14-year-old Jack is King of MDL

14-YEAR-OLD Jack Parkinson-Blackburn won the Midland Development League Riders’ Championship title on Bank Holiday Monday afternoon at Scunthorpe Speedway’s Eddie Wright Raceway. Given his adult licence a few weeks early the Buxton representative, who has been a regular at Scunthorpe’s amateur meetings for years, raced to victory from King’s Lynn’s Layne Cupitt and Coventry’s Callum Walker.

During qualifying it had looked like Scunthorpe representative Jamie Halder was on course for victory. He top scored with 14 points and produced some excellent passes from the back. However, in the semi-final he missed the gate and against the stronger opposition he was unable to make up for it. Alex Wilson, who had been excluded for knocking Halder off in the first running of heat 19 made no mistake when they met in the first semi-final and was joined by Walker. In the second semi-final Parkinson-Blackburn passed Cupitt and in the final, after a bike malfunction caused Wilson to fall whilst second in the final, it was the same 1-2 in the final.

Scunthorpe’s second representative, Sam Darroch, managed a second place in his first ride but fell twice in his remaining rides to finish 14th.

The meeting produced some excellent racing throughout and on a track that had completely dried out Parkinson-Blackburn, in 59.25, and Wilson, in 59.75, beat the sixty-second mark in the semi-finals. The 23 races were a fine advert for the Midland Development League which plays an outstanding role in developing riders for the National League.

Jamie Halder (Scunthorpe) 3 3 3 3 2 14
Layne Cupitt (King’s Lynn) 3 3 2 1 3 12
Callum Walker (Coventry) 2 2 2 3 3 12
Jack Parkinson-Blackburn (Buxton) 0 3 3 3 2 11
Alex Wilson (Peterborough) 3 3 3 1 X 10
David Holt (Belle Vue) 3 2 1 3 1 10
Lee Geary (Long Eaton) 1 1 3 2 3 10
Andy Mellish (Belle Vue) 1 2 2 2 2 9
Adam Sheppard (Wolverhampton) 2 1 X 0 3 6
Ben Basford (Peterborough) 2 1 1 2 R 6
Lee Springthorpe (Long Eaton) 0 2 0 1 2 5
Mitchell Beckett (Coventry) 1 0 2 0 1 4
Rob Watts (Milton Keynes) 0 0 1 1 1 3
Sam Darroch (Scunthorpe) 2 X 0 0 X 2
David Morgan (Buxton) (Res) 2 2
Adam Portwood (King’s Lynn) 1 1 X 2
Connor Fletcher (Stoke) 0 0 X X 1 1
Sam Wright (Wolverhampton) (Res) 0 0

1 Cupitt, Walker, Geary, Springthorpe, 63.50
2 Holt, Darroch, Beckett, Fletcher, 63.69
3 Wilson, Basford, Portwood, Watts, 63.37
4 Halder, Sheppard, Mellish, Parkinson-Blackburn, 62.32
5 Halder, Holt, Geary, Watts, 62.75
6 Parkinson-Blackburn, Springthorpe, Basford, Beckett, 60.69
7 (re-run) Cupitt, Mellish, Portwood, Darroch (f,exc), 61.62
8 Wilson, Walker, Sheppard, Fletcher, 61.25
9 (re-run x 2) Geary, Beckett, Portwood (exc, unable to clear track), Sheppard (exc. unfair riding), 60.75
10 Wilson, Mellish, Holt, Springthorpe, 60.56
11 Parkinson-Blackburn, Cupitt, Watts, Fletcher (f.exc), no time – awarded
12 Halder, Walker, Basford, Darroch, 61.57
13 Parkinson-Blackburn, Geary, Wilson, Darroch, 60.25
14 Halder, Morgan, Springthorpe, Wright, Fletcher (exc. 2m), 62.63
15 Holt, Basford, Cupitt, Sheppard, 61.81
16 Walker, Mellish, Watts, Beckett, 61.75
17 Geary, Mellish, Fletcher, Basford (ret), 61.12
18 (re-run) Sheppard, Springthorpe, Watts, Darroch (f.exc), 61.87
19 (re-run) Cupitt, Halder, Beckett, Wilson (exc.unfair riding), 60.50
20 Walker, Parkinson-Blackburn, Holt, Portwood, 60.00
SF1 Wilson, Walker, Halder, Geary, 59.75
SF2 Parkinson-Blackburn, Cupitt, Mellish, Holt, 59.25
Final Parkinson-Blackburn, Cupitt, Walker, Wilson (f.exc), no time – awarded

PHOTO: Jack Parkinson-Blackburn (centre), Layne Cupitt (right) and Callum Walker (left) on the rostrum (Photo: Alex Summerfield).