Around the Premier League Tracks 2007

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Friday, 28 September

There were two meetings due to be raced tonight. One was a Premier League Knockout Cup, first leg, semi-final tie, at Somerset between the Rebels and Newport while the other was an International Challenge match at Edinburgh between the Monarchs and Finland. Unfortunately the match at Somerset was rained off leaving the match at Edinburgh as the survivor.



International Challenge at Edinburgh: Edinburgh 49, Finland 43.


Edinburgh were without Kai Laukkanen and Kalle Katajisto who had changed sides for the night. They were also missing Andrew Tully and Daniele Tessari through injury. Instead they were due to have Lee Complin at number 3 in place of Laukkanen and Sean Stoddart at number 4 in place of Tully but Complin pulled out early in the day suffering from the aftermath of his crash at Sheffield last night in heat 13 so Rider Replacement was used instead at number 3. The two reserve berths were filled by Gary Beaton and James McBain. Finland had Kauko Nieminen and Kai Laukkanen at numbers 1 and 3 to spearhead the side. Jari Makinen rode at number 5 with Tero Aarnio and Joni Keskinen filling the second string spots at numbers 2 and 4. The reserve berths were filled by Kalle Katajisto and Petteri Koivunen.

The score may suggest that this was a fairly close match but, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth as the home side shed points all over the place against what was effectively a two man Finnish team. The Finns were handicapped by a heat 4 crash by Jari Makinen which caused him to withdraw from the meeting with a suspected broken wrist.

George Stancl powered to the front ahead of Kauko Nieminen for an opening heat win. Behind him Derek Sneddon led Kauko Nieminen until the Finn charged inside him on the first bend of the third lap and ran the Edinburgh captain to the second bend fence. As a result Sneddon was pushed to the back but on the last lap Tero Aarnio’s machine played up and Sneddon got through for the third place point and a 4-2. A fast gating Gary Beaton held off the challenge of Kalle Katajisto to share the reserves race then George Stancl appeared again as R/R in heat 3 to drive round Kai Laukkanen on the opening bends to shoot to the front. Laukkanen then suffered an engine failure on the last lap, second bend, allowing Sean Stoddart through for a home 5-1. Heat 4 was a pantomime! Firstly James McBain was excluded for breaking the tapes and went from 15 metres back. In the rerun Jari Makinen, chasing Matthew Wethers, charged too fast into the first bend on lap two and never looked like getting round. He didn’t, crashed into the fence and suffered what was thought to be a broken wrist. In the second rerun, Matthew Wethers, miles in front, pulled a locker on the second bend on the third lap and drove onto the centre green before returning to the track. He was excluded so Petteri Koivunen just held on to his 15 metre lead which McBain’s tape breaking had given him to win the race for a 2-3 taking the score to 14-9.

Kauko Nieminen won heat 5 by a mile to share the race but Stancl and Sneddon added a 5-1 in heat 6 from Katajisto to put the Monarchs nine points ahead. Kai Laukkanen beat Matthew Wethers to share heat 7 then Derek Sneddon headed home Tero Aarnio who put up a good challenge with James McBain third for a 4-2 in heat 8 which took the score to 29-18.

Kauko Nieminen took a Tactical Substitute ride from 15 metres replacing the injured Makinen in heat 9 but could make no inroads on Derek Sneddon and Sean Stoddart who added another 5-1 increasing Edinburgh’s lead to 15 points. In heat 10 another flawless ride from George Stancl saw him power to the front off the first two bends to lead home Kai Laukkanen with Derek Sneddon third. The 4-2 increased the gap to 17 points and it stayed that way when Kauko Nieminen won heat 11 from Wethers and Beaton for a shared race but it was all downhill for the Monarchs after that. In heat 12 Kai Laukkanen took a Tactical Ride. In the first running of the race Sean Stoddart (R/R) fell on the first bend of the second lap while lying second causing the race to be stopped and rerun without him. In the rerun Laukkanen scored an easy win and was supported in second place by Kalle Katajisto giving the Finns a big 1-8 and cutting the gap to 10 points with the score now 42-32.

Another magnificent start from George Stancl saw him get the better of Kauko Nieminen in heat 13 but he got out of shape on the third bend under pressure from Nieminen and slid off. Nieminen went on to win from Matthew Wethers leaving Petteri Koivunen to pick up third place for a 2-4 which brought the Finns two points nearer at 44-36. Sean Stoddart won heat 14 from Kalle Katajisto and Joni Keskinen while Gary Beaton fell off while at the back. This resulted in a 3-3 then in the last race Matthew Wethers got the better of Kauko Nieminen coming off the second bend only to find Kai Laukkanen shooting past both of them on the outside to win the race. With Derek Sneddon stuck at the back Finland finished with a 2-4 for a respectable six point defeat.

Scorers: For Edinburgh – George Stancl 12 (5), Derek Sneddon 10+1 (6), Sean Stoddart 9+2 (5), Matthew Wethers 8 (5), Gary Beaton 6+3 (5), James McBain 4 (4).

For Finland – Kai Laukkanen 14 (5)(with 6 point TR), Kauko Nieminen 13 (6), Kalle Katajisto 7+1 (5), Petteri Koivunen 5+1 (5), Joni Keskinen 2+1 (4), Tero Aarnio 2 (4), Jari Makinen 0 (2).