After a year of inaction and week of disruption surrounding the British Speedway Championship Final, Kent TouchTec Kings’ Paul Starke put in a highly creditable performance in the Manchester mud on Monday (28/9) to secure a top 10 finish at the National Speedway Stadium.
Originally scheduled to take place in front of spectators at Ipswich on Saturday, the plug was pulled on that sell-out event when the Government did a U-turn on allowing fans back into stadia for ‘pilot’ events following the tightening of lockdown-style restrictions last Tuesday. The decision was made to go ahead with the 60th. staging of this prestigious event without fans in the stadium and then with inclement weather forecast for the east of the country over the weekend, the next change in plans was to move the Final to Monday and take the now ‘behind closed doors’ event instead up to the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester.
Perhaps predictably what was a beautiful sunny September evening in Suffolk was not replicated up in Manchester and the individual championship meeting took place in near constant drizzle and resultant heavy & wet track conditions – though the Pay To View customers streaming the event were not to be disappointed by the exciting racing served up.
Nor did the TouchTec Kings’ Starke disappoint. His evening started in the best possible fashion – winning heat 4 to set a real marker at the opening of proceedings. His win was to prove even more notable in retrospect as it involved inflicting what was one of only 3 defeats for the eventual meeting winner, former Australian World Cup rider Rory Schlein.
Unfortunately trailing in fourth behind early pace setter Richard Lawson, Maidstone-born former British Champion Danny King and one of the two Worrall brothers, Richie in his second ride was a set back for Starke but he bounced back with a second place behind the other Worrall Steve in heat 10 – beating newly crowned GB U19 champion and former Kings’ rider Drew Kemp in the process. Another second place in Paul’s final outing meant he finished on 7 points and equal 10th. place.
Watching as were all Kings' fans from his living room. Kent co-promoter Len Silver commented, "Like many I watched the streaming of the British Final at Belle Vue in wonder at how well all the riders handled very wet and tricky conditions. My main source of interest was, of course, how well Paul [Starke] did." "I had only seen him at our club practice session at King's Lynn a few weeks ago where he impressed me. The British Final though was - after just an outing at the Ben' Fund meeting in March where he suffered machine problems - Paul's first real outing following his injuries of last year. And I was far from disappointed. He was on the pace in every race, beat the eventual winner and showed me that he is a better rider than his 6 plus average!"
"We sent our congrats' to the winner, Rory Schlein who will have pleased all the Wolves fans watching."
Meanwhile earlier in the week in what is likely to be the last meeting this season to have been allowed to go ahead in this troubled 2020 campaign with supporters in attendance, Kent Iwade Garage Royals stalwart Alex Spooner appeared for a GB Young Lions select side taking on Plymouth down in Devon scoring paid 7 points.
QUALIFYING SCORES: Rory Schlein 12, Richard Lawson 11, Richie Worrall 11, Jason Crump 11, Chris Harris 10, Steve Worrall 10, Drew Kemp 8, Danny King 8, Ben Barker 8, Lewis Kerr 7, Paul Starke 7, Josh Auty 5, Tom Brennan 5, Dan Thompson 3, Josh Bates 2, Joe Thompson 2, Ben Woodhull (res) 0. SEMI-FINAL: Crump, S.Worrall, Harris, R.Worrall (fell). FINAL: Schlein, Lawson, Crump, S.Worrall.