Juniors put on their most exciting day of racing for the year to date on Saturday 13 February.
The big news was Sam Jenner becoming the latest member of the Sub 2 club, with a time for the one lap time trial of 2 minutes flat. Sam had been getting close for some weeks, and now that he has the monkey off his back will no doubt be flying in the 1:50’s.
Karlee McMillan came tantalisingly close with a time of 2:01, and there’s bound to be a big celebration when she finally makes it. Anytime in the next few weeks is my prediction, with the benefits of those Boorolong hills starting to pay off.
Other times were Ben Sullivan 2:25, Freya Weston 2:15, Adam Bourke 2:05, Jackie Weston 2:11, Kath Kelly 2:01, Reece O’Hara 1:58, Dene Bourke 1:56, and Kyle O’Hara fastest time with a 1:47. Good to see the O’Hara boys in their first outing for the year.
Next up was a 7 lap handicap, and following a pep talk from Al, there was some excellent aggressive racing.
Reece O’Hara quickly caught up with front marker Ben Sullivan and these two rode a good tempo out front. In the next group back, Sam Jenner rode away from Freya and Adam, while further back the remaining riders joined forces to try and peg back the lead.
They soon caught the all bar the leading pair, and Karlee tried her legs out in front with some impressive speed. With one lap to go, it seemed a certainty that they would catch Reece and Ben, but they weren’t having any of that.
Spurred on by Reece, Ben rode a great final lap to take the win. Judging by the way he rode back around on his cool down lap, he had left nothing in the tank.
The final event of the day was a one lap wheel race, which was won by Kyle O’Hara off scratch, with Karlee out sprinting Sam for second and third places and Freya in fourth.