BRITISH SPEEDWAY SEPTEMBER 7, 2024

(SPEEDWAY 1)

GLASGOW TIGERS LIVE IN HOPE

EDINBURGH moved off the bottom of the Cab Direct Championship with a 49-41 win over Glasgow which leaves the Tigers’ play-off hopes hanging by a thread.
The defending champions did salvage the aggregate point when Chris Harris won Heat 15, but they could be out of contention before their final fixture on Sunday depending on Workington’s result on Saturday.

Monarchs No.1 Josh Pickering signed off his current stint with the club with a 14-point haul, beaten only by Harris in the last race, with the Tigers skipper racking up 16 from six rides.
Pickering said: “I wanted to go out on a high with a 15-point maximum as well as beating Glasgow, so it was a disappointing last race, but at the end of the day we still got the job done and it was a good win for the team.”

Tigers boss Cami Brown said: “We are all very disappointed obviously. The boys knew we needed to get a result, but we just weren’t good enough.
“The story of our season has been too many last places, and it was the same script again.
“We now need a miracle to make the play-offs. But we will keep fighting against Oxford at Ashfield on Sunday.”

(SPEEDWAY 2)

ASHTON Boughen raced to a sensational 15-point maximum as Oxford booked their place in the Cab Direct KO Cup Final with a 45-45 draw at Redcar.
17-year-old Boughen enjoyed the best night of his senior career so far, reeling off five wins out of five at the ECCO Arena, and he was very much the difference between the sides over the semi-final having scored 10+1 in the first leg.

The result puts the Cheetahs into a KO Cup Final for the first time since 1997 as their terrific revival story continues.
Boughen’s full maximum was backed up by skipper Scott Nicholls with 11+1, whilst Danny King scored ten for the Bears, who were beaten by ten points overall.
Said Boughen: “I’m really pleased with my maximum. It feels like all the hard work is paying off and things are coming together.

“I really like the Redcar track. You can ride anywhere and build your speed up and I love racing on the outside line, while I’ve figured out my starts and got a lot better at those.
“It was a blow being without Jordan (Jenkins) and Cam (Heeps), but the boys have still done it, and it’s great that we’ve through to the final against Poole.
“We’ve won at Poole once and hopefully we can do it again. That’s another track I enjoy racing and love going to, and hopefully we can win the Cup.”

(SPEEDWAY 3)

POOLE ended Scunthorpe’s reign as Cab Direct KO Cup holders and also sounded a warning for other competitions with a 50-40 win at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Friday.
The Pirates, who had lost out to the Scorpions in last season’s Cup Final, were already strong favourites to progress after a big home win in the first leg, but the return fixture saw them become the first visiting team this season to take a victory in Lincolnshire.

Skipper Ben Cook led the scoring with 11+1 with brother Zach adding 11 and Tom Brennan on 10 in a powerful display by the Dorset side, who are still chasing a clean sweep of team trophies this season and will meet Oxford in the Cup Final.
Said Ben Cook: “It was good for the boys as we showed what we can do here, and we can get a win here. We just need to do it when it really matters in the next few weeks, but everything is going good at the minute. 

“We visualised this as a normal meeting. We didn’t want to think about only going out there and getting the 30 points that we needed to get through, we wanted to win the meeting and it is good that we were able to do that.
“Not everything went to our plans, but to get the result shows we can do it, and like I said we need to do it when it really matters.”

(SPEEDWAY 4)

WORKINGTON can secure play-off qualification in their first season back at Cab Direct Championship level by avoiding defeat at home to Plymouth today (Saturday).
The Comets won at the Coliseum earlier in the season so a draw on the day would be enough to take the two points they require to take them out of reach of Glasgow, who are two points behind with one match remaining.

Craig Cook has been added to the Workington injury list with a dislocated shoulder but in-form Josh Pickering has been booked to guest, whilst Simon Lambert and Paco Castagna come in for Claus Vissing and Tate Zischke.
The Gladiators operate rider replacement for Nico Covatti in their final league match of the season.
Workington’s NJL boss James Wilson, who steps in for the unavailable James Denham, said: “As we have done all season, we will be approaching this meeting with the same attitude and team spirit we have seen all year.
“The lads know what they need to do, and we will certainly throw everything we have at it to pick up the vital points.”

(SPEEDWAY 5)

BERWICK stage the latest round of the National League Riders’ Development Series at Shielfield Park tonight (Saturday).
The competition, which features two riders from each NDL club and four wild cards selected by the hosts, is a series of stand-alone events.
Meetings have already taken place at Poole and Leicester this season, which have been won by Sam Hagon and Joe Thompson.

(SPEEDWAY 6)

SCUNTHORPE’S Luke Harrison and Redcar’s Ben Trigger compete in the FIM European Under-19 qualifier at North German venue Gustrow tonight (Saturday).
Both British riders need to achieve a top seven finish to be guaranteed qualification for the Final next month at Herxheim, although if one of the qualifiers is a German rider then eighth place also might be enough.

A strong line-up will be taking part which includes the 2023 SGP3 World Champion Ramus Karlsson from Sweden, as well as SGP2 Finalist Bastian Pederson and William Drejer who made the long trip overnight from the SGP2 round in Latvia.
Exciting 17-year-old Czech rider Adam Bednar also competes and Germany will be represented by Ben Iken and female rider Hannah Grunvald. Also on Saturday, Great Britain are highly fancied for the FIM Long Track of Nations which takes place at French venue Morizes.
Oxford and Glasgow star Chris Harris joins forces with Zach Wajtknecht, Andrew Appleton and Edward Kennett for the event in which the Netherlands are defending champions.

(FIXTURES)

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 7:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Workington (47) v Plymouth (43) 3pm
NATIONAL LEAGUE RIDERS DEVELOPMENT SERIES: Berwick 7pm

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 8:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Glasgow (35) v Oxford (55) 5pm

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 9:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 1st leg: Ipswich v Leicester 7.30