Club Races
Scratch Races Start the 2009 Season
Quarry Road, Sunday 18th January 2009

	Dean Hayward

After a lay off for the Christmas festive season, a field of 15 riders lined up for the first race of the Grampians Vets 2009 season.

Held as graded scratch races, the riders were divided up into three grades. A grade riders Chris Scott, Dean Hayward, Alan Barnett, Tim Schneider, Frank Kean and Shane (a guest rider) took off at a fair pace. Half way around the Quarry Road course, Frank Kean broke clear up the Sandbar Hill, but was reeled in shortly afterwards.

The next attack was on the Quarry Road hills, with Frank Kean and Tim Schneider getting up the hill with a slight advantage, but once again the gap was closed. Chris Scott then made a break for home, but was also caught. With only a short distance to travel, it came down to the final sprint. After putting in some strong turns throughout the race, Dean Hayward had enough left to cross the line first, with Chris Scott second.

The B grade riders took advantage of the “pressure off” approach of a scratch race compared to riding a handicap, and took it easy for the first part of the race. The field consisted of Tony Lloyd, Sean Prins, Peter Mayo, Drew Heard, Peter Parnaby and Harvey Lang. Gradually the speed increased over the last half, but no attacks were made until the Quarry Road hill, when Peter Parnaby put on some pressure, and broke up the field. However he started to cramp, and had to ease up, allowing the rest of the riders to get back on.

Harvey Lang was the next to try, but didn’t break clear. With about 1.5km to go, Sean Prins made a dash for the line, but after his escape at the Xmas Handicap, the other riders didn’t let him get clear.

As with A grade, B grade came down to the final sprint. Drew Heard once again was just too strong for the rest of the field, holding off a determined challenge from Peter Parnaby, pulling away over the last few meters to win by half a bike length.

Meg Parnaby, new rider Bridget Lang and Frank Stokes made up C grade. With nobody in a particular hurry, they took some time out to help Bridget come to terms with riding in a bunch, and were impressed by her ability for a first effort. However, as they got closer to home, Stokes established a lead up the Quarry Road hills, and went on to win from Meg Parnaby.