Around the Premier League Tracks 2007

.

.

Thursday, 13 September

There were two Premier League matches raced tonight. At Redcar the Bears raced Glasgow while at Sheffield the Tigers took on Workington.


Premier League: Redcar 51, Glasgow 41

Both Redcar and Glasgow were at full strength for this match.


Glasgow were boosted by the return of Craig Watson to the team and a spirited display at King’s Lynn last night in their search for the win which they needed to keep their slim play-off hopes alive. However they lost Trent Leverington in a heat 4 smash and couldn’t provide enough race winners to seriously challenge the Bears although there were never more than ten points between the teams.

Josh Auty fell in the opening heat while chasing Craig Watson for a potential 5-1 as Gary Havelock led the race. This meant that the heat was shared as was the reserves race won by Lee Dicken. Robert Ksiezak made a fast start to heat 3 but he was passed by James Grieves on the second lap for another 3-3 as Shane Parker took third place. Trent Leverington and Mathieu Tressarieu collided at the start of heat 4 causing the Glasgow rider to withdraw from the meeting with concussion and blurred vision. Tressarieu won the rerun but Lee Dicken took second place resulting in a 4-2 to the Bears which out them ahead at 13-11.

Craig Watson made the gate in heat 5 to beat James Grieves while David McAllan finished third for a 2-4 to the Tigers which tied the match again. Then the Bears struck with a 5-1 in heat 6 from Josh Auty and Gary Havelock. Both Glasgow riders made fast starts to this race but Auty and Havelock passed both of them to put the home side four points up. In heat 7 Shane Parker chased after race leader, Mathieu Tressarieu, but eventually Tressarieu pulled away leaving Parker and Ksiezak to share the points before Redcar opened up a six point lead in heat 8. Josh Auty came from last to first in brilliant fashion while David McAllan took second from Jack Hargreaves for a 4-2 which produced a score of 28-20.

Grieves and Kerr punched home another 5-1 in heat 9 to increase the Bears’ lead to ten points and it stayed that way when Gary Havelock beat Ksiezak and Parker in heat 10 for a 3-3. Craig Watson took a Tactical Ride for Glasgow in heat 11 and, with Tressarieu lifting at the gate, he looked good for six points. However Tressarieu passed him at the end of the second lap but, with McAllan taking third place, the Tigers took a 3-5 advantage from the heat cutting the arrears to eight points. They cut it further to six points with a 2-4 in heat 12. Shane Parker finally won a race beating James Grieves while Michael Coles took third to take the score to 40-34.

Craig Watson made a fast start to heat 13 and held on to beat Havelock and Tressarieu who completely missed the gate for a shared race. Robert Ksiezak won heat 14 but again the race was shared before Grieves and Havelock rounded off proceedings with a 5-1 ahead of Watson and Parker to give the home side a ten point win.

Scorers: For Redcar – James Grieves 13 (5), Gary Havelock 12+2 (5), Mathieu Tressarieu 10+1 (4), Josh Auty 6 (4), Chris Kerr 4+1 (4), Jack Hargreaves 4 (4), Daniel Giffard 2+2 (4).

For Glasgow – Craig Watson 13 (5)(with 4 point TR), Robert Ksiezak 8+1 (4), Shane Parker 7+2 (5), Lee Dicken 6 (7), David McAllan 5+2 (4), Michael Coles 2 (4), Trent Leverington 0 (1).



Premier League: Sheffield 61, Workington 32 Sheffield won the aggregate bonus point by 102-81.


Sheffield were without James Birkinshaw and had Ben Powell as a guest in his place at number 6. Workington were still using Rider Replacement at number 2 for Mattia Carpanese.

Workington held an eight point advantage for the bonus point but were well and truly blitzed over the opening six heats which saw them score just ten points. The Comets only managed to supply two race winners all match while Kauko Nieminen’s unusually low score left them struggling. Every Sheffield rider won a race with the Tigers giving a solid performance all down the line with Andre Compton chalking up yet another full maximum round Owlerton.

The home side opened with two 5-1s from Ashworth and Wilson then Cockle and Powell although in this race Workington’s cause wasn’t helped by a tapes exclusion for John Branney who then had to go from 15 metres back. Paul Cooper and James Wright has a good battle in heat 3 but it was for second place behind Andre Compton. James Wright won that tussle so the heat resulted in a 4-2. Joel Parson won heat 4 from Ulrich Ostergaard while James Cockle had an engine failure at the back of the field. The race was shared so the score stood at 17-7.

Kauko Nieminen suffered an engine failure in heat 5 but he was already on the wrong end of a 5-1 from Compton and Cooper which increased the home side’s lead to 14 points. It was 16 after heat 6 when Ben Wilson passed Ulrich Ostergaard for the win while Ashworth finished third as Charles Wright had an engine failure. The Comets gave James Wright a Tactical Ride in heat 7 and he responded by winning the race by a mile from Powell and Parsons while Craig Branney this time had the engine failure. This resulted in a 3-6 for the Comets but they lost another 4-2 in heat 8. Ben Wilson had to pass Charles Wright to win the race after Wright had swooped round the outside of him on the opening two bends while James Cockle’s third place point took the score to 33-18.

Andre Compton and Paul Cooper added another 5-1 in heat 9 although Cooper had to look lively to hold off the hard pressing Ostergaard. Wilson and Ashworth scored another 5-1 in heat 10 with James Wright in third place to put the Tigers 23 points ahead. Heat 11 provided some excitement after Ben Powell showed what a good choice of guest Sheffield had made by leading home Kauko Nieminen to win on the line. Nieminen had passed Joel Parsons on the third bend of lap 3 but had been repassed by Parson one bend later. However the Workington man passed him again on the back straight of the last lap and nearly caught Powell on the run in to the line. The result was a 4-2 for the Tigers while heat 12, won by Andre Compton, was shared taking the score to 50-25.

Ulrich Ostergaard became the second race winner for the Comets when he won heat 13 by passing both Ashworth and Parsons down the back straight for a shared race. The home side then finished with two 4-2s from heats 14 and 15. The former was won by Paul Cooper from Craig Branney while in the last heat Andre Compton completed his maximum by heading home Ulrich Ostergaard and Ben Wilson.

Scorers: For Sheffield – Andre Compton 15 (5)(full maximum), Ben Wilson 12+1 (5), Paul Cooper 8+2 (4), Ricky Ashworth 8+1 (4), Ben Powell 8+1 (4), Joel Parsons 6+2 (4), James Cockle 4 (4).

For Workington – James Wright 10+1 (5)(with 6 point TR), Ulrich Ostergaard 10 (5), Charles Wright 6 (6), Kauko Nieminen 3 (4), Craig Branney 2 (4), John Branney 1+1 (6).