With his side Coventry Storm laying in wait for the Kent CTA Fire Kings in the forthcoming Speedway National League Play-Offs, teen sensation Oliver Greenwood showed just what a class act he is around the Central Park circuit with an emphatic performance in taking the NSSC sponsored Great Britain Under 19s Championship at the Kent track on Monday (15/9).
Stretching his winning sequence now to eleven straight race wins around the Speedway circuit based in the Sittingbourne Dog track, the Peterborough-based racer who plies his Premier League trade also with the Rye House Rockets was suitably jet-propelled as he saw off all comers to take the magnificent silver trophy provided by the Kings’ valued partners, Buckmore Park Karting.
The crucial race, as it was to turn out, came as early as heat four - when ante-post favourite Greenwood found himself pitched against the reigning GB Under 21 champ Josh Bates and the crowd’s favourite, one-time Kent rider Jack Kingston in their first ride. The race was a classic with Greenwood under extreme pressure throughout by both of the pair, who were indeed to prove the main protagonists across the whole evening. Kingston emerged in the final lap and a half as the man most likely to get past Greenwood (who went into the meeting unbeaten around the Central Park circuit this campaign) and tried with every sinew in his body and every joule of horsepower in his 500cc machine; but on the final two bends with Greenwood as immoveable an object as the tall oak his name conjures up, somehow the Wizard of Balance, Bates pulled off an incredible manoeuvre to go out wide on the final corner to roar past his Mildenhall team mate: this therefore relegating the plucky Kingston to third and a solitary point.
As it transpired all three riders were then to reel off four more heat wins - though Greenwood was given another hugely challenging race by the only surviving Cradley rider in the field, Nathan Greaves before prevailing in his third outing. Kingston has much cause to feel satisfied with his evening’s work, with a fast and furious showing: breaking the 60 second barrier each time for his four wins and recording the two fastest times of the evening. But at the end of the day, four wins was not enough for Kingston nor in isolation would it be for Bates, unless Greenwood was to drop some points and after seeing off Greaves it proved a ride in the park (in this case Central Park) for the Coventry Storm number one fully to justify his favouritism.
Outside the big three, there were impressive showings by the three Kent-domiciled riders on show: Scunthorpe Stags rider Danno Verge finishing an unexpectedly high 7th. with 8 points; and the current lodger in the Verge family’s Gravesend home, the Anglo-Aussie over here on tour, Ellis Perks - who but for a fall when the clear leader of heat two would’ve made it into double figures. Like Perks, the championship was a first proper competitive meeting for regular Central Park junior rider Jamie Couzins and after being the make-weight in that titanic heat four, the Iwade-trainee recorded two second places on the way to a six point tally which will have exceeded his expectations considerably.
There was further south-east cheer with Eastbourne-based Kelsey Dugard winning heat 20 to clinch a highly creditable sixth slot - tucked just behind in the final rankings, fifth-placed Northolt-based, former Kent CA Fire Kings rider: the reigning British Youth Champion, Luke Harris.
Oliver Greenwood 15, Josh Bates 14, Jack Kingston 13, Nathan Greaves 11, Luke Harris 9, Kelsey Dugard 8, Danno Verge 8, Ellis Perks 8, Connor Mountain 8, Adam Portwood 6, Jamie Couzins 6, Macauley Leek 5, Scooter Webster 4, Layne Cupitt 2, Sean Phillips 1, Danyon Hume 1.