Even though Graves was focusing on riding for country points, beating his fellow High Performance team mate, Luke Madill still gave him some extra assurance.
“Yes it was really good to beat him (Madill). I knew he was going to be super fast here on his home track,” explained Graves. “Everybody always races better on their home tracks.”
With only the top three riders scoring the important points for Australia it was Queenslander, Kamakazi, who had a disappointing run just finishing out of the final after placing fifth in the semi.
The women’s race saw a strong comeback by Sydney based, Nicole Callisto. Callisto’s recent knee reconstructions appeared fully recovered as she dominated every elite women's race. After only being allowed to train for the last six weeks the former World Junior Champion says her knee is feeling as strong as ever.
“It hasn’t been better,” she claimed. “I’m feeling strong as well. I got out and led from the start and I jumped the step up so that gave me an advantage. I was just aggressive from the start and on every straight."
The 20 year old impressed her coach, former national team coach, Sean Dwight.
“This will really help her confidence and you’ve got to win races to do that,” said Dwight. “This will have an enormous effect on her and the track in Penrith is one of the most technical in Australia. This is the first step toward building her Olympic preparation. Now is the time to be coming into form.”
Her training partner Melissa Mankowski placed second. Mankowski now moves into equal second place with fellow Queenslander, Krystal Cranfield. Cranfield suffered a fall in the heats but regained composure to place third ahead of National Champion Tanya Bailey in fifth and Kelly Percy in fourth.
In the junior men's Adelaide's Sam Willoughby won and cemented his lead in the series while women's leader, Lauren Reynolds from Bunbury was beaten by Canberra's Caroline Buchanan but maintains her lead.
On Sunday morning riders return to the Penrith track for the tenth round of the Oceania Ranking Series which double as the seventh National Probikx and Champbikx event. With dryer conditions and riders keen to prove a points after today's results racing is expected to be fast and furious.
2008 UCI BMX Pacific-Oceania Ranking Series
Elite men:
1 Marc WIllers 78
2 Jared Graves 76
3 Luke Madill 72
4 Kamikazi 54
5 Brian Kirkhm 46
6 Billy Jolliffe 45
7 Alex Cameron 44
8 Steven Wong 33
Elite women:
1 Sarah Walker 84
2 Melisa Mankowski 66
3 Krystal Cranfield 66
4 Ziggy Callan 61
5 Tanya Bailey 54
6 Nicole Callisto 48
7 Serena Adamson 37
8 Kelley Percy 35
Queensland’s Jared Graves and Perth’s Nicole Callisto both improved Australia’s chances of taking the maximum number of BMX riders to the Beijing 2008 Olympics. By winning ahead of competing countries New Zealand, China, Japan and Hong Kong today in Penrith, the Australians gained valuable UCI points from this Oceania Round 9. Former mountain bike rider, 25 year old Graves, got an early lead on New Zealand’s Olympic hopeful Marc Willers. Close contact in the first turn between Willers and Penrith’s Luke Madill gave the kiwi second place. After getting an unlucky outside starting lane Madill was still content with third place on his home track. Graves saved some power throughout the earlier heats but in the final it was not all easily sailing. “It was a bit of a shady lap in the final. I had a few moments but I had a good start and held it from there,” explained Graves.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.