The final race of the day had everything and the fans who turned out were treated to an enthralling, drama-charged event.

Local riders Jye Ethridge, Alan McDonald and Josh Pickering qualified directly into the A Final and were joined by Fletcher Tydd, who qualified by winning the B Final. 

With the race at half distance and Alan McDonald leading, Fletcher Tydd fell in turns three/four and going in to the second last lap, Jye Ethridge fell in turns one/two and was temporarily wedged under the airbag safety fence.

The race was brought to a halt and both Tydd and Ethridge were excluded, leaving Pickering and McDonald in a two-rider match race to decide the winner – and what a race. 

The pair raced wheel to wheel for the whole four laps with only elbow room separating them on several occasions. Any slight advantage was short-lived with the lead chopping and changing, sometimes twice within a lap of the track. 

When the chequered flag fell, Pickering was a narrow winner from McDonald with the crowd responding by ­giving the pair a standing ovation.

Pickering from Heddon Greta has been off the speedway scene for some time, mixing up his competition with dirt track and road racing events.

But he looked anything but a stranger last Saturday with a blistering performance.

Earlier in the day Cowra junior Matthew Gilmore won the prestigious Todd Wiltshire Trophy from Queensland’s Jedd List. 

Local rider Jimmy Jones (Greta) finished third with another Queenslander, Cordell Rogerson finishing fourth. The youngsters received their trophies from Todd Wiltshire, who had high praise of their skills and of the Kurri Kurri Speedway Club for their encouragement of junior riders.

The next two race meetings at Kurri Kurri Speedway will be back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5 ­featuring rounds of the 

2014 Heffernan Motorsport Winter Challenge with ­junior events in the morning and the senior events in the afternoon.