A massive day for the Kent CTA Fire Kings taking on the American Internationals launching their new home to National league speedway yesterday afternoon with in excess of 3000 supporters in glorious hot sunny weather.
The visitors drafted in Aaron Baseby and Dan Greenwood to cover for injury victims Americans Gino Manzares and Rocco Scopellite who were injured during the last two meetings at Rye House and Buxton this weekend. Star of the show was Jason Garrity who scorched away to four straight wins and in the process setting up the track record in heat 4 of 58.0 seconds. Garrity had solid back up from Dan Greenwood (10), Aaron Baseby (8) and Scott Campos (7+1) to help the American Internationals to a 41-49 victory.
For the CTA Fire Kings Steve Boxall showed his intent by going into the record books as the first heat winner in a time of 58.7 seconds on the way to returning a score of 9 points from 5 starts. After taking time away from the sport Boxall was impressive especially in a thrilling heat 13 which Garrity shot away from the tapes only for Boxall to try every line he could inside and out to pass the Rye House Rocket. Garrity read every move Boxall had until the challenge came to an end with a dropped chain.
Steve Boxall said, “If it wasn't for Len (Silver) I wouldn't be racing this season. I want to keep the number 1 race jacket this year and win as many races as I can for the Kings and hopefully get a chance in the Premier league during the season. I'll be helping all the other boys out in the team as much as I can and get them all going so that we can become contenders. As long as all the boys give it 110% then there is no more that they can do. The team is younger than me and Dave (Mason), we have some good kids on the team and if they can all put a point on their average then everyone will be happy.â€
Ben Morley top scored for the newest club in the country posting 11 points including three wins after a disastrous first heat where the visitors Dan Greenwood came together with both riders hitting the deck. Morley returned to the pits but was unable to beat the 2 minute time allowance to take his place in the re-run.
Ben Morley said, “It's been going really well for me this year with the extra guest bookings so far. The track here is good, I think it will just take a little bit of time to bed in and should then be really good. I'm aiming to bump my average up as much as I can this year and I really need to get back into the Premier league, so that's my personal aim this year and to get as many guest bookings and rides under my belt as I can.â€
There were some encouraging performance's from the younger riders especially the fast starting Jack Kingston who said, “Personally today I had a bit of trouble with the set ups but did find something that works, although I had a few slips due to not knowing how the track was performing and lack of experience around this circuit.â€
Looking ahead to next Monday and the visit of the highly tipped Isle of Wight Islanders Kingston added, “The Isle of Wight is going to be a tough one, they have a solid line up, hopefully we will be able to fight them off a bit with our track knowledge and as the weeks go on it should get better and better.â€
With a huge opening crowd Club owner Roger Cearns revealed he had to open an additional turn style to get the supporters into Central Park Stadium. “After an awful lot of hard work and many years in the difficulty of getting planning permission, we've got it off the ground at last. I don't expect that we will get the crowd we have tonight on a normal night but hopefully a lot of them will come back and follow the team, it also give us another activity at the stadium for the people of Kent to look at with a good feeling towards speedway and motorbikes so I hope that we'll get good crowds.â€
KENT CTA FIRE KINGS 1. Steve Boxall 3, 2, 3, R, 1, = 9 2. Jack Kingston 0, 1', 1, 2', = 4+2 3. Ben Morley N2, 3, 2, 3, 3, = 11 4. Connor Coles 1, 1, 1', 1, = 4+1 5. David Mason (C) 1, 2, 2, 2, = 7 6. Sam Woods 2', 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, = 3+1 7. Adam Kirby 3, R, FX, N2, = 3 Team manager: John Sampford
AMERICAN INTERNATIONALS 1. Aaron Baseby 2, 2, 3, 1, = 8 2. Chris Thomas 1', 0, 2', = 3+2 3. Scott Campos (C) 2', 1, 0, 2, 2, = 7+1 4. Dan Greenwood 3, 3, 1, 3, = 10 5. Jason Garrity 3, 3, 3, 3, = 12 6. Jamison Dilkey 1, 0, 0, 0, = 1 7. Hayden Sims X, 2', 3, 1, 2', 0, = 8+2 Team manager: Laurence Rogers REFEREE: Chris Gay
GATE POSITIONS: CTA Fire Kings won the coin toss and took gates 2 and 4 in heat 1. Internationals took gates 2 and 4 in heat 15.