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Castrol Cross Woodleigh Raceway� - 31/10/99 Heartbreaks, upsets & excitement Weather We were worried about track conditions on Saturday, as it poured up until 5:00 AM that morning. The track was ridable, but there were too many pools of water, & once practice began, some of those pools turned to slush. Track personell dug out trenches to channel water off of the track. This indeed worked, but it helped alot more when the bulldozer arrived. We must commend the promoters & organizers of Castrol Cross, & all the track workers for a job well done on preparing the track for raceday. Pee Wee A great display of speed and domination by none other than young Anthony Mafood. This kid took all three motos by storm. Only in the second moto he had to get around the very fast Peter Issa. Issa & Mafood are two very, very fast kids; and throughout the day Issa was very worthy competition for Mafood. While in the lead during the second moto (and under pressure from Mafood), Issa went over a jump a little too fast & as a result, upon landing his handle bars twisted downwards (because his clamps were'nt tight enough). A good decision was made by the youngster as he pulled off of the track, straightened his bars, and immediately rode off to re-join the race. He only lost two positions, but while chasing down Brandon Samms for 2nd position he went down in a corner. Luckily he got up and finished in 3rd before Jared Wright (who did well & stayed up all day) could take advantage of the situation. Overall results: Anthony Mafood 1-1-1 (finishing position in all three motos) Peter Issa 2-3-2 Brandon Samms 3-2-3 Jared Wright 4-4-4 Joshua Wright 5-5-5 (raced a 50cc bike & was awarded 1st for that class) 80cc Most action packed class of the day! A field packed with riders as well as excitement. Without a doubt, the two biggest names going into this event were Sebastian Ray & John Ammar. In moto-1it was Luke Hamilton out in front until Ray, who started in 2nd, took the lead & stayed there. John Ammar suffered from a bad start (about 6th) & had problems getting around Christian Sasso & Darell Ho. By the second lap Ammar was in 4th, & closing in on Justin Ried. On the very last lap after numerous attempts, John Ammar made a clean, smooth pass for 3rd place Moto-2 was totally different however, John Ammar took the hole-shot & ran away with it. Sebastian Ray was on Ammar's tail the entire race, and made a few attempts for the lead. But Ammar rode a solid race and closed the door on Ray every time he tried to slip up the inside. In the third moto, it was Ray followed by Ammar until Sebastian's front wheel washed out in a corner. Ray would get going again in 7th place. Ammar then pulled away from Justin Ried, Luke Hamilton, & the rest of the field. Ray got up as fast as he could cut through the rest of the field. While Ray made his charge, Luke Hamilton got a bit squirely while in mid air, & had a spectacular get off over the finish line jump. The crowd oohed, as they saw Hamilton get off upon landing & then get right back on his bike to finish the race in 4th.� Amazingly, Sebastian Ray caught up to Ammar on the second to last lap, & on the last lap unexpectedly got around Ammar by using a lower line over a jump on the finish line straight. Ammar was edged out for 1st by half a bike length. 125cc Very small field of participants. We would just like to say that all you riders out there that come out to Woodleigh for practice & never show up for the races deserve a kick in the head. Moto-1, Craig Powell got out in the lead with Christian Sale in second. Powell pulled away almost too quickly, & it seemed that Sale was suffering from a mechanical problem, as he kept fiddling with something on his handle bar. We later learned that Sale Had clutch problems. He said it was his fault though, as he adjusted it before the race as he always did only the wrong way, it had too much clutch. In moto-2 Powell edged out Sale once again. Powell then started to pull away yet again, but Sale closed the gap by the very last lap. Unfortunately Christian Sale went down in a corner while in second place. He did not get up, & the Ambucare ambulance rushed over and took him in, as sale re-injured his knee to which he had torn a ligament at the last race meet (Thunder Cross). Sprint Class Great ride by Craig Powell, who while racing a 125, got around John Ammar Sr. (who rode a 400cc machine) on several occasions. But Ammar just blew past him once they reached the long straight-away. John Ammar took the victory, with Powell very close behind & Sebastian Ray in 3rd spot. |
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