The Night Heffron Rides for Two Families
Every Tuesday night at Heffron, the rhythm is familiar.
Riders roll in as the sun begins to drop. The heat of the day eases. Shadows stretch across the circuit. Numbers are pinned on jerseys while the sky shifts from bright afternoon to that soft, golden edge that only daylight saving brings.
I don’t race these nights — my team does, “The Playas” the Hydraplay CIOVITA Racing Team — but I have the privilege of watching it all unfold from the sidelines with a mic in my hand as I have the honour of commentating.
And once a year, you can feel when the night is a little different. There’s more buzz, more spark, more nervous excitement.
A night that carries more than speed
The Memorial night at Tuesday Night Heffron isn’t just another round on the calendar. It’s the one night each season where the racing carries something heavier, and more meaningful, than points, prizes, or bragging rights.
Held on (roughly) the same evening each year, the Joseph Sunde Memorial and the Anthony Spurgeon (Snr) Memorial bring the entire community together to honour two names that are forever part of this TNH history.
This year, that meaning was unmistakable.
From behind the Mic, I could feel it
I had the honour of commentating the night alongside Angus “Gussy” Calder, and it’s fair to say that commentating Tuesday Night Heffron has become one of the genuine highlights of my week.
It’s fast, unpredictable, and endlessly entertaining, but this night was something else entirely.
From the opening laps of both races, the tempo was higher than usual. Not chaotic. Not reckless. Just committed. Sure there were a few crashes but it’s bike racing not chess!
Both memorial races were hard fought, producing some of the fastest laps we’ve seen around the Heffron circuit. Attacks were sharper. Chases were relentless. Riders pushed that extra margin, the one you only find when the race means more than just a result.
From the mic, it was obvious: people were riding with intent, in honour of the prestige and history of these races. I nearly popped a blood vessel on more than one occasion as the race lit up the night like NYE fireworks.
The Sunde: racing stripped back to its truth
The Joseph Sunde Memorial, raced as an A Grade scratch race, delivered exactly what the format promises, brutal honesty.
No handicaps. No concessions. Just strength, timing, and the willingness to suffer a little more than the rider next to you.
Joseph Sunde passed away in 1993 after an 18-month battle with leukemia. While many riders lining up today may never have known him personally, the respect for his name still moves through the bunch.
From behind the mic, you could see it in the way the race unfolded, you saw well known weekly stalwarts take it up a notch and race hard, clean, and uncompromisingly tough!.
The Spurgeon: where Heffron’s heart shows itself
If the Sunde is about purity, the Anthony Spurgeon (Snr) Memorial is about heart.
Run as a B/C Grade handicap, it showcased everything that makes Heffron special: doggedly brutal grit, and that moment when the gap starts to come back and riders realise they’ll need to find more than they thought they had if they want to top step.
Anthony Spurgeon Senior passed away in 2000 after battling leukemia, and his memorial race always feels deeply personal to this place. Spurge Junior is nopt only the bell ringer on this beautiful night of racing he is a former dominating watt bomber with a bog full of victories over many years on a Tuesday night.
As the sun continued to sink and the shadows grew longer, every group rode like it mattered, because it did.
120 riders, one shared purpose
This year, 120 riders turned up for the Memorial night.
That number isn’t about scale. It’s about intent.
It’s a sign of respect.
A quiet show of gratitude.
And a collective acknowledgement of the two families who continue to share this night with the Heffron community year after year.
From the sidelines, you notice it; the focus on faces, the extra stillness before the start, the way the air feels just a little heavier than usual.
Racing as remembrance
A memorial race does something rare.
It turns loss into legacy.
It transforms memory into motion.
And it ensures that names are carried forward, not quietly, but at speed.
On this night, riders didn’t just race the circuit.
They honoured Joseph Sunde.
They honoured Anthony Spurgeon (Snr).
They honoured the families.
And they honoured what Heffron has always stood for; community, respect, and shared history.
As the final laps ticked over and the daylight finally gave way to dusk, one thing was clear:
This wasn’t just racing.
This was remembrance, in motion.