit the Freewheeler riders to enable them to race at track league. The hard work has paid off with large entries in each class showing off their track skills with some top quality racing.
The younger riders in the Freewheelers A and B races fought tooth and nail. With the 18 riders in each class competing in three races each, including 1 lap, 2 lap and 3 lap block handicap races, and also 410m dash races. Tomas Hayward from Halesowen A&CC dominated the Freewheeler B races with three out of three wins, Amy Selibus from Birmingham CC managed two second places and a third place. Thomas Biddle from Halesowen A&CC managing a second place and two third places, all riders gave their all to give some really exciting racing.
Above: Amy Selibas Birmingham CC shows great style leading the B Freewheelers
The Freewheeler A races were hard fought affairs with strong performances from Oliver Kay, Angela Eggleton both from Halesowen A&CC, and Natalie Clements from Solihull CC. All riders put in 100% effort to entertain a large crown of parents and riders which was a credit to them all.
With 18 events on the programme the racing went on until dusk, with some creditable performances by individuals at this time of the track season. Obviously the winter training has paid dividends to most riders. All in all, an excellent opening night to the Halesowen Friday Night Track League. Weather permitting the rest of the season will be just as exciting. We are all looking forward to the Madison league, with the riders already having completed accreditation, this should be a very competitive competition.
Next Friday 16th May the final race of the evening will be the opening round of our Madison League, sponsored by and management coaching and development company, http://www.the-madison-group.co.uk/. To improve the quality and safety of these races only accredited riders will have entries accepted - accreditation is Riders who have been coached to an acceptable level in madison skills or have competed at national level in madison.
If you have any queries with regard to Freewheeler or Madison accreditation, please contact the organiser.
New senior and youth riders please note we do expect some track experience (eg. having ridden a track league or had some coached track sessions) before entries will be accepted. Some of our races are reaching the limit of riders for the track and for safety reasons we will insist that a reasonable level of track skills are attained before racing.
Full results, latest news and contact details for the league can be found on our website
http://www.halesowencycling.net/index.html
