Speedway: Sheffield make dream start to beat Northampton with biggest win of season
Young British stars top scorecard but ‘new track record’ is false alarm
Hi may not have broken the track record in the end - but Sheffield’s Anders Rowe still had lots to smile about after Sheffield’s biggest win of the season in the Rowe Motor Oil Speedway Premiership.
After Rowe had won heat one ahead of team mate Leon Flint in a Sheffield 5-1, the announcer initially reported a track record breaking time of 56.79.
However, that time, which would have shaved over two seconds off the record, was later described as a mistake. but with Tigers winning 58 after a fantastic first four heats, and both Rowe and Flint scoring their best scores of the season, Rowe was still delighted with the evening’s events.
Tigers won the first four heats of the evening 5-1, on a difficult night for the Foxes, who only won one heat advantage all night, when Jaimon Lidsey and Kye Thomson won heat 11 5-1 against Sheffield skipper Josh Pickering and Jye Etheridge, after the win and the aggregate point were already in the bag for the home side.
Rowe said he thought his first heat was fast, but not track record fast.
He said: “When I was told, I was ‘hmm, I’ll take it’ But I’m not sure that it was that fast. They worked it out and it wasn’t! It is what is is, and it’s another thing to work on, and try and get it!”
Rowe said he felt really good. He said: “We changed a couple of little bits on the bike tonight, and just went out there and gave 110 per cent, and the whole team did, so it was brilliant.
He was not sure what the secret of the team’s fast start, but felt the main thing was that the team got the four 5-1s .
“That is a big confidence boost for the home team, and also a bit of a head scratcher for the away team,” he said. “It’s like ‘what’s happened?’ and a bit of shock. We’re a really strong team and we showed it tonight, and we’ve just got to keep pushing on.”
He said he had made a slight tweak on the bike, and it gave him a bit more belief.
He also acknowledged the strong performances through the team on a night when four riders scored a paid double figure score, with rising star Luke Killeen winning his first Owlerton race in heat two.
“Luke rode really well tonight,” he said. “It was really good and you could see the confidence growing in him and the whole team.”
Tigers were missing the injured GP star Jack Holder again, while injury also meant Northampton were without experienced reserve Troy Batchelor, with young rider Freddy Hodder guesting.
Sheffield won the first three heats with little drama, but only an exciting overtake by Killeen, -passing Northampton’s rising star Luke Harrison virtually on the line at the end of the last lap, secured the fourth straight 5-1, with his outside overtake winning him second place behind Sheffield skipper Pickering.
And it was a spectacular overtake by Pickering, on the last bend of the final lap, which effectively won the meeting for Tigers, finding a way around the outside of Niels-Kristian Iversen, despite the Dane being only just behind heat winner Rowe.
With the points already in the bag, Flint and Killeen were selected for heat 15, Flint’s victory in a 3-3 shared heat securing him a paid 15, the top score of the evening.
The win and the aggregate point moves Sheffield up to third in the league table, leapfrogging Ipswich, who have ridden one more meeting.
Sheffield 58: Leon Flint 14+1, Anders Rowe 13, Josh Pickering 12+1, Chris Holder 9+4, Luke Killeen 7+1, Jye Etheridge 3+2, Jack Holder r/r.
Northampton 32: Jaimon Lidsey 9+1, Kye Thomson 7+1, Niels-Kristian Iversen 6, Matej Zagar 4+1, Nicolai Klindt 4, Luke Harrison 2, Freddy Hodder 0.
Sheffield win the aggregate point