It was Kings to the fore, at Redcar tonight (15/8) as Kings winter signing, Drew Kemp took the British Under 19 crown with a faultless 15 point maximum.
Drew was joined on the rostrum by third placed, Anders Rowe, the current Kings number one scored 13 points. Rowe’s only dropped points came in Heat 15 - his fourth outing, when he was beaten the eventual top two of Kemp and Mildenhall’s Jason Edwards.
The other two Kent representatives also had respectable evenings, captain Jordan Jenikins finished in sixth place with a final total of 9 points. This tally included a fantastic Heat 19 win after a great battle with Belle Vue Colts rider, Connor Bailey - Kent fans will be seeing more of him in the next Kent home fixture! Dan Gilkes scored a respectable 5 points, this tally was hampered after Gilkes suffered a second race exclusion, whilst attempting to go around the outside of Leon Flint.
The really exciting thing for all Kent fans, is that all of these terrific teenagers will get the chance to race again in this age category.
But the headlines will be written about the dynamic performance of King Kemp. Racing with the number 10 jacket (a difficult number according to Grand Prix riders!) Drew began his night’s work with a tapes to flag win in Heat 3 and followed this up with a quickfire second, in Heat 6.
Heat number 12 was a case of we three Kings against Mildenhall’s Matt Marson. Once again it was Drew who led from the tapes to take the win over Jordan Jenkins, with Dan Gilkes picking up the third placed point.
Drew’s fourth win in Heat 15, was the race that set him on the path for the overall, he came fellow podium finishers Edwards and Row and track reserve Kean Dicken from the tapes to take his fourth win.
The last race, wasn’t all plain sailing, in the first attempt to stage the race, Kemp came off on the first bend in a typically tight first corner. All four back was the verdict and this time - the Ipswich based racer made no mistake to take the chequered flag and seal his first British title in the professional standard - and on this form, it’s hard to bet against more following in the future.
Kent riders scores:
Drew Kemp 33333 15 Anders Rowe 33313 13 Jordan Jenkins 11223 9 Dan Gilkes 1FX121 5