Chandler Challenge Round 1 Report

Last Saturday night saw the first round of the Chandler Challenge Track team series. KPCC is very pleased to field a team in this series as it represents a fantastic opportunity for all of our club “trackies” to participate in some competitive track racing, be it as a Challenge Team member or in one of the many the support events.

Steph in a great position during the Womens Motor Paced Scratch Race

Steph in a great position during the Womens Motor Paced Scratch Race

We were very fortunate that the rain cleared late afternoon for a perfect evening of racing. Our race team for Saturday consisted of Matthew Wynn, Michael Keetman, Ben Ellen, Conor McGrath and Steph Byrom. Conor also took the role of team coach with Aaron Urquhart team manager and Michael Freer team mechanic.

Team KP Camp

Team KP Camp

There was some strong completion on the night, in addition to Team KPCC teams from Repsych x2, Lifecycle x2, Ipswich and the Brisbane Hip Clinic represented. Racing was tough, however highlights of the night for our team included a 4th place in the Italian pursuit final, Stephs awesome effort to finish in the leading bunch in the womens scratch race, Conors and Bens effort in their respective derby heats, with Ben leading neck and neck right until final sprint in his heat. The final race of the night was a 60 lap points race (that’s 20 kilometres of track racing!) team KPCC was represented by Matt and Michael who both rode admirably. Whilst our team did not finish first on the night all of our riders thoroughly enjoyed their racing and did our club proud.

The next round of the Chandler Challenge is on Saturday the 10th of October. We would encourage all our trackies to enter the support events and if you’re  not a trackie, come along and have some fun as a spectator or volunteer to help for the night!