The 60th Anniversary Meeting
Posted 18/09/06

It was an afternoon for nostalgia more than anything with the racing being the normal type of fare for this type of event without being particularly competitive but that should not take away from Danny Bird's excellent five ride maximum.

Danny opened the meeting with a win from the tapes although he was made to work for it by Todd Wiltshire. David McAllan had been lying third until an engine failure caused him to pull up and aggravated ligament damage to his wrist, something that would cause him to withdraw from the meeting later on.

With both Glasgow youngsters missing the gate badly in heat 2, Kyle Legault and Matt Wethers recorded an easy 1-5 from the gate. A mundane heat 3 was then won from the gate by Adam Shields and with Will Lawson claiming third the Rest of the World side extended their lead.

Parker and Ksiezak gated in heat 4 but any hopes of their usual team riding at the front were thwarted with Wethers and Woodward passing either side of Ksiezak coming out of the second bend, Woodward going through the smallest of gaps to do so, and the heat was shared.

Emiliano Sanchez picked up a suspected broken rib in the first running of heat 5 when he fell unchallenged at the back coming out of bend 3. Wiltshire, who had been leading when the race was stopped, won the re-run from the gate comfortably with Nieminen appearing to have bike problems at the back.

Danny won the following heat by a country mile from the gate but unfortunately James Cockle, replacing David McAllan, was equally as far off the pace at the back and the third heat in a row was shared. Shane Parker recorded the heat win in heat 7 after going round the outside of Adam Shields coming out of bend two. Robert Ksiezak challenged Will Lawson for third until a small error at the end of lap two saw him drop off the pace.

David McAllan attempted to ride again in heat 8 but he was to suffer another engine failure on the second bend of lap three whilst challenging Matt Wethers for second place. Kyle Legault, in for the injured Emiliano Sanchez, won the heat in style and Rest of the World had their second 1-5 from the same pairing as their first.

Glasgow's team manager for the day elected to bring Kauko Nieminen out as a TR in heat 6 and the Flying Fin did not disappoint. Despite being outgated by both Woodward and Legault, Kauko managed to find a gap that did not look to be there on the opening bends and powered out of bend two in the lead and there was no stopping him. Lee Dicken also took advantage of the gap left on the inside to pass Kyle Legault coming out of the second bend and Glasgow were back in the meeting thanks to the 7-2.

Heat 10 was once more the Danny Bird show, Danny winning from the tapes without much resistance. Robert Ksiezak missed the gate and although he provided a challenge on Lawson for the opening lap he was left to bring up the rear.

Matt Wethers replaced Sanchez in heat 11 and was to be involved in possibly the best race of the afternoon with Shane Parker. Todd Wiltshire had outgated Shane and perhaps concentrating too hard on Wiltshire, Shane allowed Matt slip through into second on the opening bends. Shane challenged the entire race with Matt doing everything he could to hold him off. On the final lap, Shane passed round the outside of Wethers on the second bend but Matt was not for giving it up and had got back ahead of Shane down the back straight coming into bend 3. Shane however held the outside line and was able to drive slightly ahead coming out of the fourth bend to pip Wethers on the line.

After that, heat 12 was a bit of an anti climax. Shields was excluded under the 2 minute rule for coming out with the wrong helmet colour on and replaced by Matt Wethers. Danny Bird then won the well spread out heat from the gate with Dicken at the back.

Heat 13 had been much anticipated and saw Shane Parker get the better of Todd Wiltshire. Todd had gated, Shane pulled along side him coming out of the opening bends and the two rode side by side until Wiltshire wobbled at the end of the first lap, allowing Shane to pull clear.

Although the meeting was run under the old 13 heat format, we had a bonus nominated heat 14 and it was no surprise that it featured Danny Bird and Shane Parker against Adam Shields and Todd Wiltshire. Danny once more made an excellent gate but so too did Todd Wiltshire who challenged him all the way from start to finish but Danny was able to hold him off and record his maximum.

On the whole, it was far from the greatest meeting seen at Ashfield and it did drag on a bit time wise. However all 14 riders entertained and the afternoon was, after all, about nostalgia and celebrating 60 years.