Last Gasp 3 Points for Tigers
(Posted 13/09/09)

Despite letting Redcar back into the meeting when it looked like heading for a comfortable home win, Glasgow finished strongly in the last three heats to secure all 3 points.

On a track that looked rather heavy at best, the racing was not up to its usual standard with a considerable number of races decided from the order out of the second bend.

Not for the first time this season the Tigers got off to a poor start being completely outgated by the Redcar pairing with Ty Proctor going on to win in impressive style. Shane Parker slipped to the back after being filled in on the opening bends leaving Josh Grajczonek to press Kessler for second place but Kessler held and the Tigers suffered a 1-5.

Tigers hit back right away with a good gate from Mitchell and Lee Dicken riding the wide outside line to come out of bend 2 in front. Behind Mitchell Stuart Swales was throwing his bike around rather erratically and slid off on the opening bend of the second lap whilst lying in third place.

A good gate gave William Lawson victory in heat 3 with Robbie Kessler this time being the rider filled in on the opening bends and retiring.

The opening bends seemed to cause the riders a few problems in heat 4, James Grieves struggling round them with Ben Wilson sliding off completely on bend 2 and remounting. Stuart Swales was the only rider to get cleanly round made the most of it by opening up a gap that Lee Dicken and James Grieves were unable to close. Lee held second place for most of the race but an engine failure on the backstraight of the final lap left him coasting to the finish with Grieves claiming second.

At this stage there was some track grading which seemed to improve conditions on the opening bends and William Lawson took full advantage to win heat 5 from the gate. Ty Proctor passed inside Lee Dicken coming out of bend 2 and challenged William for about a lap and a half before the heat became well spread.

A good outside line from Josh Grajczonek saw him recover from a sluggish gate to come out of bend 2 ahead of the fast gating Ben Wilson. Wilson did not make it easy for Josh and he had to be very sharp early on to maintain position before putting some fresh air in between them on the third lap. Shane had to settle for third place a similar distance behind Wilson with Bugeja almost half a lap down.

It was Robbie Kessler who gated quickest in heat 7 but an excellent opening bend from Grieves saw him move Kessler wide to come through into the lead coming out of bend 2 and quickly pull clear in another well spread heat.

Another good start and opening bend from Josh Grajczonek was enough to see him win heat 8 although the anticipated battle between him and Ty Proctor did not happen, Proctor being unfortunate enough to suffer an engine failure on the start line.

The referee held the tapes slightly longer than normal for heat 9 and William Lawson was the one caught out, breaking the tapes. Most expected him to go off 15m but Stewart Dickson elected instead to bring Lee Dicken in as reserve replacement and it was a move that was to pay off. Lee and Mitchell both gated well. Lee powered ahead whilst Mitchell tried to contend with Ben Wilson who was challenging. Wilson passed outside Mitchell going down the back straight but Mitchell's second bend had held Wilson up sufficiently to let Lee pull well clear for the heat win.

Yet again Josh made an excellent start in heat 10 and followed it with a good hard opening bend pushing Stonehewer wide and out of contention. Stonehewer retired leaving his partner Robbie Kessler to hold off Shane Parker for second place.

Although the option had been there for Redcar to use a TR in heat 10, they understandably left it to heat 11 and gave the black and white helmet to the impressive Ty Proctor. The nerves were obviously getting to Ty however as he made a blatant flier and was lucky not to touch the tapes in the first running but all settled down and in the re-run he made a good gate and was joined by his team mate Wilson ho took the wide route round the opening bends. Wilson took over at the front and left his team mate to fend for himself. James Grieves made an excellent outside swoop round the third and fourth bends to squeeze by Proctor into second place. Proctor tried to hit back straight away but Grieves held until Proctor cut inside him on the 4th bend a lap later to reclaim second spot. Bizarrely Wilson was still powering ahead and almost left it too late to slow down to allow Proctor to take maximum points. When he did slow, he almost baulked his team mate on the inside of the final bend but Proctor just made it through in time to collect the maximum points.

Heat 12 was a bit cruel to the Tigers. First of all, in the initial running Lee Dicken was excluded after being taken out by Stuart Swales who made a wreckless drive underneath him coming into the opening bend of lap two. Swales made slight contact with Dicken's front wheel and Lee was forced out to the fence, the heavy dirt stopping his bike dead and throwing him off. To Lee's disgust, the referee excluded him as the cause of the stoppage although as the referee allowed the race to continue until the riders were almost on top of Lee one lap later that was always going to be the decision no matter how strange it seemed. The re run saw sole Tiger William Lawson make an excellent gate and pull well clear of the opposition. He was easily a quarter of a lap up going into the last lap but as he entered the final bend his chain snapped and what was a heat win suddenly turned into a 1-5 to the visitors.

Redcar were now only 1 point down going into a vital heat 13. An excellent gate from Grieves saw him win the heat easily with the action being at the rear between Ben Wilson and Shane Parker for the important third point. Wilson passed inside Parker on the second bend of the race but Shane never gave up and trailed him all the way before making a well timed drive round the outside off the final bend to claim third spot on the line.

Kessler and Swales were quickest out of the traps for the visitors in heat 14 but a good hard opening bend from Josh Grajczonek saw him move Swales wide allowing both Josh and partner Mitchell Davey through. Swales spent all of the race pressing Mitchell but Mitchell rode well tactically to block him at every attempt to ensure a share of the spoils.

All down to a heat 15 decider, Tigers got the first break by winning the toss to take the far more favourable gates 2 and 4. William and James made the most of it to gate ahead of the opposition although Proctor passed Lawson coming into the back straight. Unfortunately Proctor lost control as he sped into the opening bend of lap 2 and fell very heavily. he was up quickly and thankfully seemed none the worse for the fall. in the re run, Grieves won from the gate with William Lawson settling into an easy second place coming out of bend 2 and the Tigers had just managed to hold on to all 3 points.

 

 

 

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