Cycle Speedway
Cycle Speedway (Australia): Double Exclusion in Fathers Day race at Salisbury.
By Admin
Sep 2, 2006, 12:36

Thirty three riders fronted up for racing today,which was pretty good considering the Royal Show has just started.A stiff wind blew dust into riders faces as they negotiated the backstraight but was a lot kinder down the front straight.

Once again the ref was Trevor Dutton who checked the bikes at dressage and the winners for their teams were , for the Hornets;Deimian Kemsley, for the Orions; Tony Bax, and for the Blackhawks, a tie; Tiana Debattista & Jacob Childs.

The Tinytots got things moving with the first run of the day and of note was the unassisted start of Mathew Snowden and the good showing of Little Jacob Childs ,whos coming to grips with the big bike.Holy Greenhalgh put in a steady performance as did Whitney Jones.

Division seven was down by a couple of riders leaving Joshua Carden and Mathew Hurley to battle it out.Mathew scored both gate starts and a heat win(18) while Josh picked up a couple of heat wins himself(17).

Division 6/1 was open to anyone who wanted some points today as Mr.Consistent(Luke Childs) was absent. Taking full advantage of this situation was Plymouth Christian(maximum 20)who hasnt scored a max before ahead of Braden Makepeace(15) who had a nasty accident with Plymouth on the pit corner.The race was re-sheduled at a later time to allow both riders to be seen to by our ever present St.Johns staff.Both riders returned later sporting battle scars, but back on the bike and racing again.Tiana Debattista stayed well away from these two and picked up (10) points herself on the new bike.

You can always rely on the Division 6/2 riders to have a good field and they didn't let us down again today.Seven riders used two grids to complete their days racing and there was some great racing and very close finishes thanks to some creative handicapping.Mark O'Toole came with his race face on today and had three handicap wins on the way to (18) while backmarker , Josh Debattista got second with (14) third was Deimian Kemsley on (11) and a tie for fourth with (9) are Laura Erickson & John Stevenson.

It was about now that the Fathers Day race was run and as we had an abundance of victims (eight of them,it was the biggest field in any div on the day).The ref for the big race was Cody Chadwick.

Four of the dads lined up on the grid for the first heat with the first two going straight into the final.I must admit that at least they looked the part because they all had a bike each and thats a good start.

All starts ;gate starts....Laps reduced from 20 laps to 3 because of lighting restrictions..(it gets dark around six)....First Aid , Oxygen and stretcher to be at hand on the infield and someone other than Paul to give mouth to mouth as required.

The crowd was in awe seeing these brave dads on the starting grid with , in grid one Peter O'Toole ,in grid two Jason Kemsley , in grid three Brian Chadwick and in four was Rob Hurley.The tapes flew up and a great start all round except Rob Hurley who sort of crossed the infield every lap to take the lead each time and was excluded for his efforts.The two heading to the final were , Brian Chadwick and Jason Kemsley.

Heat two was eagerly awaited by the crowd as four more daring dads gridded up with a distinct advantage going to the in-form Nigel Greenhalgh on grid one, grid two had Darren Mathews , three had Frank Jones and drawn wide in four was Charlie Debattista.If heat one had some shenanigans going on with short laps then there was something in the air about this lot too.

The tapes flew up and three startled riders charged off into the first corner but Nigel Greenhalgh,the fastest gater of the four of them was no-where to be seen.He dismounted his bike , layed it on the track and was off after them .....ON FOOT!

Coming out of the first corner he was in third position and was checked badly going down the back straight, through the pit corner he failed to wash speed off and lost a position and pulled up lame at the end of the first lap and was excluded also.The next two to go through to the final were Frank Jones and Charlie Debattista.

What a final.Four exhausted dads giving it their all, after a little lay down and some oxygen and a couple of hours nap. Not really they were given a short break to gain enough breath to say they were ready and that was it....it was on!

This was it , the peak of today's racing , The Final. on grid one was Frank Jones; on grid two , Jason Kemsley , on grid three was Charlie Debattista while out wide was Brian Chadwick . The tape went up and it was on . Into the first corner they raced , amazing not one crash all the way.After another couple of grueling laps a tired Brian Chadwick backed off just as Frank Jones slipped up the inside to pinch it on the line.I could hear them puffing from the infield.well done to all the dads that was great to watch,very entertaining.

Winner was Frank Jones , second Brian Chadwick , third Jason Kemsley and fourth was Charlie Debattista.

Division 4 had five starters today and the two that battled the hardest  were Joel Chadwick and Dean Jolly and as a result they finished 1-2 on (maximum20) for Joel even though his dads requested he be move back to -14 in his last handicap race....made no difference he still won.Dean scored (15) Jay Walters picked up (10) for third while Anthony Daniels got (5) for fourth.

Division 3 had six starters with Daniel Bax taking out top spot with (15) and David Hatswell picking up a couple of handicap wins for second with (11) third was Tony Bax on (8) and Tyrone Walters picking up fourth with (7)

Division 2 was light on with three riders and Nigels gating alongside Cody Chadwick was excellent .Matt Mathews seemed to be a bit flat today but had a real good go in the final race.Nigel Greenhalgh took top honors with a (maximum20) with Cody picking up second on (13) and Matt Mathews got third with (12).

Rider of the Week..Dylan Childs.