FOUR finalists, two podiums – the latest round of the BMX New South Wales State Series saw Bathurst BMX Club riders impress once again.
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Siblings Chelsie and Liam Westman, Hayley Wolfenden and Caleb Hampton all made the almost four-hour trek to compete at the Southlake Open where they further boosted their chances of an overall strong finish in the State Series.
“The State Series takes your four best rounds, so naturally if you attend more rounds, you have got more chance of having four better rounds,” Wolfenden explained.
“If you only attend four rounds and one of them is a bad day, you’ll get bad points for that round.
“There’s qualifying too, so you could have someone with the most points, but if they don’t attend a country round of the series they don’t qualify to take it out.
“There are a lot of little twisty technicalities in it, so if you are chasing it, it makes it worthwhile to compete. I’m not really chasing it myself, it’s just a track I like.”
No doubt after Sunday, Southlake is a track Wolfenden likes even more given she placed second in the final of the women’s 17-24 division.
She qualified with a third, second and fourth in her motos, while in the decider only star Sydney BMX Club junior Zoe Cooper beat her to the line.
“She’s racing pro, she’s really good and she’s been doing it a fair while,” Wolfenden said.
“I did better than I expected, I did well in my motos and in that third moto I backed it off as I didn’t have the fitness to hold out for the full day otherwise.”
Chelsie Westman joined Wolfenden in earning a podium finish at Southlake. She placed third in each of her 14 girls motos and was third once more in the final behind Zoe Johnston and Destiny Brien.
Both Liam Westman and Hampton reached the final of the 17-24 men’s class where they placed fourth and sixth respectively.
“Liam rode smart through his motos and did what he needed to do to qualify and gave it a crack in the final,” Wolfenden said.
“Then Caleb stepped up and managed to crack a spot in the final as well.”
Two more Bathurst club members contested the state series round, father and son Phil and Bradley Martin gaining valuable experience.
Bradley picked up a seventh and two eighth placings in his 11 years boys motos, while Phil notched up two fifths and a sixth in the 45-49 cruiser men’s category motos.
Meanwhile, the Bathurst BMX Club will stage a club racing day this Saturday and is encouraging all of its members to hit the track.
Sign on is between 2-3pm with racing to commence at 3.20pm. The cost for the day is $7.