The best riders from around the Central West will compete in a broad cross-section of events, and there will be one particularly novel race that will provide a spectacle if nothing else.

In something of a recreation, a group of riders will take part in a four-lap exhibition event on penny farthing bikes, just as entrants would have done during the very first documented edition of the Western Championships in 1886.

“John Kitchen is a local guy here in Bathurst who rides one from time to time, and he’s built a couple of them as well,” Andrew Carter, who will race the serious disciplines as well as the penny-farthing race tonight, said.

“He’s borrowed maybe six of them from some people in Sydney, and with the Proclamation Day celebrations for Bathurst coming up, we’re doing a demonstration, old-fashioned style four-lap race at the Championships.

“I say race in inverted commas though, I don’t know that we will be going particularly hard.”

Though he’s been riding for a long time, Carter says that he is still getting used to the unusual machines and being able to control them.

“I rode one very briefly to begin with, literally only about 100 metres or so,” he said.

“Then John did a come-and-try day where I gave it a bit more of a go, probably for 15 or 20 minutes in total. It is pretty tricky because your drive wheel is also your steering wheel.

“There is even a bit of an art to getting on and off the bike, particularly getting off it. The brakes don’t work particularly well and you can’t see the pedal you need to step down onto when you’re getting off, it is fairly precarious.”

For the actual main event, Carter is optimistic that his best performances could net him a couple of high finishes, but he has no idea what to expect once racing gets underway.

“I’ll be racing in all the disciplines I think. It is a bit different to a normal carnival and they’ll be staging a time trial, a sprint derby, scratch races and that sort of thing, though I’m not 100 per cent sure of the exact program,” he said.

“I haven’t been doing a lot of specific training, I’m fit but not race-fit. I raced in Dubbo maybe three weeks ago at a fairly big track carnival and picked up a couple of wins and a second in A grade, which was a nice finish.

“This meet hasn’t been held for a long time, I think maybe for a decade as far as track championships go, so it is pretty prestigious. For most of us this is only a level below State Championships.

“I know I personally haven’t competed at this competition before except the junior version maybe 15 or 20 years ago, so we’re pretty rapt that it is back.”