Another small turnout for today's graded scratch racing at Laanecoorie, partly due to a strong representation of Central Vic Vets at tomorrow's Open in Colac.

A and B grade were up for five laps of the 8.4 km kermesse circuit while the small C grade field tackled four with Ken Lacey taking the honours. In a show of solidarity the B Grade field stuck together until the last lap when Garry Ford had a couple of unsuccessful dips off the front. It turned into a long-haul drag race to the finish between Michael McCartney and Andrew Berry over the last few hundred metres with Andrew just hanging on to take the honours over Michael and David Hare in third. The A grade race got off to a flyer when Brett Williams charged out of the blocks for his customary in-race warm-up and the pace remained high for the whole journey which, together with the strong cross-winds, made breakaways virtually impossible. Darren McKellar and Andrew Innes ratcheted up the pace with a couple of kilometers to go, shaking a couple loose and softening up the sprinters left in the bunch. Andrew capped off a strong ride to win from an equally impressive Darren McKellar and tenacious Robert Gartside in third. Good luck to our riders in tomorrow's Open.