By Lachlan Onions
RIDERS from across the state descended on McNamara Park over the weekend for the first round of the 2023 SA State Championships, which doubled as the Easter Cup.
After three days of racing, it all came down to Race 44 – the Easter Cup feature race.
South East racer Dallas Skeer swept the field to claim a three-second win in the 12-lap event.
Skeer also set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:11.654 – more than six tenths of a second faster than anyone else’s fastest lap in the final race.
Charles Holding took home second place, while Paul Van Der Heiden claimed the final place on the podium.
In the Junior Easter Cup feature race, Rikki Henry claimed a nail-biting one-second win over Archie Schmidt in the five-lap contest.
With one lap left in the race, Henry, Schmidt and Ryder Gilbert were separated by just six tenths of a second.
An incident on the final lap meant Gilbert fell to sixth place at the end of the race, while Henry set a fastest lap to see off Schmidt and claim the victory.
Brodie Gawith claimed victory in the Lightweight feature race in a battle which went down to the wire.
Gilbert was runner-up by 1.74 seconds, while Olly Simpson rounded out the podium 2.5 seconds behind the leader.
Sam Pezzetta was the unfortunate one to miss out on the podium after ending the race in fourth, just 2.61 seconds behind Gawith.
In the consolation race, Chris Greene claimed the win in style, 18 seconds ahead of his nearest opponent.
Greg Murdock was runner-up and Ben Lucchitti rounded out the podium places.
