BRITISH SPEEDWAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

(SPEEDWAY 1)

POWER-PACKED POOLE HOLD ADVANTAGE

Poole heat-leaders were in blistering form as the league leaders ran up a 14-point advantage over Workington in the first leg of their Cab Direct Championship play-off semi-final.

Richard Lawson raced to a 15-point maximum for the Pirates and skipper Ben Cook was also unbeaten with 13+2, whilst Tom Brennan added ten from four rides in a 52-38 home victory.

Comets guest Lewis Kerr denied Brennan a full house of his own, whilst reserve Paul Starke picked up 10+1 from five rides and Leon Flint scored nine to keep them in with a chance heading into Saturday’s second leg.
Cook said: “The meetings are so important this time of the year and me and Richard did that (went unbeaten) tonight and Tom only dropped one.

“All the boys went and dug in and did their bit and it’s what we need this time of year. We need a good lead going there and hopefully it is enough.”
Meanwhile the first leg of the other semi between Oxford and Scunthorpe was called off after heavy afternoon rain, and they will now get their tie underway at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Friday.
 
(SPEEDWAY 2)

LEICESTER face Ipswich in the second leg of their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final tonight (Thursday) with the tie perfectly poised at the halfway stage.
The Witches won 49-41 at Foxhall on Monday with the Lions clawing back an advantage which at one stage had been up at 16 points.

They will race to a conclusion in the East Midlands with the teams unchanged from the first leg as Leicester again use rider replacement for Ryan Douglas whilst Lewis Kerr guests for Craig Cook.
Ipswich again track Jan Kvech, Tom Brennan and Ashton Boughen as guests, and boss Ritchie Hawkins has shuffled his riding order with captain Danny King moving to No.2 and Adam Ellis switching to No.5.

Leicester manager Stewart Dickson said: “We need the Leicester crowd more than ever to turn up in their numbers, make lots of noise, get right behind us and create that atmosphere that we know our riders feed off.
“This is a huge meeting for the club, one of the biggest in our history, and we know the rewards that lie ahead if we can score the 50 points.

“We have given ourselves a chance after Monday, we could have been facing a much larger deficit, but we are under no illusions – it is still going to be tough and Ipswich will come out firing.”
Hawkins said: “We have the same team out on Thursday and have swapped Danny and Adam around for the night. Truth be told, I had a premonition that was going to be the best way to go to help us win the meeting, so there you go.

“We start from scratch on Thursday will look to win the meeting. We have had a lot of success there in the past and have riders that can win races there and perform well there.
“Everyone in the team is up for getting themselves another two meetings by getting to that Grand Final.”

(SPEEDWAY 3)

POOLE captain Ben Cook has been added to the line-up for the Championship League Riders’ Championship at Redcar on Sunday.
Cook, who finished third in the event last season, replaces Plymouth’s Ben Barker who is out with injury.
It means all of the 2023 Finalists will be in action at the ECCO Arena as Charles Wright defends the title with Chris Harris, Cook and Danny King all back for another attempt.

(SPEEDWAY 4)

SHEFFIELD Tiger Cubs race their final home fixture of the WSRA NDL season tonight (Thursday) when they host Belle Vue Colts at Owlerton.
The sides are currently level in the third tier table, both sitting on seven league points from seven outings.
In the Steel City so far, the Tiger Cubs have recorded a six point win over Middlesbrough and were narrowly beaten 46-44 by eventual champions Leicester last time out, with their other home fixtures taking place at Scunthorpe.

The Colts bring in Max James to guest for Sam Hagon who is on Premiership duty, with rider replacement for broken wrist victim Luke Muff, and Jack Shimelt again stands in at No.2.
Co-boss Paul Tatam said: “We’ve still got a couple of away fixtures to come after this one, but it would be nice if we could go out with a win at Sheffield.

“Belle Vue have got a solid team though, and as we know ourselves from when we used him as a guest at Oxford not so long back, having young William Cairns at reserve in this league is a real trump card.”
Colts joint manager Steve Williams said: “We’re optimistic about our chances at Sheffield. It will be a learning curve for a few of the boys because they won’t have ridden this track before.
“And even though we are still without a handful of our riders we’ve got some very capable guests and as the last few matches have shown, we’ve been able to muddle together and get a result.”

(FIXTURES)

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 12:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Leicester (41) v Ipswich (49) 7.30
WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Sheffield v Belle Vue 7.30

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 1st leg: Scunthorpe v Oxford 7.30
WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Edinburgh (33) v Scunthorpe/Sheffield (57) 7pm, Edinburgh (34) v Belle Vue (56) (follows previous fixture)

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 14:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Workington v Poole 3pm
BRITISH YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP: Edinburgh 1.30pm

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15:
CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: Redcar 3pm
BRITISH YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP: Glasgow 2pm