Around the Premier League Tracks 2007

.

.

Thursday, 23 August



The sole action tonight was at Sheffield where the Garry Stead Benefit Grand Prix meeting took place. Redcar had thoughtfully declined to run on the same night in order to maximise the Sheffield crowd and to let Gary Havelock and Chris Kerr compete in the meeting in aid of Garry Stead who was cruelly injured in a crash at Somerset earlier in the season sustaining injuries which have left him paralysed from the waist down confining him to a wheelchair.



Garry Stead Benefit Grand Prix: at Sheffield.

Winner: Lee Complin (Stoke)

Second: Freddie Lindgren (Wolverhampton)
Third: Andre Compton (Sheffield)

Sixteen riders from eleven different tracks took part in this meeting the first part of which consisted of a full 16 rider, 20 heat format with every rider programmed to meet each of his opponents once. This had to be curtailed to 16 heats after each rider had had four programmed rides. The top eight scorers progressed to two semi-finals from which first and second in each went on to contest the final.

In the first set of four heats, there were wins for Tai Woffinden and Andre Compton in heats 1 and 2. In heat 3, Richard Hall fell on the second bend and required treatment causing the meeting to be held up for a while. Following medical advice he was pulled out of the meeting and taken to hospital. The rerun of heat 3 was won by Simon Stead while heat 4 went to Gary Havelock.

Before heat 5 was run there was a Golden Oldies race in which Alan Mogridge fell and was taken back to the pits by ambulance. The rerun was won by Sam Ermolenko from Les Collins with Alan Grahame third.

Back to the main event, heat 5 saw Andre Compton win again, beating Tai Woffinden, then heat 6 had to be rerun after Chris Kerr had fallen on the first lap. In the rerun Freddie Lindgren won then Simon Stead became the second rider to score two heat wins in heat 7. Magnus Zetterstrom recovered from his first heat blob by winning heat 8 so after two races for all the riders Andre Compton and Simon Stead led the field with 6 points while, close on their heels with five, were Tai Woffinden and Freddie Lindgren while Gary Havelock had 4.

Before heat 9 the scheduled match race between Chris Morton and Michael Lee didn’t take place because Michael Lee wasn’t there. Morton did some demonstration laps instead.

Three of the leading contenders met in heat 9 and it was Freddie Lindgren who emerged victorious ahead of Tai Woffinden and Simon Stead. Andre Compton lost his unbeaten record, too, in heat 10 when he was beaten by Lee Complin. Indeed Compton had to pass Steve Johnston to take second place in this race. There were only two finishers in heat 11 when Gary Havelock suffered an engine failure on the first bend and Ben Barker (replacing Richard Hall) fell on the second lap. Jason Lyons won the race from Rusty Harrison. In heat 12 Ricky Ashworth beat Magnus Zetterstrom to complete three rides for each rider. At this point Andre Compton and Freddie Lindgren had 8 points while Tai Woffinden, Lee Complin and Simon Stead had 7. Next in line was Jason Lyons with 6.

In heat 13, Gary Havelock was excluded for tape touching leaving Steve Johnston to beat Paul Cooper with Tai Woffinden third then Lee Complin beat Simon Stead in heat 14. Heat 15 saw Chris Kerr going from third to first on the first lap only for Jason Lyons to pass him a lap later. Lyons went on to win the race from Kerr while George Stancl relegated Andre Compton to last place. Freddie Lindgren blasted round the outside to hit the front in heat 16 while Ben Barker and Joel Parsons finished ahead of Magnus Zetterstrom as the Somerset man’s bike slowed on the last bend.

Meanwhile another Golden Oldies race was won this time by Alan Grahame from Sam Ermolenko and Les Collins while Chris Morton did another couple of demonstration laps.

Because of time constraints, the meeting was curtailed at this point to the 16 qualifying heats which had been raced leaving the two semi-finals and final still to go. Although the top seven qualifiers were clear cut, two riders, Ricky Ashworth and Magnus Zetterstrom tied for the final eighth place with 5 points each. Both had one race win to their credit but, since Ricky Ashworth had beaten Magnus Zetterstrom when the two had met, he was the one who took the final place.

First Semi Final: Andre Compton won this race from Freddie Lindgren while Simon Stead passed Steve Johnston on the last bend.

Second Semi Final: Lee Complin was the winner of the second semi-final from Jason Lyons while Ricky Ashworth was third and Tai Woffinden last.

Final: The final was a race worthy of the event. Freddie Lindgren passed Lee Complin at the end of the first lap but Complin chased back and by the end of the third lap the two riders were side by side. It was Lee Complin who edged ahead to go on to win the race. Andre Compton finished third with Jason Lyons at the back.

Scorers: From the qualifying heats – Freddie Lindgren 11, Lee Complin 10, Jason Lyons 9, Simon Stead 9, Tai Woffinden 8, Andre Compton 8, Steve Johnston 7, Ricky Ashworth 5, Magnus Zetterstrom 5, Rusty Harrison 4, Gary Havelock 4, Joel Parsons 4, Chris Kerr 4, Paul Cooper 3, George Stancl 2, Ben Barker 2, Richard Hall 0 (1).