REACTION: “I love riding as part of a team, and it gives me a buzz when I can help out my team-mate in a race.”
MONARCH Oxford Cheetahs entered seventh heaven, making it seven wins out of seven in the Cab Direct Championship, after a night of thrilling speedway at Scunthorpe last night (Friday). Cheetahs won a concluding Superheat race by 5-4, after the main meeting finished tied at 45-45.
The victory stretches Cheetahs’ lead to six points at the top of the Championship table and completes an incredible June for the Oxford speedway club that has produced ten successive victories for the two Oxford sides and seen both Cheetahs and Chargers zoom to the top of their respective league tables.
Even more impressively, seven of those ten successes have come away from home during Flaming June:
Friday, June 2 Edinburgh v Chargers (NL) W57-32
Saturday, June 3 Berwick v Chargers (NL) W46-44
Tuesday, June 6 CHARGERS v MILDENHALL (NL) W54-36
Wednesday, June 7 Birmingham v Cheetahs (CDC) W54-36
Wednesday, June 14 CHEETAHS v BIRMINGHAM (CDC) W55-35
Saturday, June 17 Berwick v Cheetahs (CDC) W46-44
Tuesday, June 20 Plymouth v Cheetahs (CDC) W47-42
Wednesday, June 21 CHEETAHS v POOLE (CDC) W52-38
Saturday, June 24 Workington v Chargers (NL) W51-39
Friday, June 30 Scunthorpe v Cheetahs (CDC) W45(5)-45(4)
Arguably, this was the finest victory of the lot. Scunthorpe had won their previous three home meetings by 55-35, 61-29 and 57-32 and are a force to be reckoned with around their flat-out Eddie Wright Raceway circuit.
It was also the first time that Oxford have been involved in a Superheat – a new innovation in British Speedway.
Such a race occurs when the scores are tied at the end of the evening. The winning team in the Superheat takes both league points, while the losing team still picks up a point, as they would have done for a draw. The scoring for the additional race is 4-3-2-0, so it is vital not to finish last.
Cheetahs’ team manager Peter Schroeck nominated skipper Scott Nicholls and Lewis Kerr to represent his side in the Superheat and they showed their understood perfectly how the scoring works in this race.
While Scunthorpe’s Ryan Douglas jetted away from the favourable outside gate to win the race, Nicholls slowed down Jake Allen on the entry to the third bend, and Kerr flew around the outside to move from fourth to second. The two Oxford riders then team-rode and made sure there was no way both through for Allen, as Cheetahs won the race 5-4.
The extra race was the cherry on the top of the cake, after a brilliant night of speedway in which there was thrilling racing and overtaking in nearly every race.
Scunthorpe’s Drew Kemp withdrew from the meeting after an over-ambitious move on the third bend of the second lap of Heat 3. Kemp clipped the back of Kerr’s bike, crashed into the fence and was unable to continue in the meeting. With Scunthorpe having elected to use rider replacement for third heat-leader Michael Palm Toft – when a guest would have been the more favourable option – it reduced the home side to five riders for the rest of the evening.
The first four races were shared – there were no fewer than eleven 3-3s on the night – before Cheetahs moved ahead with a 4-2 in Heat 5, after Jordan Jenkins rounded Nathan Ablitt for third place on the final lap.
The racing was fiercely contested at times. Henry Atkins fought his way past both Allen and Ablitt in Heat 7 to move from fourth to second. But Ablitt moved back past and then squeezed Atkins against the back straight fence and Atkins lost momentum and dropped back to fourth.
The ruthless Ablitt was at it again in Heat 8, this time pushing Jenkins wide on the second bend, only for Jenkins to produce a sublime race to race from last to first, passing both Ablitt and Connor Mountain on the concluding two laps.
Skipper Nicholls produced a brilliant race in Heat 9. Both Nicholls and Cameron Heeps passed Allen early on, and then Nicholls rode like he has eyes in the back of his head, to block out both Allen and Simon Lambert, and ensure the 5-1 for Cheetahs.
With Oxford six points ahead, Scorpions introduced the unbeaten Douglas into Heat 11 as a tactical substitute. He won the race, but Sam Masters and Jenkins took the minor placings in a 3-3, with Jenkins passing Allen for third place on the second lap.
Scorpions edged back with a 4-2 in Heat 12, while an enthralling Heat 13 saw Masters out in front and, for just a brief moment, Nicholls joined him. But Nicholls was pushed back into fourth place by Douglas and Allen. On the final bend, Douglas attempted to move inside Masters and, kicking up the dust, put both wheels over the inside white line. Masters held on to win the race, while the referee missed Douglas’ misdemeanour and he was allowed to keep hold of second place.
Heat 14 saw another great race, but it was the Scunthorpe pair of Lambert and Mountain who took the 5-1 over Heeps and Atkins, as Scorpions levelled the scores.
A tense Heat 15 saw Kerr warned for moving at the start, after both he and Masters had jetted out of the start. In the re-run, Douglas got out in front of Kerr, while Lambert was close to Masters, but could not pass the Oxford man for third, which took the meeting to the drama of an extra race.
Masters rode well to collect 11+1 on a track he admits to not enjoying, while Kerr put in a typically full-blooded display and scored 11 points.
Nicholls scored 7+1, while his team-riding with Heeps in Heats 6 and 9 and with Kerr in the Superheat were instrumental to the Oxford victory.
Jenkins (6+2) overtook least one opponent in all four of his races on his return to the track where he won the NLRC last September, while Atkins (2+2) – in his first meeting since his elevation from reserve – put in maximum effort and would have scored more, had he not been the victim of some rough treatment in Heat 7.
Heeps (5+1) scored some vital points, including joining Nicholls for Oxford’s only 5-1 of the night in Heat 9, and the Australian was highly unfortunate in Heat 2, where he battled past both Scunthorpe riders, only to find himself back in the fourth place at the end of four enthralling laps. Kinsley won that Heat 2 – and his three points from that race were crucial on a night where every point counted.
Douglas top-scored for Scunthorpe with 17 points out of 18 – dropping his only point in Heat 13, the race he should have been excluded from for crossing the white line.
Speaking post-meeting, Oxford skipper Scott Nicholls said: “Scunthorpe is really tricky place to visit. They’ve not necessarily got the strongest team on paper, but the Scunthorpe riders are always very good around this track – they’ve got a strong home track advantage, while some of the away riders don’t particularly like coming here.
“We knew it was going to be tough. In some ways, it was a shame that we let the lead slip, but at the end of the day, a win is a win – and we still get both points for winning after a Superheat. If before the meeting, we’d have been offered a win via a Superheat then we’d have grabbed it.
“Everyone dug in, everyone scored points and that’s what we’ve been doing week-in week-out and that’s what’s been winning us meetings. It’s a team effort.
“The Superheat is also a team effort. With the 4-3-2-0 scoring, it’s not about providing the race winner, it’s about not finishing last. Dougie (Ryan Douglas) is the man around here, but he didn’t slow up, whereas Lewi and I were looking for each other. Lewi had a tough gig off gate 3. I saw Ryan was gone, so then I was looking over my shoulder. I took a roll of the dice, slowed Jake Allen down on the third bend and Lewi came around and we had the second and third place we needed to win the race.
“I love riding as part of a team, and it gives me a buzz when I can help out my team-mate in a race – there was also a couple of races with Cam earlier on.”
Scunthorpe Scorpions 45 (+4): Ryan Douglas 17, Drew Kemp 0, Simon Lambert 9, R/R for Michael Palm Toft, Jake Allen 5+2, Nathan Ablitt 5+1, Connor Mountain 9+3.
Monarch Oxford Cheetahs 45 (+5): Sam Masters 11+1, Jordan Jenkins 6+2, Lewis Kerr 11, Henry Atkins 2+2, Scott Nicholls 7+1, Cameron Heeps 5+1, Ryan Kinsley 3.
Superheat result: Douglas, Kerr, Nicholls, Allen. Scoring 4-3-2-0. Oxford win Superheat by 5-4. League points: Scunthorpe 1, Oxford 2.
PHOTO: Jordan Jenkins wins Heat 8, after a dash from last to first (PIC: IAN RISPIN)