The Kent CTA Fire Kings moved to one point off second place in Speedway’s National League with a thumping demolition of the Scunthorpe Stags at Central Park on Monday (11/8).
The 69-23 win (a club record for Kent) included paid maximums for four of the home side and it would’ve been five had Danny Ayres not suffered a shed chain when in clear second place behind the Kings’ number one Ben Morley in heat 4. A slightly sluggish start at that point saw Kent leading basement side Scunthorpe by only ten - but that margin had turned to 30 by heat 10 and the league points were secured for a second week running before the interval.
Ayres and his troublesome primary chain had been the cause of the main excitement in the early part of the meeting – having problems with the chain, the Newmarket-based racer failed to get to the tapes within the stipulated two minutes; and so as a result of the ruling on such an ‘offence’, found himself 15 metres back when the race finally got underway. Undeterred by this handicap, Ayres thrilled the good-sized summer holiday crowd at Central Park (braving the elements on a very squally August day) by storming past the riders in front of him to take a win, rapturously received and exuberantly celebrated.
Only Ayres’ chain slipping off in heat 4 and rather down on power fellow reserve Jason Garrad slipping from second himself to last three races later, interrupted a run of six 5-1 maximums up to heat 10 with the visitors only really offering resistance via the efforts of a very plucky Arron Mogridge. Then in heat 11 the son of the former Crayford and Canterbury rider Alan Mogridge, looked poised to deliver a first heat win for the side from North Lincs only to fall when leading on the penultimate lap.
That blow seemed to know the stuffing out of the Stags (languishing pointless at the bottom of a league their proud predecessors have won three times) and the merciless Kings (eyeing championship glory themselves) reeled off four perfunctory 5-1s to see Messrs Morley, evergreen skipper David Mason, the marvellously in-form Benji Compton and Aaron Baseby (celebrating his best score since his comeback with Kent) all complete their paid maximums.
Next up for the Sittingbourne-based outfit are back to back matches against the side second from bottom of the table, the Buxton Hitmen (way up in the Derbyshire Dales on Sunday, then completing the home league programme at Central Park on Monday [18/8]) knowing two wins will make it extremely difficult for their opponents to push them out of the top four.
KENT 69 Ben Morley 3 3 3 3 2' 3 17+1 Aaron Baseby 2' 2' 2' 2' 3 11+4 David Mason 2' 3 2' 3 2' 2' 14+4 Benji Compton 3 2' 3 3 3 14+1 Rider Replacement – Simon Lambert Jason Garrad 1 0 1 2' 4+1 Danny Ayres 3 R 3 3 9
SCUNTHORPE 23 Steve Jones 0 0 4^ 1 1 6 Arron Mogridge 1 1 1^ X 0 3 Danno Verge 1 2 0 0 3 Reece Downes 0 1' 1 1 3+1 Sam Chapman 2 1 1 F 4 Jack Hall 0 0 0 1 1 Ryan MacDonald 2 1' 0 0 3+1