With the neutral laps done the pace picked up sharply with lap times dropping to a minute and half. The bell was rung for the first prime on lap 8 as I stood by the lapboard holding a bottle of Whitesails Snake Island ale in the air. The thirstiest rider to pay attention was James Grant who easily took the sprint while the rest of the pack continued on at pace. From there several attacks were launched but were all quickly pulled back into the pack. No one wanted a repeat of the race where they let 4 riders get away and lap the field several weeks ago.
The second prime was on lap 19. Surprisingly Sean Lunny and James Sage took that sprint by a substantial margin. I say surprising because they typically wait until after the sprint to attack when everyone is coasting through to recover. Kevin Park was third over a second back, pushing furiously to keep in contact with James and Sean. He probably didn't want to contest the sprint, but with only 1 point separating them in the series he couldn't afford to let them get away.
On lap 30 newcomer Tim Butler put in a serious attack on the pack opening up a six second lead on the main bunch which he held for 2 laps.
At three laps to go Sean Lunny came to the front and turned up the pace trying to create a separation for James to get away but the pack remained close together.
On the final lap it seemed that everyone sat up to let James and Kevin fight it out on their own as the two of them rolled into sight with no one else around. But Kevin had the kick left in his legs to take it to the line getting the win.
