Ekberg
Top Scores as Glasgow Crash
Posted
20/06/05
New signing Stefan Ekberg made a decent start
to his Tigers career, top scoring in the meeting against Stoke, but
Tigers crashed to yet another home defeat.
With Glasgow fielding a new line up and both teams
using guests it was always going to be difficult but the Tigers threw
this meeting away in the last few heats.
Jim McGregor attempted to make his mark on the meeting
right from the start when excluding Trent Leverington from heat 1
after a classic case of first bend bunching. Stancl came out and won
the re-run from the gate. Clews bike sounded very sick during the
race and after crossing the finishing line Stancl was looking unhappy
at his equipment, something that was to come back and haunt the Tigers
later on in the meeting.
Matt Wethers won the second heat comfortably from
the gate with the team riding Potters pairing managing a shared heat
despite an engine failure for Barrie Evans on the final bend. James
Cockle was just unable to catch him prior to the finish line.
The third shared heat from the gate followed, giving
Ekberg a second place in his first race at Ashfield behind the flying
Alan Mogridge.
The Glasgow pairing gated in heat 4 but Harrison
went round the outside of Cockle on the opening bends. He then gave
chase and came under Rymel on the fourth bend and went on to claim
the win. Unfortunately the Glasgow pair failed to gate in heat 5 and
were well beaten with Mogridge and Kessler claiming the first 5-1
heat advantage of the night in style.
Stancl won heat 6 from the gate with Leverington
doing well to hold off Harrison for three and a half laps before his
fellow Australian got the better of him on the third bend of the final
lap. Evans took a heavy tumble at the back on the final bends but
fortunately was unhurt.
Heat 7 was shared from the gate before Glasgow got
a heat advantage-just-in heat 8. Kessler gated but Trent came through
the inside of him on the final bend of the first lap. At the rear,
Jack Hargreaves was perhaps a shade unlucky not to catch James Cockle
on the line. This was followed by a home 5-1 with Kristensen winning
from the gate and new boy Ekberg working hard to fend off Harrison
to claim second spot in an excellent contest.
Heat 10 was also to provide some good racing with
Stancl and Mogridge out front. George tried everything but was unable
to get past the in form Potter. Meantime Clews and Leverington were
battling out the minor placings with Trent coming out on top.
Harrison and Rymel were side by side for almost the
entire race in heat 11, particularly in the early stages but fortunately
for the Tigers Rymel was able to pull ahead on the third lap and claim
the race win.
Having already claimed his first paid win in Tigers
Colours, Ekberg went one better in heat 12 winning from the gate.
Cockle got third although Evans did momentarily pass him at the end
of the first lap and Glasgow opened up what would normally be a comfortable
six point lead at this stage.
A lengthy delay to re grade the track seemed to work
against Glasgow and this combined with a thrown chain for Stancl whilst
lying second resulted in the Stoke pairing claiming a 5-1, bringing
the Potters right back into it.
A shared heat 14 meant it was all down to the final
heat and with Mogridge and Kessler gating well it was more or less
all over by the second bend, Glasgow were beaten again this time after
being in the driving seat. To cap it all, Stancl suffered another
engine failure at the end of the second lap whilst lying third.
Stoke were well served by Mogridge and Kessler with
back up from Harrison but Glasgow have to face the fact that they
helped throw this meeting away. Its hard to pin point exactly where
the problem lay but two engine failures for the no 1 rider certainly
proved costly as did the regarding of the track after heat 12. On
the plus side Ekberg did well on his first outing at Ashfield riding
with one of his own engines in Shane’s frame. Shane was most
definitely missed again and it highlighted the reasons for the changes
that Glasgow are currently undergoing as we cannot continue to rely
on one or two riders and accept gutsy performances that just fall
short of acceptable points totals.
The scorecard and heat details can be found here.
Tiger Performance Points:
| George Stancl |
*** |
disappointing finish |
| Trent Leverington |
** |
professional in difficult circumstances |
| Stefan Ekberg |
*** |
pleasing debut, looks promising |
| Claus Kristensen |
** |
off form |
| Adrian Rymel |
*** |
worked hard but not in Shane's class |
| Matthew Wethers |
*** |
drop to reserve berth helped |
| James Cockle |
** |
an off day |
