Race Report - 11 August 2012 – Beast of the East, Te Tipua
Saturday provided us with a beautiful mild and sunny day for the last race in the Winter Points Series, over the undulating Beast of the East circuit in the picturesque Te Tipua area.
None of the series leaders across the grades had their jerseys safely secured heading into the final race of the series and this made for some exciting and aggressive racing.
In C Grade, Neil Sutherland rode very strongly taking the win from Garry Perkins and Matt Malcolm, with Neil’s impressive late run seeing him take out the C Grade series on 64 points, from Wally Kopae on 52 points and Garry Perkins 3rd on 45 points. Excellent racing gentlemen!
In B Grade, Andrew Lienert rode superbly to take the win in a sprint finish from Blake Tait-Jones and Vaughan Edie, pulling himself up to 1st equal with previous points leader Vaughan Edie, both men finishing the series on 56 points, with Wayne Miller in 2nd on 45 points and Blake Tait-Jones 3rd on 40 points. Top effort fellas!!
A Grade set out at a blistering pace, with an early break-away forming, containing Robert Huisman, who was sitting 2nd on points in the series, Pieter Bulling and Brad Evans from Otago. The three rode together strongly, putting nearly 3 minutes into the chasing bunch containing series leader Mat Zenovich. Huisman unleashed an impressive sprint in the finale to take the race win from Evans and Bulling, with Huisman also taking out the series lead on 62 points from Brad Tuhi on 52 points and Mat Zenovich on 51 points. Really close and exciting racing!
As always, a huge thank you goes out to our Marshalls and helpers on the day – Wally Kopae, Libby Bayne, Jos Beadle, Ant Leathart, Tony Hammington, Brendan Monaghan, Lynette Mattingly, Andy Whyte, Sid Cumming and everyone else who pitched in to make sure the race ran smoothly! Extra special thanks goes to Jos Miller who came and opened Te Tipua School to allow us to use the bathrooms - and waited there for the whole day to close it up again. THANK YOU!!
Overall, the general consensus is that the winter points series was really fun and very successful, with great numbers at the races, a good variety of courses, and some excellent positive racing. Great to hear! We will very much look forward to a summer series!
In the meantime, road racing continues next week at Waianiwa (note, there is no junior racing due to the junior camp at Borland), before a break during the week of Junior Worlds, then we launch back into it again back out at Te Tipua with the New Vale Coal Circuit as we ramp up to the Yunca Tour.
Race Results:
C Grade
1 Neil Sutherland
2 Garry Perkins
3 Matt Malcolm
4 Andy McIntyre
B Grade
1 Andrew Lienert
2 Blake Tait-Jones
3 Vaughan Edie
4 Sier Vermunt
A Grade
1 Robert Huisman
2 Brad Evans
3 Pieter Bulling
4 Brad Tuhi
Winter Points Series
C Grade
1 Neil Sutherland - 64 points
2 Wally Kopae – 52 points
3 Garry Perkins – 45 Points
B Grade
1 Vaughan Edie and Andrew Lienert – 56 points
2 Wayne Miller – 45 points
3 Blake Tait-Jones – 40 points
A Grade
1 Robert Huisman – 62 points
2 Bradley Tuhi – 52 points
3 Mathew Zenovich – 51 points