Winning
Start to League Campaign
Posted
08/05/05
Glasgow kicked off their 2005 Premier League
campaign with a home win against one of the pre-season title favourites,
Exeter.
Although the victory was quite comfortable, the seventeen
point margin still may not be enough when it comes to the return leg
but the important thing is the Tigers have a good home win under their
belt.
For the first time this season George Stancl was
beaten in the opening heat at home. Both Exeter riders outgated their
Glasgow counterparts and although George was able to get past Smethills
quite quickly, he was unable to catch Mark Lemon as he powered to
what was to be the fastest time of the day by 1.4 seconds. Smethills
made an error in going too wide at the end of the third lap allowing
Matt to come through into second.
James and Trent won from the gate in heat 2 although
Ondrasik made James work hard for the entire four laps.
Heat 3 has been a nightmare for Glasgow this year
but Bentley gated and was away. Jamie was on the pace and challenging
Svab for second when he locked up on the fourth bend, clipping Smethills
as he tried to control it. Both riders came off and the race was rightly
awarded. Birko returned to the pits with his front wheel turning like
something a clown would use in a circus!
Glasgow got a heat advantage from the gate in heat
4 and were to share heat 5 after the unfortunate Smethills ran out
of fuel on the final bend and replacement Cockle - in for Birkinshaw
who was excluded under 2 minutes - was able to claim third place.
Another heat advantage followed for Glasgow in heat
6 although it could have been even better if George had held back
to help his partner. Matthew tried a number of different lines to
try and get by Stephens but the Exeter riders experience showed. Ondrasik
shot from the gate in heat 7 with Shane giving chase. Shane came under
the Czech on the second bend of lap two and eased him over allowing
Shane the better line into the third bend and it was effectively all
over.
It was no surprise when Exeter brought the fast gating
Ondrasik in as a TR in heat 8 but it was his partner Smethills who
was to win the heat with Wethers riding an intelligent race to keep
Ondrasik in third. Bentley had another good start in heat 9. Partner
Jamie Birkinshaw spent almost the entire race on the back wheel of
Seemond Stephens before executing an excellent pass on a very wide
outside line of the final bend to claim a thoroughly deserved second
place.
Stancl and Stephens gated well in heat 10 but George
took the Falcon wide allowing partner Matthew through and Glasgow
claimed their second 5-1 of the meeting.
Heat 11 was eventful-or rather the lead up to it
was. Mark Lemon was on a TR and as the riders came to tapes a spectator
noticed Shane was missing his dirt deflector and alerted the rider.
With time fast running out, Shane headed back to the pits where thankfully
George Stancl had already had the presence of mind to get his bike
started and had it waiting at the pits gate for his team mate. Shane
just made the time allowance thanks to George but when the referee
let the tapes go up one side failed and the unfortunate Lemon got
caught rather painfully round the neck. The delay meant Shane was
able to return to his own bike and win the race from the gate with
Lemon second and Smethills third.
Competition in heat 12 was for third place and Birkinshaw
yet again found a good outside line at the end of the first lap to
power past Ondrasik and into third. An untroubled 5-1 for Parker and
Stancl followed in heat 13 from the gate but this was reversed in
heat 14 when Exeter got their only 5-1 of the meeting with Bentley
falling on the final bend whilst in last.
The usual pairing of George and Shane repeated their
heat 13 success with another 5-1 from the gate in the final heat,
this time against Lemon and Svab.
Exeter's challenge today came mainly from Mark Lemon
although Ondrasik also rode far better than expected. Svab scored
reasonably well. All the Glasgow team weighed in with a points tally
more in line with what was expected of them round Ashfield for the
first time this season. It was a decent start to the league campaign
but it should be taken in context as Exeter are not a team that is
comfortable on smaller tracks.
Pictures from home meetings can normally be found
on Ian Adams Website
or Lioness'
Webshots Site on a Monday evening.
The scorecard and heat details can be found here.
Tiger Performance Points:
| George Stancl |
**** |
Good meeting |
| Matthew Wethers |
*** |
Rode intelligently |
| Jamie Birkinshaw |
*** |
Looked better again today |
| Paul Bentley |
*** |
Good when he gated |
| Shane Parker |
***** |
Excellent again |
| James Cockle |
*** |
Another solid performance |
| Trent Leverington |
*** |
Quietly effective |
