Central Park went Continental on Monday evening (13/7) with the home Speedway side the Kent SLYDE Kings taking on a touring Scandinavian side, the Team Fritte Cup.
The Fritte Cup is a competition held annually in Denmark for riders from the multi-World Championship winning nation in the Under 23 age range; and if the latest crop of dashing Danes on display at Sittingbourne Dog Stadium on Monday is anything to go by – well, as the advert for one of the country’s other chief exports would have it - they ‘Probably Are the Best Young Riders In The World’!
Knowing that strengthening up was important to attempt to bring home the bacon in this ‘Challenge Internationale’, the home side opted to bring in experienced Premier League rider Luke Bowen to fill the currently vacant slot in the SLYDE Kings’ seven man squad – and the rider currently not riding in any of the country’s three speedway leagues will have shown a fair few promoters out there what they’re potentially missing by an outstanding performance: chalking up four race wins (more than anyone other individual rider) and clocking one of the fastest times of the season. Sadly team building points limits mean the SLYDE Kings couldn’t fit the eponymous ‘Bowen 747’ into their side for City Gearboxes National League matches but it was certainly a treat to have the one-time Rye House Rockets man flying in to do a job this evening.
The challenge was considerable for the Murston-based Kent club – up against a Fritte Cup Select side with no discernible weaknesses. Two of the riders in the visitors’ line up are sons of former World Cup winners with Denmark, Peter Karger (son of one time World Finalist Brian) and the youngest rider in the touring side, Jason Jorgensen – whose father John twice made the individual World Speedway Final before taking part in the early years of the Speedway Grand Prix Series.
17-year-old Jorgensen struck the first blow for the visitors, storming to a fast heat two win being partnered home by the highly useful looking Michael Frimodt Pedersen and putting Team Fritte Cup into a lead they were destined from there never to lose. But in the opening salvoes the home side basically held their own with recently crowned ACU National Champion James Shanes continuing his rich vein of form with two heat wins and Bowen going through the card in respect of his programmed rides occupying the difficult no 2 team berth with aplomb.
Aaron Baseby had a frustrating evening – harshly adjudged to be at fault when falling in heat five when there seemed clear contact from the Dane and then falling again in his next outing it was a night to forget for the Sevenoaks-based speedster. With Baseby out of contention his racing partner Danny Ayres found the going tough also and it was to the credit of the side that come heat 10 the gap was just two points.
However the Danes then showed how dialed-in they’d become to a racing circuit different from those they’d generally encounter in their homeland and in the final five heats they stormed away, recording all heat wins: three as maximums to turn a two point lead at the two-thirds stage into an 18points winning margin.
Next up for the Kent SLYDE Kings is a visit to the runaway CGNL leaders Birmingham on Wednesday with a hugely tall order facing Chris Hunt’s charges against a side with a 100% record in the League.
The action at Central Park next Monday (20/7) shifts to individual competition with the staging of the annual Laurels event. Luke Bowen will return for this ‘Open’ event as one of the ante-post favourites but will face a tough challenge from among others, home skipper Ben Morley, the in-form James Shanes and visiting Kiwi sensation, Bradley Wilson-Dean. Grasstracking protégé hoping to make a name for himself on the shale too, Orpington-based Charley Powell will interest the crowd on his Central Park debut. The Laurels winner will receive £300 and the iconic WJ Cearns Trophy – the longest running title in British Speedway dating back as it does to the early 1950s. The meeting gets underway at 6.30pm on Monday 20th. July.
Kent SLYDE Kings 36 Ben Morley 0 2* 2* 2 1 7+2 Luke Bowen 3 3 3 3 0 12 Aaron Baseby 1* X 0 1 2+1 Danny Ayres 2 1 1 1 5 James Shanes 3 3 2 0 8 Jamie Couzins 1 1 0 0 2 Danno Verge 0 0 0 0 0
Team Fritte Cup 54 Jacob Bukhave 1* 3 3 1 3 11+1 Peter Karger 2 2* 2 1 7+1 Patrick Bjerregaard 3 F 1 3 7 Simon Selch 0 2 0 2* 4+1 Emil Engstrom 1* 1 3 3 2* 10+2 Jason Jorgensen 3 0 2* 2* 7+2 Ark Frimodt Pedersen 2* 2 1* 3 8+2