BRITISH SPEEDWAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2024

(SPEEDWAY 1)

PICKERING WINS RIDERS’ CROWN

EDINBURGH’S Josh Pickering won the Championship League Riders’ Championship in a spectacular Final at Redcar.
Pickering battled his way through the semi-final to join Poole duo Richard Lawson and Ben Cook in the decider, with Workington’s Antti Vuolas also making it through.
Cook led the early stages after Pickering went wide on turn two, but the Monarchs racer continued his attack and made it around his rival at the start of lap three, with Lawson completing the rostrum finishers in third.

Pickering said: “It is what I came here for today, it’s something I’ve been targeting all season.
“To get it over the line is something special. The field was top-notch and I had to be sharp to come off the outside there in the Final.
“I made a mistake on turn two and that put me in no man’s land for a bit, then I managed to build up a bit of speed and it turned out well.
“I’m really, really happy to get it done. It’s all I’ve been thinking about yesterday, and coming here it was all I was picturing, so it’s worked out well.”

(SPEEDWAY 2)

BELLE Vue and Sheffield kick off their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final at the National Speedway Stadium tonight (Monday).
The Roses rivals are battling it out for the right to face Leicester in next week’s Grand Final following the Lions’ dramatic win over Ipswich.

The Tigers, who bring in Chris Harris to guest for the injured Tai Woffinden, have won all three aggregate contests against the Aces this season in league and KO Cup.
But Belle Vue boss Mark Lemon insists his side, who topped the 50-point mark in all but four of their home matches this season, are fully capable of taking out the defending champions.
Lemon said: “Just like Sheffield, our boys know what it takes to win league titles, and this is the moment we have been working towards all season long.

“I have absolute belief that we can go all the way, but it certainly won’t be easy; it never is, particularly against the reigning champions.
“But we have what it takes. I know this team have plenty in the tank to apply themselves and, in some ways, I feel we enter the play offs as something of an underdog to Sheffield.
“But with a full team, and I say with everything crossed that the boys stay fit and safe, we will enter this final campaign with a strong underlying confidence and self-purpose.”

Tigers manager Simon Stead said: “For some of the lads, they remember how they felt when we won the league title last October and the feeling they had on that occasion, they want to experience it all again.
“A play-off semi-final is a huge occasion anyway but the fact it’s against Belle Vue, a good old War of the Roses rivalry, adds that little bit of extra spice.

“Our three trips to Belle Vue have all been in the daytime so far this year, and we expect it to be a little bit different with this one being on a night when the weather is much colder.
“But we’ll do the track walk, we’ll have a good chat as a team and we’ll keep the lads together and keep them discussing things all night long.”

(SPEEDWAY 3)

OXFORD boss Peter Schroeck insists there will be no complacency when the Cheetahs look to reach the Cab Direct Championship Grand Final this week.
The Cowley side won 46-44 at Scunthorpe last Friday, putting themselves in a strong position to go through on home territory in Wednesday’s return fixture, and set up a title decider against Poole. Schroeck said: “It was a great result at Scunthorpe it and puts us in command of the tie.

“When I was speaking to Jamie (Courtney, Oxford promoter) in the lead-up to the meeting, we discussed how strong Scunthorpe are around their own track and that we could have ended the night 10 to 12 points down and needed to make that up at Oxford.
“To instead enter the home leg two points ahead is very pleasing. But there will be no complacency from us.
“We don’t think we’ve got in the bag, far from it, because there’s still 15 races to go and a job to be done at Oxford on Wednesday.”

(FIXTURES)

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 16:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 1st leg: Belle Vue v Sheffield 7.30

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 18:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Oxford (46) v Scunthorpe (44) 7.30

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Sheffield v Belle Vue 7.30

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20:
BSN SERIES SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Scunthorpe (49) v Edinburgh (40) 7.30
WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Middlesbrough (37) v Edinburgh (52) 7.30