Burkes Cycles Speed League Spring Series R6: Burke vs Perry in Sprint Ace Thriller!

Gideon Burke won a thrilling The Lanes Sprint Ace ride off at the sixth round of the Burkes Cycles Speed League Spring Series at the Wellington Velodrome on Sunday December 4.

Burke was second to Grant Perry in the qualifying event, the A grade 2 Lap Sprinters’ Scratch, in which the first two riders go through to race a one-on-one match sprint for Sprint Ace honours.

Perry and Burke guarded each other closely until the final 200m when Perry dropped down the banking and launched his sprint. Burke was right on him though and remained out of the saddle as the raced neck and neck into the finishing straight. Burke was given the victory by less than a tyre’s width and the organisers are considering getting a camera to help capture future tight finishes!

Burke now jumps into the men’s overall Sprint Ace lead ahead of Bruce Cook. Lisa Hunkin won the women’s Sprint Ace ride off against an improving Ruby Straugheir to continue her unbeaten run in the competition.

In the ding-dong battle for under 13 supremacy, Jackson Moyle racked up 13 points to leap ahead of the absent Thomas Joyce. Millie Donald edged a few points further ahead of Mikayla Perry with wins in the D2 grade Elimination and Sprinters’ Scratch races.

Top-Dad Chris Goodger took a win in the C grade Elimination ahead of Ryan Bogardus who bounced back for a class victory in the Sprinters’ Scratch.

Meeting closer was the A grade 30 Lap Super Scratch. An early breakaway of Max Uivel and Rinze Shuurmans spent 10 laps ahead of the pack, scooping up the mid-race prime points but were caught with 18 to go. Attacks peppered the second half of the race, whittling down the field to just Mike Thomas, Grant Perry, Rinze Shuurmans and Nick Warren for the closing laps.

With Thomas and Perry closely marking Warren it was going to come down to a sprint. Warren chose to lead it out but Thomas came over the top for his best win in the A grade. Warren was second with Perry third and Shuurmans fourth. The win also helped propell Rivet Racing to the top of the Zeal Commercial Interiors teams’ prize ahead of Lone Rangers.

Burkes Cycles Speed League 2016-17 category leaders: Senior/ Under 19: Nick Warren Female: Lisa Hunkin Under 17 girls: Grace Saywell Under 17 boys: Louis Hodgkinson Under 15 girls: Amelia Taylor Under 15 boys: Josh Turnbull Under 13 girls: Zoe Perry Under 13 boys: Thomas Joyce Under 11 girls: Millie Donald