Around the Premier League Tracks 2007
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Wednesday, 17 October



Tonight’s only meeting saw the staging of the Pride of the East at King’s Lynn .


Pride of the East: at King’s Lynn

Winner: Chris Holder (Isle of Wight)
Second: Tomas Topinka (King’s Lynn)
Third: Daniel Nermark (King’s Lynn)

The format for this individual meeting was a 16 rider, 20 heat full individual followed by a grand final in which the top four point scorers from the qualifying heats took part.

The opening four races provided wins for Tomas Topinka from his team mate, Daniel Nermark, and former team mate, Kevin Doolan in heat 1; for Chris Holder from Mark Lemon and Simon Lambert in heat 2; for Josef Franc from Chris Mills and Leigh Lanham in heat 3; then for Shaun Tacey from Chris Schramm in a race which had only two finishers after falls for Cameron Woodward and, in the rerun, for Kozza Smith.

The second set of four races saw Chris Holder and Tomas Topinka make it two wins from two races in heats 5 and 7 respectively while Lewis Bridger won heat 6 and Daniel Nermark heat 8. This meant that the tournament leaders after maximum men, Holder and Topinka, for the top four places after two rides each were Daniel Nermark and Josef Franc with 5 points each and Chris Mills on 4 points.

In the third stanza Kevin Doolan joined the chase for a top four place by beating Josef Franc in heat 9 then Chris Holder remained unbeaten in heat 10 by winning from Lewis Bridger. Tomas Topinka joined Holder on maximum points after winning heat 11 from Leigh Lanham and Daniel Nermark kept his challenge going by winning heat 12 from Chris Schramm. So following the unbeaten Topinka and Holder on 9 points each were Daniel Nermark on 8, Josef Franc on 7 and Kevin Doolan on 6. The Elite League riders Lewis Bridger, Mark Lemon, Leigh Lanham and Cameron Woodward were all but out of it even at this early stage.

The penultimate group of four races produced a win for Kevin Doolan in heat 13 then Lewis Bridger hauled himself back into contention by beating Josef Franc in heat 14. The two leaders met in heat 15 and it was Tomas Topinka who emerged successful ahead of Chris Holder. Daniel Nermark won heat 16 to keep right on the leader’s tail. This meant that after four rides each Tomas Topinka had 12 points with Chris Holder and Daniel Nermark on 11. These three looked a good bet for the final but the fourth place now seemed to be a contest between Kevin Doolan and Josef Franc on 9 with Lewis Bridger on 8.

In the last set of races, Kevin Doolan took a giant step towards making the final by winning heat 17 leaving Lewis Bridger’s win in heat 18 too late a success to get him there too. Tomas Topinka completed his five rides with the maximum 15 points by winning heat 19 then in a crucial heat 20 Chris Holder won from Daniel Nermark and Cameron Woodward leaving Josef Franc to finish last and blow his chance to make the final.

The final was between Tomas Topinka (15), Chris Holder (14), Daniel Nermark (13) and Kevin Doolan (12). Chris Holder won the trophy by winning the race from Tomas Topinka while Daniel Nermark took third place from Kevin Doolan.

Scorers from the qualifying heats: Tomas Topinka 15, Chris Holder 14, Daniel Nermark 13, Kevin Doolan 12, Lewis Bridger 11, Josef Franc 9, Chris Mills 8, Chris Schramm 7, Mark Lemon 6, Leigh Lanham 6, Shaun Tacey 5, Adam Allott 4, Cameron Woodward 4, Darren Mallett 3, Simon Lambert 2, Kozza Smith 0 (2).