Wednesday night's 24 mile club road race was the third and last in the club calendar for this season and, like the previous two, it was blessed by decent weather. The race was split into two groups with the first group getting a six minute start over the scratch group. The first group, as in previous races, contained a mixture of novices, veterans and two or three old hands making a tentative return to club competition. On the first lap,one of the club's newest members, the promising 16 year old Richard Montgomery, was unfortunate to miss the turn at Hightrees, effectively isolating him for the rest of the race. Fortunately, there were still a few strong riders in the group and, marshalled by old hands Eric Blayney and Russell Moreland, they looked strong enough to stay away. However the pace began to tell and after one lap, the lead group was down to six riders with one or two men starting to miss turns at the front. By the end of the second lap the lead was down to less than two minutes but the scratch group only managed to reel them in with less than a mile to go and it all came down to a bunch sprint over the final 200 metres. Victory went to Neil McKenna, back racing after a layoff due to injury and he was followed in quick succession by Philip Marshall, Paul Ferguson, Brian Marshall, Owen Parkes, Russell Moreland and Keith Millar, all in the same time as the winner. The scratch group completed the 24 miles in 59 minutes and the first group riders were home in 65 minutes.
