Around the Premier League Tracks 2008
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Monday, 17 March
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Tonight’s match was at Reading where the Racers opened their home season with a Challenge Match against Somerset. Reading, who dropped down from the Elite League, have only Mark Lemon from last year’s side. Ulrich Ostergaard and Tom P Madsen join Lemon as heatleaders while Tomas Suchanek and Chris Mills fill the second string berths. Their reserves are Danny Warwick and Jaimie Smith. Somerset, having shed Magnus Zetterstrom from last year’s side, introduced Jason Doyle as Zetterstrom’s replacement while other newcomers to the side are Henning Loof and Brent Werner.



Challenge Match (first leg): Reading 54, Somerset 37.


Both teams were at full strength.

The two teams had mixed fortunes in the opening heats. Jason Doyle suffered an engine failure in heat 1 leaving Suchanek and Lemon to score a 5-1 but, after three reruns, Katt and Frampton replied with a 1-5 for the Rebels after Danny Warwick had fallen on the second bend. Warwick was subsequently withdrawn from the meeting leading to a busy night for his reserve partner, Jaimie Smith. There was another 5-1 in heat 3 this time to the Racers from Mills and Ostergaard, the latter executing a fine pass on Kramer, with Loof suffering machine failure. Then Reading added another two points to their lead with a 4-2 in heat 4 won by Jaimie Smith from Brent Werner to take the score to 15-9.

Jason Doyle was excluded from heat 5 for moving at the gate. He was replaced by Stephan Katt who finished second to Ostergaard. The racers took a 4-2 from the heat but the next two heats, won by Mark Lemon and Emil Kramer, were shared. Then Reading went further ahead in heat 8 with another 5-1 this time from Tomas Suchanek and Jaimie Smith stretching their lead to 30-18.

Chris Mills passed Stephan Katt and Brent Werner to join his partner, Ulrich Ostergaard, up front in heat 9 for another Reading 5-1 as Somerset slipped further behind, trailing now by 16 points. The Rebels gave Emil Kramer a TR in heat 10 but this was not a success as he trailed in third behind Mark Lemon and Tomas Suchanek who registered their second maximum riding as a pair. Henning Loof pulled up with an engine failure as the visitors fell 20 points behind. It stayed that way after heat 11, won by Tom P Madsen from Simon Walker and Jason Doyle who at last got on the scoresheet. Having finished third to Lemon and Suchanek in his tactical ride, Emil Kramer then came out and won ahead of the unbeaten Ulrich Ostergaard in heat 12. Stephan Katt supported him in third place so the Rebels shaved two points from the lead with the 2-4 taking the score to 45-27.

Jason Doyle finally got his act together winning heat 13 from Lemon and Madsen for a shared race then in heat 14 Brent Werner replaced Henning Loof as a tactical substitute starting from 15 metres back. In the first running of the race Chris Mills and Stephan Katt crashed and ended in the air fence. Mills was excluded while Katt was unable to take his place in the rerun so was replaced by Jordan Frampton. Jaimie Smith, taking his seventh ride won the rerun from Frampton and Werner so the Rebels took a 3-4 from the heat. Mark Lemon rounded off the match by winning heat 15 but Emil Kramer and Jason Doyle kept Ostergaard at the back for a shared race. This meant that Somerset had won 14-17 over the last five heats after falling twenty points behind over the first ten.

Scorers For Reading – Mark Lemon 13+1 (5), Jaimie Smith 10+2 (7), Ulrich Ostergaard 10+1 (5), Tomas Suchanek 8+1 (4), Tom P Madsen 7+1 (4), Chris Mills 6+1 (4), Danny Warwick 0 (1).

For Somerset – Emil Kramer 10 (5), Stephan Katt 8+1 (5), Brent Werner 6+1 (5) (with 2 point TS), Jason Doyle 5+2 (5), Jordan Frampton 4+1 (4), Simon Walker 4 (4), Henning Loof 0 (3).