74th Tom Lowry Memorial Race Report
Sunday 8th May 2016 – by Paul George

I woke early on Sunday morning to torrential rain on my tin roof. The forecast, rain, lots of it and cold. If it wasn’t for the fact I was giving our club VP a lift down to Collie I might well have gone back to bed. Anyway the race started at 12pm so leaving around 8:30am we had plenty of time to drive down, chat to a few familiar faces, register and warm up.
A good turnout again with about 30 riders in each grade despite the weather and as usual there were a bunch of keen SPR members rolling around trying to warm up. I say trying because it was cold, about 10 degrees. The Collie Motorplex is a great venue made available for this race each year offering plenty of parking, toilets and shelter if required. The course for all grades starts and finishes with a lap of the race track which is good fun although a little slippery when wet.
At 12:05pm we (B Grade Men and A Grade Women) were off, a lap around the track then out onto the road for about 15km, back to the Motorplex for another lap then back out onto the road for another 26km and back again for the final lap. All up 86km. Easy.
The first loop out and back was fairly sedate with no one wanting to take the lead into the cold southerly. At this point it had been raining for a while so we were all cold and wet. Leaving the Motorplex for the second time the weather cleared a little and the pace picked up. This is a pretty place to ride, rolling green hills, cows, horses, sheep etc. The biggest climb was only about 50m so this is a good race for the flat roaders.

Half way out to the 26km turn around a light touch of arms behind me brought a few riders down. Unfortunately Julian Johnson and Luke Jones got caught up in that. Julian’s race was over and Luke lost a few minutes but pushed on with a big solo TT effort to the finish. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt. Crashes happen sometimes but a lot of them can be avoided. When we ride in close proximity to each other we need to hold the line we are riding and not make sudden changes to speed and direction.
The rest of the race was quick with attacks up and over most of the rolling hills but no break away held for long with the group quickly chasing everything down. Coming into the Motorplex for the final lap there were only about 12 riders left in the front group. In that group Jesse Fergie positioned well in the final lap finished 3rd, I finished 7th and Andrew Ballam not far behind in 11th. In B grade women Lorna Henson finished 2nd.
In A grade, both Patrick Saccani-Williams and Jarred Anderson both pulled out with flat tyres while Alec Vukovich finished strong in 4th place and Thomas Perry in 11th. In A grade women Sarah Duffield and Amanda Nabi finished in 2nd and 3rd position.
In C grade, Alex Bubner, a first timer to Collie, finished a good race in 8th place.
The next race for me is the first of the Pickering Brook Series races on the 22nd May. See you there