The final meeting of a memorable Speedway season at Central Park came to the most dramatic of ends with home star James Shanes triumphing in the end of season ‘King of Kent’ individual meeting and claiming the impressive SilverSki Trophy.
It was very tough luck on two of his team mates, skipper Luke Bowen who’d stormed through the qualifiers with four wins; and Danny Ayres who – desperate to sign off his third season with the Sittingbourne-based club with the individual meeting win he so covets – fell while leading the Final.
The qualifiers saw Bowen take a maximum 12 points; though the draw kept him apart from Ayres, who recorded three impressive heat victories himself, including two wins over Shanes - who was struggling with his starts and finding it hard to progress through the field on a wet track surface - and an impressive heat 12 win over one of the pre-meeting favourites, former Kent skipper, Ben Morley. In a portent of what was to follow, though, Ayres had crashed out in his third (and easiest on paper) ride – falling when clear in first place; his team mate David Mason gratefully benefitting with a vital win securing his own qualification.
Ayres’ nine points saw him in second ahead of Morley courtesy of that heat 12 win. Shanes, meanwhile, after just one point from his opening two rides had to thank a heat 7 win over another of the most fancied visiting riders and another former Kings’ captain, Steve Boxall for the five points which saw him take the penultimate slot in qualifying for the semis. The countback couldn’t separate Jack Thomas and Central Park debutant, Jordan Jenkins also finished on five points and a run-off was necessary - with the SLYDE Kings’ teenager Thomas gating superbly and then holding off the ardent challenges of the impressive looking Jenkins.
Surprise packet in the qualifiers had been Connor Coles – again impressing on the return to the track he graced as an ‘original’ King in 2013. With Coles in fourth and Boxall, who struggled after looping out in heat one only fifth, it meant the first semi featuring riders in first, third, fifth and seventh remarkably threw together Bowen, Morley, Shanes and Boxall! Something had to give in this battle of the stars and when Bowen drifted too wide on the fourth bend of the third lap chasing Morley (who’d made a lightning fast trap out of the start) thus allowing the hard-chasing Shanes up the inside, it was the maximum man who was out. It was plain sailing for Ayres in the other semi - with Thomas taking full advantage of the run off reprieve that had seen him progress, to get past Mason and secure a place in the Grand Final for himself.
So to the denouncement of a dramatic season with perhaps more heart-wrenching drama in it than any other individual race all year at Central Park. Ayres swept past Morley into the lead and was clear and away. A superb effort by Shanes to get past his former skipper was to pay huge but unexpected dividends when on the fourth bend of lap three, Ayres went too wide, made contact with the fence and was down. Though up in a shot, there was no catching Shanes or Morley now and a third place was really no reward for a great night’s racing by the Newmarket-based rider.
For the Boy Wizard of Balance, Shanes though, it was a second individual meeting win of the season as his adopted Kentish home and the crowd hailed their hugely popular teenaged star.
Qualifying scores
Luke Bowen 3 3 3 3 12 Danny Ayres 3 3 0 3 9 Ben Morley 3 2 2 2 9 Connor Coles 2 3 0 2 7 Steve Boxall X 1 2 3 6 David Mason L 1 3 2 6 James Shanes 1 0 3 1 5 Jack Thomas 1 2 1 1 5 Jordan Jenkins 2 1 2 0 5 Ben Hopwood 2 2 1 X 5 Danno Verge 0 0 F 1 1 Nathan Stoneman M M - - 0