FOR the running of Saturday’s feature race, the Max Campbell memorial, the Footscray Cycling Club was privileged to have Max’s wife and son at the Victoria University circuit to tell older members and those new to the club about Max’s lifelong love of cycling and the Footscray Cycling Club.
A strong field of regular A Grade riders was briefed by Commissaire Mark Zanatta at 11am.
The race started with the usual flurry of attacks, with Miles DaCosta trying several times to get off the front and have someone come across to join him.
However, he was not successful and although a few riders were dropped along the way, the majority of the field was still together with one lap to go.
Ben O’Leary tried an uncustomary attack as the bell sounded but when the field emerged from behind the skidpan area, it was Paul Anders who was in the lead, with the familiar form of Dom Dudkiewicz in hot pursuit.
Dom waited until he could sense Anders was beginning to tire and then launched his sprint down the left of the road, taking the win over a tiring Anders with Shaun Gatter rounding out the podium.
A large field were assembled for the B Grade race and the pace was on from the start with several riders finding the early going just a bit too fast.
As always in B Grade the speed was high for the whole race and several riders attacked but were left out alone for a lap or two until they tired and were reabsorbed into the bunch.
With the finish line approaching, Bob Shannon and Tim Robertson gained a small advantage on the bunch and it looked like they were going to have the first two placings between them as they led into the final straight.
However a fast-moving Paul Kenny came from about six lengths back into the last corner and closed in on the leaders very quickly, sprinting straight past to win from Bob Shannon and Tim Robertson.
In C Grade results, Merrick D’Souza claimed an impressive win while Neil Turner took out D Grade.
