Round 3 of the Western Regions was definitely an event for the ladies with the largest turn out of female participants in the Western Series’ history! 16 ladies took to the track to compete in the largest contingent of female riders for the Ladies Clubman class.
Taylor Zeestraten and Nicole Hatton enjoyed the comfort of their home track, knowledge of the track paid off for these ladies taking out the day, first and second respectively. Jessie Dreger took out third place overall with a great performance. Zeestraten on a KTM 150, Hatton on a Yamaha 250 & Dreger on a KTM 350 were a close pack leading the race, they certainty challenged each other to strive for peak performance. Dreger coming back into the Western Regions after getting the all clear on a broken wrist that she scored racing the first round of the Victorian Championships.
The junior girls also put on a good display and gave the boys a run for their money with Emily Lambert placing 9th and Nia Salleh placing 14th in the 65cc C-grade out of a field of 22! In the 85cc Big Wheel C-grade Bianca Carter put in a phenomenal effort placing 12th, followed by Maggie Stacey coming in 14th and Gemma Parsons placing 15th in a field of 16 competitors! Ellie Beecroft was the only female in the field for the 125cc C-grade class and placed 6th overall.
It was a weekend full of stellar performances from all of the ladies, we are so proud of what they have all achieved and cannot wait to see how they go in the upcoming rounds!
With a lot of the expert women missing round 3, due to enduro commitments or racing in the worlds, unfortunately this meant that the Womens expert class did not run.
Billy Closter in the A-grade lites, put on a good show, Closter has not raced since the Westerns last year, so it was great to see him in top form to take out the overall win. Jarrod Reed put up one heck of a challenge for Closter, however Reed seems to have developed a habit of falling off, then getting run over by another competitor, managing to pick himself back up and somehow continuing to race! This is now the second time this has happened! The first was at the Horsham Victorian Championships, Reed again fell off, was run over by another competitor and amazingly got up and continued to race! Reed is truly channelling his inner Michael Allessie!
With Ballarat Rovers continuing to improve the track all the time, it will be great to see how the Western Region competitors will go in the final round of the Victorian Junior Championships at Ballarat later this year.
For all results please visit: https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1517271
Photo Credit: Karen Morriss Photography – https://www.facebook.com/groups/945599025504435/about/