Reece and Liam make Youth Final

Scunthorpe Stags’ reserve pairing, Liam Sanderson and Reece Downes, prepared for next weekend’s opening National League meeting by making the 500cc Final of the British Youth Championship Round at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately bike trouble prevented Downes from starting the race but Sanderson capped off an extraordinary debut in the competition by finished second behind Cradley Heath’s Nathan Greaves.

He opened his afternoon by using the favoured gate four to round Downes in the first turn of heat 4 before making an inside pass on another of the pre-meeting favourites, Luke Harris, in turn three. He faced his fellow Stag’s reserve again in heat 26 and after a thrilling four lap battle it was Downes who claimed victory by the narrowest of margins.

Downes had to borrow a bike in heat 12 when he finished second to Greaves but he secured his place in the final with victory in his last ride over Kelsey Dugard. Sanderson defeated Harris and Dugard in his last two qualifying rides to finish on 11 points but Greaves, the only rider with a full season’s National League racing under his belt, earned the right to pick gate four in the final and raced to his fifth convincing win.

Zach Wajknecht, last season’s 250cc champion, made the step up look easy to record 11 points in qualifying but couldn’t take his place in the final. Instead Harris defeated Dugard in a race-off for 5th place and eventually jump to the podium with third place in the final.

In the 250cc class Lewis Whitmore claimed victory ahead of Luke Woodhull who in turn had pipped his brother, who had an ailing bike, on the line. The 150 Box class was won by Scunthorpe regular Jamie Halder whilst another regular, Kyle Bickley won all five of his races in the 125cc class.

After the meeting Stags’ Chairman Richard Hollingsworth was delighted with how his young reserve riders had acquitted themselves “Of course Reece will have been disappointed to have not had a place on the podium after last year’s round win but he looked good out there. That is the most important thing. He had two very good wins and that race with Liam augers well for the season ahead. They both raced hard but rode intelligently. It was a fantastic race.

“As for Liam I’ve seen him ride a lot but even I was shocked at how well he rode today. He had two rides in the Open Class of an amateur meeting and run on the centre green in one and hit the fence hard in the other. The move he made to pass Luke Harris in his first race was outstanding and although he made a big mistake later in the race he was far enough ahead of Luke and skilled enough to ride his way out of trouble.

“They both have so much to learn but the speed at which they are learning is very impressive and augers well for their future. Likewise it was great to see the numbers of entrants going up. We should have 42 this year, last year it was 38 and the year before 30. The trend is very encouraging for British speedway. The new 150cc box class should revolutionise youth speedway with its cheaper running costs and if the Premier League and National League finally change their team building rules to encourage young British riders then there will be a really clear path of progression for youngsters through the sport”.

The Scunthorpe Stags start their National League campaign next Sunday, 30th March, at the Eddie Wright Raceway following the Fluid Air Power Scunthorpe Scorpions meeting with arch-rivals, the Sheffield Tigers, which starts at 3pm.

British Youth Championship Round 1 results:

500cc
Nathan Greaves 3 3 3 3 12
Liam Sanderson 3 2 3 3 11
Zach Wajknecht 3 3 2 3 11
Reece Downes 1 2 3 3 9
Luke Harris 2 3 2 2 9
Kelsey Dugard 3 2 2 2 9
Jack Parkinson-Blackburn 2 2 2 1 7
Dan Miles 2 1 1 1 5
Macauley Leek 0 2 0 1 3
Alex Wilson 1 R 1 1 3
Luke Whitehead 1 0 1 0 2
Connor Fletcher 0 0 F 1 1
Lewis Griggs 0 1 F 0 1
Layne Cupitt 1 F 0 F 1

Final: Greaves, Sanderson, Harris, Downes (ns), 62.91

250cc
Lewis Whitmore 2 3 3 3 11
Ben Woodhull 3 2 2 2 9
Luke Woodhull 1 1 ½ 1 3½
Mitchell Beckett F 0 ½ 0 ½

Final: Whitmore, B Woodhull, L Woodhull, Beckett, 68.34

150cc Box Class
Tom Brennan 3 2 3 3 11
Jamie Halder 3 3 3 1 10
Kean Dicken 2 2 2 2 8
Jason Edwards 1 1 2 F 4
Chad Wirtzfeld 1 0 1 1 3
Ryan Morris 0 0 R R 0
Final (re-run): Halder, Edwards, Brennan (f. excl.), Dicken (f. excl.), no time

125cc
Kyle Bickley 3 3 3 3 12
Jordan Jenkins 1 3 3 3 10
Dan Thompson 3 2 3 2 10
Jolyon West 2 3 1 3 9
Harry McGurk 3 3 1 R 7
Sam Stead 2 0 2 3 7
James Hitchen 1 X 2 3 6
Joe Thompson 1 2 2 1 6
Kai Hubbard 1 2 2 R 5
Kieran Douglas 2 2 X 1 5
Sam McGurk 1 1 1 2 5
Charlie Brooks F 2 2 R 4
Stephen Whitehouse 0 0 0 0 0
Sam Wright N N N N 0

Final: Bickley, West, Jenkins, D Thompson (f. excl.) 68.84

Photo: Liam Sanderson, Nathan Greaves and Luke Harris (550cc podium)