Team Welwyn riders in Spalding Grass Track Action

Following his brilliant weekend at Mildenhall, Phil Lisher was back in action at the Spalding Grass Track last weekend, along with club-mate Simon Layfield. With Simon now coming back to form and Phil absolutely flying, they looked forward to a good day’s racing at this excellent promotion. Phil opened the day with a win in the 400M Scratch, winning a superb track frame, kindly donated by www.webbline.co.uk, one of the meeting sponsors. In the Devil take the Hindmost that followed Phil was second, pipped at the line by Lewis Meadows, York Cycle Works, while Simon finished in fifth place.

In the 3km+ Unknown Distance, for riders not qualifying for the 400M Final, Simon finished in fourth place behind local star Alex Avery, of the promoting club while the 3km Scratch was a win for Phil with Simon in sixth place. In the ‘Win and Out’ event, similar to a Course de Primes, both Simon and Phil succeeded in reaching the Final sixth riders and Phil won the event, however a bad crash involving two of the Spalding CC riders gave Simon a scare as the race entered the second lap and he was duly cautious in the re-run for second to sixth places, finishing fifth.

In the 8KM Scratch that concluded the weekend, Phil covered an early move by Alex Avery, which also took Lewis Meadows clear of the field. With the gap swiftly widening to half a lap it was soon clear that the race was over for much of the field and as Phil and Meadows dropped Avery it turned into a two horse race. As the flying twosome started to lap the field in the final two kilometres of the race, Phil began to pull clear of a tiring Meadows and finished the race alone, another convincing win, while Simon came in behind the chasing group but took a solid ninth place.

Sunday saw Team Welwyn members in enjoyable and sociable club run action, stopping at the ever-popular Emily’s Tea Room in Whitwell. Next weekend Phil has a mini-break before starting preparation for the National Hill Climb Championship in late October, while Simon takes on pacing duties at the Reading Dernyfest.