(SPEEDWAY 1)
BRITAIN’S talented teenagers are preparing for a huge week with four riders in FIM World Championship action.
Jack Parkinson-Blackburn, Kyle Bickley and Leon Flint will all compete in the semi-finals of the World 250cc Championship at Marketa Stadium in Prague on Tuesday.
A top eight finish would see them qualify for the final at the same venue on Thursday as they chase top honours.
Meanwhile, British youth rider Harry McGurk will head to the South of France for the FIM 125cc World Longtrack Championship on Saturday.
McGurk, who finished fourth in the European 250cc Championship in Poland earlier this year, has high hopes of challenging for a podium finish against a strong field in Morizes.
(SPEEDWAY 2)
SWINDON are ten points clear at the top of the SGB Premiership after a double Bank Holiday win at the Abbey Stadium.
The Robins overcame Leicester 50-41 in the opening meeting before notching a 54-35 victory over a depleted Somerset side.
Their first opponents challenged for a league point and required an advantage from the last race to secure it, but skipper Danny King fell on the second lap of Heat 15.
King still top-scored for the Lions with 9+1, with Jason Doyle (13) and Nick Morris (10+1) in double figures for the hosts.
Morris then scored 13 in the win over the Rebels, who started with five riders and were swiftly reduced to four when Jake Allen aggravated a wrist injury.
Doyle added 11 points with Adam Ellis on 9+3 as the Robins comfortably made it sixteen successive victories, whilst ex-Swindon men Josh Grajczonek and Charles Wright collected 12 and 11 respectively for the visitors.
Swindon boss Alun Rossiter said: “I’m really pleased with the results, double headers are never easy but we did the job and stayed in one piece, which was the main thing.
“Obviously it was a worry when David (Bellego) crashed like he did, but luckily he bounced back and was alright, although he’s got an even bigger headache now because he blew his engine completely.
“I just told my boys there was no point in doing anything silly, get 3-3s if we have to, but just make sure we win. I can’t help it if other teams have got riders missing, that’s not my problem.”
King said: “I got caught out a bit by conditions in Heat 15 and it was a case of hit Tobiasz’s (Musielak) rear wheel or avoid him – which I did, but unfortunately I hit the fence, but I’m okay, just a bit bruised.
“It’s not my favourite place to come to if I’m honest, I’ve always struggled to find the set-up here, but we did something different here and I’m happy with how it went.
“We battled away as a team again and now hopefully we can get that win on Friday.”
Somerset boss Garry May said: “When (Lasse) Bjerre pulled out before the start of the match, it made life, to say the least, extremely difficult for us.
“But having Jake withdraw after just three heats had been completed after aggravating his wrist injury, meant that it was ‘mission impossible’ for us.
“There is nothing more to be said really, apart to thank Kyle Newman for battling away for us as guest replacement for Lewis [Kerr] and to praise our three surviving Rebels, who never gave up and made Swindon fight for every point.”
(SPEEDWAY 3)
WOLVERHAMPTON secured their SGB Premiership play-off place with a hard-fought 49-41 win over Belle Vue at Monmore Green.
Captain Fredrik Lindgren raced to a 15-point maximum for the hosts, who still have a chance of finishing top of the table but will need to win at Swindon on Thursday.
A tight match saw both sides hold the lead at times, before Wolves gained a vital 5-1 through Rory Schlein and Mark Riss over Steve Worrall in Heat 12 to go six clear.
Lindgren then won Heats 13 and 15, and with the returning Sam Masters – who has been out with a broken collarbone - adding third place in the former, the Aces were left without a league point.
Lindgren was backed up by Schlein on 10+1 and Jacob Thorssell on 9+2, whilst Craig Cook (12) and Rohan Tungate (9+2) led the way for the visitors.
Masters said: “It's pretty sore, really. It was tough and the track wasn't really suitable for it either.
“But it's all good. I got a couple of points and that's all I came here for. I need a run before the play-offs.”
The result completed a point-less day for the Aces, who had been beaten 53-40 at Poole in the morning.
Mark Lemon’s side recovered from an early ten-point deficit to move into a 32-31 lead with five races to go – but Hans Andersen and Timo Lahti then secured a big 5-1 over Kenneth Bjerre and Craig Cook in Heat 11.
The Pirates then dominated the closing stages with 5-1s in each of the last two races giving them a 13-point win.
Lahti continued his fine form at reserve with 13+1 from six rides whilst Andersen added 11 for the hosts. Worrall piled up 16 from six rides, including a winning tactical ride, for the Aces.
Worrall said: “It would have been nice to get something for our trouble. We put everything we had into both meetings so to come away with nothing is incredibly frustrating.
“We knew it’d be a much tougher match after the way Poole have strengthened up lately, and I think Lahti at reserve was the difference that ultimately cost us in the end.
“We just didn’t have the luck. Mid-meeting it looked like we were headed for a favourable result but it wasn’t to be, and it’s made us more determined to turn things around on Wednesday.”
(SPEEDWAY 4)
RYE House remain on the coat-tails of Poole in the scrap for the final SGB Premiership play-off place – after defeating the Pirates at Hoddesdon on Monday.
Both sides took three points from their day’s efforts with the Rockets securing a 56-35 win on their home circuit, denying the visitors the chance to add to their home win over Belle Vue earlier.
It means Rye House are still four points behind Poole in the table but have two matches in hand, and they race at home three times before next Monday night’s cut-off.
The Rockets went into a ten-point lead after Heat 5 and negated the Pirates’ tactical ride when Ben Barker secured a dramatic win over the double-points Hans Andersen in the next.
A Poole 5-1 from Andersen in Timo Lahti in Heat 9 briefly cut the gap back to eight points, but the hosts claimed a 5-0 in Heat 11 when both Brady Kurtz and Jack Holder fell, which effectively ended the visitors’ hopes.
Chris Harris led the way for the hosts with 12+1 and Scott Nicholls added 11, whilst Andersen top-scored for the Pirates with 11+1.
Barker said: “We took control early on, and we also finished it. We know we’re still not there yet; we’ve still got work to do over the next week, but we are absolutely buzzing tonight and ready to move on to Tuesday.
“Points or otherwise, that was my best performance for the side so far. I made that nice pass on Hans, and it’s good when you know you are passing world-class guys.
“There have been meetings here before where I felt like I was chasing the match, but it really worked for me from the off tonight. That’s what I wanted to happen; I’m not worried about my last place in my final race because I hit the ground running to begin with.”
(SPEEDWAY 5)
ROBERT Lambert raced to a paid maximum as Newcastle ended their away-day blues with a 46-43 win at Scunthorpe on Bank Holiday Monday.
Lambert completed his full house by passing home man Ryan Douglas in Heat 15 to finish with 14+1 in a meeting where the Diamonds’ heat-leaders all scored heavily.
With Ludvig Lindgren on 12 and guest Aaron Summers adding 10, the three riders accounted for ten heat wins between them.
Boss George English said: “It proves when we have a full set of big-guns racing well it makes a huge difference as we start to realise the potential we always knew the lads had.
“After skipper Ludvig worked for so long on his sick bike overnight into Sunday's fine win in at home over Scunthorpe, his extra power gained him 12 points today that won us more league points, while Robert’s paid maximum was a brilliant effort.”
Douglas top-scored for the Scorpions with 11+1, in what proved to be a meeting of two halves – as they recovered from that defeat to demolish Workington 61-30 in the second match of the day.
On this occasion the hosts took 13 of the 15 race wins available with Lewis Kerr scoring a 12-point maximum whilst Michael Palm Toft (12+1) and Josh Auty (11+1) were both in the major points too.
Ty Proctor top-scored for the Comets with 8+1, but they were unable to make a serious impression on a dominant home side.
Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey said: “We did throw away some points against Newcastle and that cost us – in particular, the 5-0 proved to be expensive. It was frustrating not to come out with a double win, but well done to the Diamonds on a deserved victory.
“But I think it’s also important to look at the positives. Against Workington, we were streets ahead and put in our best all-around team performance of the season - congratulations to Lewis on his maximum. Meanwhile, young Josh Bailey looked the part in both meetings.
“It was a great afternoon of speedway. Of the 30 heats of racing, I’d say 20 of them were good races. We’ve now learnt that we can have the track a bit slicker and that we can still have great racing, and furthermore our riders will ride it better when it’s like that.”
(SPEEDWAY 6)
CRADLEY skipper Tom Perry scored a 15-point maximum as the Heathens kept their National League play-off hopes alive with a 56-34 win over leaders Belle Vue.
The hosts went into the meeting without heat-leaders Danny Ayres and Richard Hall, but the Colts were also depleted as Dan Bewley pulled out after sustaining an injury in the first half of the double header at Monmore, whilst Rob Shuttleworth crashed out in Heat 3.
Perry’s full house was backed up by youngster Joe Lawlor with 13+1, whilst in-form Conor Dwyer again scored heavily with 12+4.
Guest Jon Armstrong (12+2) and Jack Smith (12) did their best to keep the Colts in touch but a lack of options on the night eventually caught up with them.
Perry said: “It was a meeting we definitely needed to win and it was good for myself to get 15 points, so very happy with that. They are all must-wins and now we must keep on going for the rest of them.”
Colts co-boss Graham Goodwin said: “Luckily for both Dan and Rob, the injuries appear superficial and nothing a good bit of rest won’t set right, but of course it hurt us in the long run because Cradley proved too strong us.
“Yet even despite the uphill battle we had ahead of us, the boys approached the meeting with determination and just got on with the job at hand and as manager, you can’t ask for more.
“We just need to write this off as a bad night. We’re already comfortably in the play-offs ourselves and I think with our full septet, we could easily have given them a run for their money.”
Meanwhile Kent remain in play-off contention after a comfortable 54-36 win over second-placed Eastbourne at Central Park.
Luke Bowen (13+1) and Jack Thomas (12+1) headed up another strong Kings performance at home, whilst guest Tom Bacon top-scored with 12 for the visitors.
Eagles boss Connor Dugard said: “There is no hiding the fact that this was a disappointment. We had hoped for more, especially after how well we had ridden on Saturday night to beat Kent in the National Trophy. It just wasn't our day.
“Now we have to regroup ahead of Thursday's match on the Isle of Wight.”
(SPEEDWAY 7)
RYE House race at home for the second time in 24 hours tonight (Tuesday) with King’s Lynn providing the opposition at Hoddesdon.
The Rockets are racing to catch Poole for fourth place in the SGB Premiership and will close to within one point of the Pirates with another win.
The Stars, meanwhile, have been left with just a two-point gap to bottom-placed Leicester but do have six matches remaining to pull clear.
The hosts are unchanged from Monday’s win over Poole, with Simon Lambert stepping in at reserve for the Stars as Nicklas Porsing is ruled out with concussion.
Rye House star Ben Barker said: “If we can get the three points, then it’s really close and we’ll be in touching distance.
“We all believe we can complete the job and make the play-offs, and then we’ll go again from there. I’m looking forward to all my remaining matches. I’m loving being a Rocket, so it’s all systems go from here.”
King’s Lynn promoter Keith Chapman said: “Our focus now is on putting some points on the board during this busy spell and we feel confident going up against anyone with a close-to full team.
“With the way our luck has been lately and so many meetings this week, we want to get some points on the board sooner rather than later but just as importantly, we want to produce a performance that gives something back to our supporters.”
(FIXTURES)
TUESDAY AUGUST 29:
SGB PREMIERSHIP: Rye House v King’s Lynn 7.30
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 30:
SGB PREMIERSHIP: Belle Vue v Rye House 7.30, Poole v King’s Lynn 7.30
SGB CHAMPIONSHIP: Peterborough v Newcastle 7.30
THURSDAY AUGUST 31:
SGB PREMIERSHIP: King’s Lynn v Poole 7.30, Swindon v Wolverhampton 7.30
SGB CHAMPIONSHIP: Redcar v Ipswich 7.30, Sheffield v Glasgow 7.30
TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Isle of Wight v Eastbourne 7pm
Results Monday August 28, 2017
SGB PREMIERSHIP
Rye House 56 (Chris Harris 12+1)
Poole 35 (Hans Andersen 11+1)
SGB Premiership points: Rye House 3 Poole 0
Swindon 54 (Nick Morris 13)
Somerset 35 (Josh Grajczonek 12)
SGB Premiership points: Swindon 3 Somerset 0
Wolverhampton 49 (Freddie Lindgren 15)
Belle Vue 41 (Craig Cook 12)
SGB Premiership: Wolverhampton 3 Belle Vue 0
SGB CHAMPIONSHIP
Scunthorpe 61 (Michael Palm Toft 12+1)
Workington 30 (Ty Proctor 8+1)
SGB Championship points: Scunthorpe 3 Workington 0
TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE
Cradley 56 (Tom Perry 15)
Belle Vue 34 (Jon Armstrong 12+2)
National League points: Cradley 3 Belle Vue 0
SGB PREMIERSHIP
Poole 53 (Timo Lahti 13+1)
Belle Vue 40 (Steve Worrall 16)
SGB Premiership points: Poole 3 Belle Vue 0
Swindon 50 (Jason Doyle 13)
Leicester 41 (Danny King 9+1)
SGB Premiership points: Swindon 3 Leicester 0
SGB CHAMPIONSHIP
Scunthorpe 43 (Ryan Douglas 11+1)
Newcastle 46 (Robert Lambert 14+1)
SGB Championship points: Scunthorpe 0 Newcastle 3
TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE
Kent 54 (Luke Bowen 13+1)
Eastbourne 36 (Tom Bacon 12)
National League points: Kent 3 Eastbourne 0
