SCORPIONS TOPPLE LEAGUE LEADERS
SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 48 POOLE PIRATES 42 (Cab Direct Championship)
DYNAMIC Dane Michael Palm Toft clinched victory, as second-placed Ellie Rose Travel Scunthorpe Scorpions became the first team to defeat league leaders Poole Pirates in the standard 15 races in the Cab Direct Championship after an engrossing contest at the Eddie Wright Raceway last night (Friday).
The victory over Pirates moves Scunthorpe very close to being mathematically certain of a place in the end-of-season play-offs featuring the top four teams. It would take an extraordinary run of results involving Glasgow and Plymouth to deny Scorpions.
Something had to give at the EWR last night. Poole were unbeaten in their previous 12 league matches, while Scunthorpe went into the clash with a 100% home record this season.
It all came down to the final heat, with Scorpions four points ahead. Pirates had choice of gate positions, but Michael Palm Toft stole a match off the inside gate. Jake Allen then swooped around the Poole pair of Tom Brennan and Richard Lawson towards the end of the opening lap. Brennan recovered second place from Allen in the latter stages of the races, but Scorpions clinched victory with a 4-2.
Earlier on, Scorpions had built up a ten-point lead after eight races. But Pirates introduced Lawson as a tactical substitute in Heat 9, took a 5-1 and soon the gap between the two teams just down to just four points as the nerves began to jangle on the terraces. There was a particularly exciting finish to Heat 11, where Lawson stole victory from Kyle Howarth on the line in a photo-finish.
Ben Cook took Heat 12 after passing Allen, but Luke Harrison won a battle for third place with Tobias Thomsen and Scorpions kept their four-point lead.
Heat 13 was a close race and a blanket could have been thrown over all four riders at some points. Palm Toft’s persistence paid off when he nipped inside Lawson on the second bend of the final lap. But Brennan flew around Howarth on the final bend and the race was shared.
While Zach Cook won Heat 14, Nathan Ablitt and Connor Mountain combined to keep Jacob Hook at the back and maintain Scorpions’ four-point lead heading into the last-heat decider.
Palm Toft top scored with 13 points and only dropped a couple of points in Heat 6, when he was overhauled for second place by Brennan. Allen collected nine points, while skipper Simon Lambert was unbeaten in his opening three riders and scored 8+1.
One of the differences between the top sides was at reserve, while Harrison (5+2) and Ablitt (5) outscored their Poole counterparts by 10 to 3.
Michael Palm Toft said: “It’s nice to get one over Poole. We were confident that we could, but you’ve still got to put the team performance together to do that. We also weren’t a long way behind on aggregate, which is good.
“I’ve been struggling with my bikes since Monday and not quite able to figure out why. I know there’s a problem, but it’s figuring out what that is. At Poole on Wednesday, nothing was working at all – I don’t pick up no points from a meeting unless something is wrong.
“I put in a different engine for my meeting at Leicester last night (Thursday) and I used it again tonight and its miles better. I’ve got to figure out the issue with the other two engines – one is really fast around Scunthorpe and the other I can usually take anyway.
“It was nice to win Heats 13 and 15. I don’t really mind who I’m up against – I want to win all my races. I was disappointed to run a third early in the meeting, but you can’t win them all. I’m just happy to get going again.
“The big thing we needed to do tonight was to win the meeting as a team and beat Poole and we did that. We want to have this track as a home track fortress for the rest of the season.”
SCUNTHORPE 48: Michael Palm Toft 13, Jake Allen 9, Simon Lambert 8+1, Kyle Howarth 6+1, Luke Harrison 5+2, Nathan Ablitt 5, Connor Mountain 2+1.
POOLE 42: Richard Lawson 12, Tom Brennan 10+2, Ben Cook 7+2, Zach Cook 7, Sam Hagon 3, Jacob Hook 2, Tobias Thomsen 1+1,
* ELLIE ROSE TRAVEL Scunthorpe Scorpions are back in action in the first leg of a BSN Series semi-final at Edinburgh on Friday, August 23. The next action at the Eddie Wright Raceway is on Friday, August 30 – a double-header commencing at 7pm featuring both Scunthorpe teams, Scorpions and Stags, taking on the Oxford Cheetahs and Oxford Chargers in the Cab Direct Championship and WSRA National League respectively. In the meantime, Michael Palm Toft and Kyle Howarth will represent the Scorpions in the Championship Pairs at Oxford next Friday (August 16).
