Sheffield Speedway Match Reports 2007

Chris Holder shot from the gate in heat 1 for a big win and a new track record shaving ¹/₅th of a second off his previous best. Ricky retired from fourth place while Cory Gathercole was buzzing around Ben's rear wheel all four laps and just failed to catch him on the finish line. Simon Lambert led heat 2 from Birko with Byron Bekker trying all he could to pass Chris Johnson for third place. Byron overcooked it at the start of the third lap but quickly cleared the track and Birko passed Simon on the third turn for a drawn heat. André zoomed off into the lead leaving Paul to battle it out with Jason Bunyan for second place with Paul just managing to hold him off and putting the Tigers into the lead. Birko replaced Byron who had hurt his wrist in his heat 2 fall and been withdrawn from the meeting. He and Joel make the start and Joel shrugs off a challenge from Krysztof Stojanowski on the first lap to claim another maximum heat win. André traps ahead in heat 5 but Paul hasn't got the power to make the outside swoop from gate 4. Chris Holder passes André very sweetly on the inside of turn two on the second lap and quickly extends his lead and the Islanders reduce the Tigers lead to 4 points.

Ricky and Ben trap ahead in heat 6 and Krysztof has no answer although he bounced off the safety fence on the third lap so he was certainly trying. Birko caught the tapes with his helmet at the start of heat 7 picking up a 15 metre handicap, even though Chris Durno got us all confused by putting the yellow exclusion light on! Joel trailed the Islanders from the gate and was looking for a way past on the second turn when he clipped some ones rear wheel and tumbled off. He cleared the track in no time at all but the race was still stopped. Birko got close to Glen Phillips in the rerun but Glen was riding wide and Birko didn't even consider trying the inside line. From my vantage point on the apex of the 3rd and 4th bends I couldn't see what happened between Birko and Cory on the first bend, but Ben emerged ahead. Cory found his every move blocked as he challenged Birko for second place and the red mist came down on the last lap as he collected Birko with an ugly lunge up the inside of the third bend for which he was rightly excluded. André blasted into the lead in heat 9 and Paul rounded Krysztof on the third bend to follow his skipper home for another 5-1. Ricky looked back on-song winning heat 10 ahead of Jason Bunyan who rounded Ben on the first lap. Tigers lead by 14 but the bonus is slipping away.

Chris Holder emerges from the pits for heat 11 wearing the back and white helmet colour while Birko can't get his spare bike to start and jumps aboard Ben's with second ticking away. The Aussies take all 9 points, Chris is never troubled, Joel stays upright for four laps and Cory easily outpaced a pedestrian Birko who retires on the last lap (I do hate that!). André is the only starter for Sheffield in heat 12 as the bonus point is effectively conceded and he takes a comfortable win from the Islanders pair. Ricky pushed the track record holder all the way in heat 13 but Joel took another silly fall on the second bend, remounting but finishing last. Birko was out on Ben's spare again in heat 14 and made a decent start. Paul could have done the same as André or Ricky and blasted away for personal glory, but instead he elected to ride abreast of Birko just ahead of the hard pressing Glen Phillips preventing any outside challenges. Glen was disgusted with himself at the end of the race but the crowd saluted the best display of team riding witnessed for years. André is obviously still not 100% and Paul picks up the nomination for heat 15 alongside Ricky. Ricky pulls alongside Chris on the back straight and takes the lead on the third turn with Paul just ahead of the Islanders skipper. Both Tigers take perfect lines and that's how the race finishes with a thirteen point victory for the Tigers but an aggregate win for the Islanders.

Return to Sheffield Speedway fixtures and results
Return to Sheffield Speedway homepage