Kent SLYDE Kings moved into third place in Speedway’s Travel Plus National League [TPNL] with a victory over a dogged Stoke Potters side at Central Park on Monday (25/7).
For the opening nine heats the visitors from Staffs who have enjoyed a run of success down in the Garden of England kept within reach of the homesters but a burst of five heat advantages (three of them much welcome maximums) in the closing six heats saw the play-off chasers take a comfortable 22 points victory.
Such a winning margin didn’t really look all that likely in the opening stanzas, with Stoke tying the hosts down to just a six point lead after six heats and keeping that distance past the half way point.
The home side were sharing out the heat winners without actually asserting their normal match dominance: Luke Bowen, Danno Verge, James Shanes, David Mason and Jack Thomas all joining with Danny Ayres in taking race wins in those opening nine heats. Bowen, though, blew an engine in his second ride (the impact throwing him off his machine when leading heat six) and Mason suffering a similarly expensive and painful fate in heat nine. Mason’s catastrophic engine blew out (with his machine left with literally a gaping hole in it) was compounded when he reached down to check the damage and slashed open his hand on the jagged metal remnants of what should’ve been his 500cc engine. A blow indeed to the TPNL’s all time record points scorer, who really rolled back the years early on and looked on course to add impressively to his prodigious total after a second place was followed with a superb win over the Potters’ number one Ben Wilson. Sadly after his expensive mishap, Mason’s evening was over prematurely.
Magic’s misfortune saw Jack Thomas given extra rides and the teenager from Norwich rose to the challenge, pairing up with first his skipper Bowen and then Shanes to record the two decisive maximums on the way to a ‘Man of the Match’-winning paid 12 total.
Those two 5-1s in heats 10 & 12 and then Verge’s second heat win in the penultimate race was then crowned by an excellent effort by Bowen and Shanes in the nominated riders heat 15 to seal a thoroughly professional effort with the whole team contributing.
Next up comes a visit to the Isle of Wight on Tuesday (26/7) and then hosting the same opponents, the Isle of Wight Warriors next Monday (1/8).
Kent SLYDE Kings 56 L. Bowen 3 F 3 3 3 - - 12 L. Clifton 1 2 R - - - - 3 J. Shanes 1* 1 3 3 2* - - 10+2 D. Mason 2 3 R - - - - 5 D. Ayres 3 3 2 1 - - - 9 D. Verge 3 0 1* 3 - - - 7+1 J. Thomas 1 1 3 2* 2* 1 - 10+2
Stoke Potters 34 B. Wilson R 2 3 2 - - - 7 Rider Replacement - Shaun Tedham T. Atkin 3 2 R 1 1 - - 7 D. Phillips 0♢ 1* 1♢ 2 - - - 4+1 B. Hopwood 2 3 2 2 0 0 - 9 S. Bebee R 0 1 1* 0 - - 2+1 P. Burnett 2 2 0 1* 0 0 - 5+1
