Tigers Take All 3 Points
(Posted 10/04/07)

Glasgow emphasised their intentions as potential Premier Trophy qualifiers with a victory over the home side at Newcastle last night to secure all three points on offer.

Tigers were always favourites for the bonus point but on a slick gaters track it was always going to be difficult to combat the Diamonds quick gating riders. However George Stancl did exactly that in the opening heat by passing inside the fast gating Ross Brady on bend two of the second lap and going on to claim the heat win.

David McAllan did not appear to be ready when the tapes went up in heat 2 and found himself at the back although he was able to take advantage of Ashley Johnson coming off on his own on the second bend to claim third place behind Lee Dicken, the heat being won by Sean Stoddart from the gate.

Despite the Diamond pairing making the gate in heat 3, Glasgow were to record their first 5-1 of the evening. Shane Parker cut up the inside of Jonas Raun coming out of bend two on the opening lap then one lap later swept round the outside of Wilkinson on the same bend. Meanwhile almost unnoticed, Robert Ksiezak had passed inside Raun on the final bend of the opening lap. Coming into the final lap a Tigers 4-2 looked on the cards but Wilkinson, clearly in second, suffered an engine failure on the second bend leaving Robert to come through to second.

Christian Henry made an exceptional gate for the home side in heat 4, going on to win the race in the fastest time of the season round Brough Park. Sean Stoddart got the better of Trent Leverington on the opening bends for third place.

The tapes seemed to be held for a long time at the start of heat 5 but it did not stop Stancl and Smethills from gating and claiming a Tigers 5-1 only for it to be reversed by Brady and Franc from the gate in heat 6. It was to be from the gate yet again in heat 7, a heat won by Christian Henry despite Shane Parker spending all four laps on his back wheel looking for somewhere to pass.

Newcastle drew the scores on the night level again thanks to a heat advantage in heat 8 with Brady getting the better of David McAllan coming out of the second bend of the opening lap.

In heat 9, Lee Dicken made an excellent gate that left the other three riders well behind. initially Trent held second place but was under pressure from Wilkinson, who pulled level on the backstraight of lap three before Trent managed to edge just ahead coming out of the fourth bend. The two riders were close going into the opening bend of the final lap and as Trent, on the inside, turned into the bend Wilkinson came off. Opinion was divided as to whether or not Trent's back wheel got the merest of touches on Wilkinson's front wheel, the referee felt it had and excluded Trent. With Dicken almost on the back straight of the final lap and approaching the penultimate bend by the time the red lights came on, the race was rightly awarded.

Franc and Brady gated for the Diamonds in heat 10 but Shane powered round the outside of Brady at the end of the opening lap to split the home pairing.

Although Henry and Johnson gated in heat 11, Stancl quickly passed the Newcastle youngster but was unable to make up any ground on Henry. Dicken had gone very wide on the opening bend but came back to pass inside Johnson on the second lap before Johnson fell off a bend later. the heat was shared and the bonus point officially secured. It was emphasised with a Tigers 5-1 in heat 12 courtesy of Shane Parker and David McAllan despite Shane momentarily being at the back coming out of bend three when Raun seemed to get the better of him. However he was merely lining up the inside drive through bend 4 which allowed him passed both home riders and into second place.

Heat 13 saw Newcastle get the heat advantage from the gate to tie the scores before an all important heat 14 swung things back in the Tigers favour. Robert Ksiezak made the gate closely followed by Carl Wilkinson. David McAllan missed it but reeled in Sean Stoddart finally passing inside him on the final bend of lap 3. Stoddart made a desperate attempt to regain position on the next bend but fell trying the outside line. Up ahead, Wilkinson had battled hard to challenge Ksiezak but the Glasgow youngster had thwarted all attempts made. In a final attempt, he too found the outside line costly, this time coming off on bend 3. It was enough however to allow David McAllan to come through into second and the Tigers had an all important 4 point lead into the final heat thanks to a 5-1.

The final heat was also to be from the gate after Franc gated and Shane kept Henry at the back. As the two Glasgow riders completed the first lap they almost seemed to be talking to each other, settling for the second and third placing's and team riding in a way only George and Shane can to ensure the victory.

As George said at the end of the meeting, the track was a lot slicker than Glasgow would have liked, but again the team pulled together and made the most of it.

David McAllan's form continues to be superb and Lee Dicken is not that far behind him. It is easy to overlook the almost expected form of the top two the way our two reserves are stepping up to the challenge but George and Shane are both leading by example. It is particularly pleasing that George has not been relying solely on gating but also passing and passing with confidence. Robert was quiet but still racked up the points on a track that does not rank as one of his favourites. Lee Smethills is struggling a little at the moment but hopefully it is just temporary bearing in mind that he blew his main two engines within a week of the start of the season. Trent will be quite happy to put this one behind him and was rather unhappy at being excluded in heat 9.

The early signs are still good for the Tigers are good and the team spirit is definitely showing even at this early stage. With Redcar having such a good start to the campaign with two away wins, Glasgow have made it clear that they will not have it easy and next weekends two meetings with Berwick (away) and Redcar (home) should be interesting.