HAYLEY Wolfenden led the charge for the Bathurst BMX Club at the opening round of the 2018 National Series by securing a race win and an overall podium at the Penrith event.
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Wolfenden won the second of her women’s 17-24 years moto races over the weekend – finishing runner-up in her other two runs – to qualify for the final.
New Zealand’s Holly Woodcock-Takurua had already beaten the Bathurst rider twice in the qualifying races and showed her class to race away with the final.
The battle for the runner-up spot was a cracker between Wolfenden and Victoria’s Iesha Anderson.
Anderson got ahead of Wolfenden on the opening turn but the Bathurst rider threatened to make a comeback on the third straight.
The challenge from Wolfenden was unsuccessful.
Holly Woodcock-Takurua finished the final in 40.25 seconds while there was little separating Anderson (40.84) and Wolfenden (41.04).
However, because Wolfenden qualified with a better record than Anderson she finished the weekend’s racing sitting second on the pointscore.
“I thought I had her for a moment there but being on the outside meant that I needed to be carrying more speed to make a challenge,” Wolfenden said, referring to her battle with Anderson.
“I got the shock of my life racing against the Kiwi girl. She was very good. In my second race I got the win in a photo finish so that was very satisfying. Considering the amount of mistakes I made in that race I was very happy.
“I got a bit closer to the Kiwi girl in the third race and I got a personal best time for the track [40.94 seconds].
“The goal for me was to finish top three in my age group and improve on my times so I was happy with how I went.”
The Bathurst contingent in Penrith included men’s 17-24 years riders Joel Goulding and Caleb Hampton plus under 7s sprockets rider Dominic Pappas.
Goulding made a promising start to his Penrith campaign by finishing top three in all his moto races, qualifying seventh fastest for the semi-finals.
Unfortunately Golding’s round came to an end in the semi-finals after crashing out.
Hampton picked up a third place on his way to securing a spot in the all-important top 16.
He finished his semi-final run in seventh.
Pappas was a part of the non-competitive under 7s age group and loved every second of his first major BMX event.
“That was his first event and as a coach I was absolutely stoked for him. He’s only been in the sport for four months. His mum told me afterwards how much he’s excited for the next race,” Wolfenden said.
“Joel unfortunately crashed out in the semi-finals. He was taking a risky move to try and get into the final and his tyre slipped out from underneath him.
“I think Caleb’s pretty satisfied with his result. He’s made some good improvements to get himself into the semi-finals.”