Broadford /undera Sunday 13th March

[Guest Sir Lunchalot]

My Sunday ended up a bit like the date with the attractive woman that you so look forward to and promises so much but turns out to be not quite as good as one had hoped.

 

Firstly Broadford. A few words will do to describe it ... meeting cancelled after one round of rides. It was "one of those days" and I'm sure the hard working Broadford officials will wish they had stayed in bed. A multitude of minor hitches was capped off with the major problem of the ambulance being called away to attend an urgent motor accident somewhere in the area. No replacement ambulance could be found for love nor money so despite a lovely sunny day it was up the highway to Undera lots of us went.

 

Undera started off with Cory Gathercole nearly falling twice in the same spot entering turn 3 on his first two practice laps and a little voice in my head went "oh oh, this doesn't look like fun". To cut a long story short there were a number of incidents during the meeting where riders clipped the back wheel of the bike in front and from where I was seated it looked like the track was patchy and the "slide/grip/let go/grip again" thing was happening with riders having to back off a little bit causing problems for those following.

 

Anyway on to the results. It wasn't a promising start as only 13 outfits lined up out of the original 17 in the program. Treloar/Plaisted were a no show and I was told by an official manning the bar a broken arm caused them to be out of action. I am not sure of the details how/who/when etc but not a good sign for the Oz titles if it's true. Mayes/Underhill and Mayes/Mayes also did not take their place in the field so three of the favourites for the meeting were out before a wheel was turned in anger. Newton King/TBA did not start either and I guess a TBA not forthcoming was responsible for that. In the end it was an extremely popular win for the outfit originally programmed as reserve for the meeting (??!!), the local pairing of Steve Davies / Brendan Marshall who were unbeaten all night long.

 

Heat 1 Patterson/Gates, Radford/Putkunz Excl infield, Trewin/Walch Excl Tapes 62.84

Not an auspicious beginning

 

Heat 2 Hartley/Taylor, Bell/Barker, Munro/Walch 61.57

Walch was a busy lad swinging for two outfits.

 

Heat 3 Lynd/Thistleton, Richards/Vicary, White/Fordham, Atherton/Underwood DNF 60.60

The White/Fordham combination was not done any favours by Atherton having a "moment" in front of them causing them to lose a lot of ground on the front runners.

 

Heat 4 Davies/Marshall, Gawne/Armstrong, Munro/Walch, McEnroe/Kavetani Excl - Barging 61.47

A rerun heat with Gawne and McEnroe tangling the first time out.

 

Heat 5 Davies/Marshall, Richards/Vicary, Patterson/Gates 60.89

 

Heat 6 Trewin/Walch, Bell/Barker, Atherton/Underwood, Gawne/Armstrong DNF No time

Gawne/Armstrong pulled out soon after the start on lap 1

 

Heat 7 Lynd/Thistleton, Hartley/Taylor, McEnroe/Kavetani 61.30

 

Heat 8 White/Fordham, Radford/Putkunz, Munro/Walch DNF 62.89

 

Heat 9 Bell/Barker & Patterson/Gates dead heat 1st, Lynd/Thistleton DNF 62.10

Easily the race of the season for me. Lynd retired early but for all four laps there was never much more than a bike length between the two remaining outfits as they raced round often within pick pocketing distance of each other. Both were detirmined not to give an inch and with a big last corner and full throttle to the line Patterson/Gates earned an equal share of the points.

 

Heat 10 Trewin/Walch, White/Fordham, McEnroe/Kavetani 62.04

 

Heat 11 Davies/Marshall, Richards/Vicary, Gawne/Armstrong 61.59

 

Heat 12 Hartley/Taylor, Radford/Putkunz, Atherton/Underwood 62.31

Atherton badly missed the start and all he could do was watch the other two from a fair distance behind.

 

Heat 13 Patterson/Gates, White/Fordham, Hartley/Taylor, Gawne/Armstrong 62.72

A race where I wrote in my program "like a bunch of bananas". All four were close all race with Patterson and White particularly hard at it up the front. A small slip by White when in the lead was all Patterson needed and he dived up the inside to hang on for the win.

 

Heat 14 Davies/Marshall, Trewin /Walch Fex, Lynd/Thistleton DNS rerun, Atherton/Underwood Excl - barging. Declared - No time

A rerun then declared race with Davies/Marshall being the only ones still left standing after two tries at running the heat. The first ask was marred by Lynd & Atherton coming together and both finishing in the infield with Atherton excluded and Lynd unable to take part in the rerun. The second effort saw Davies out in front and the chasing Trewin/Walch slid a little wide exiting turn 2 and glanced off the fence causing the sidecar to spit its occupants off, somersault in the air and land on the unfortunate passenger. Walch was eventually ok and walked back tho the pits gingerly rubbing his back. A nice touch to see Davies/Marshall immediately go over to check on the progress of the fallen pair.

 

Heat 15 did not happen, three missing pairs plus a mechanically stricken Munro caused this one to have a line drawn through it on the program.

 

Heat 16 Bell/Barker, Radford/Putkunz, Richards/Vicary DNS Rerun, McEnroe/Kavetani Excl 63.63

A rerun heat with McEnroe clipping the back of Richards causing a fall. Richards did not reappear for the rerun.

 

Final Davies/Marshall, Patterson/Gates, Bell/Barker, Hartley/Taylor

62.55

 

In the support races the A solos were a closely fought affair between Cory Gathercole and Tyron Proctor with Gathercole having three wins with Proctor usually right up his exhaust, and the final race declared with Proctor clipping the back wheel of Gathercole causing both to fall and Gathercole to be excluded. Not sure whether it was a harsh call on Gathercole or not. Gathercole was fine and straight back up but Proctor was down for a minute or two before walking slowly to the ambulance and getting on the stretcher for a ride back to the pits. Matt Jones only rode once and tailed off towards the back of the field due to an unconfirmed report of what was a pinched nerve in his neck /shoulder.

 

The B solos was also marred by a nasty looking fall to Travis Fenton who also clipped the back wheel of the rider in front and came down heavily on what looked like his shoulder. Hope he is ok with no serious damage. James Godden in his first year out of the juniors looked useful with two wins and two seconds and nice to see him gaining in confidence.

 

Nothing to do with the racing but I happened to be seated near a couple of ladies with their children and we got talking and it transpired they were visiting Victoria from Hobart with their partners as a combination "weekend away / let hubby have a ride with the B graders" holiday. When I asked how many solo riders they had in Hobart they replied "just the two" and that they had managed to get a place during car meetings down there as a demonstration thing. Here's hoping their efforts to get solos established in Tasmania are a success.