Stoke 39 Workington 39 – Abandoned after 13 heats – Result STANDS

 STOKE Easy Rider Potters Young Shield semi final first leg meeting against Workington ended in controversy on Saturday night as referee Graham Reeve brought a halt to proceedings after a power failure at the Loomer Road Stadium plunged the track into darkness just prior to the start of heat thirteen. The lights did come back on and heat thirteen saw Jason Bunyan take the chequered flag ahead of Comets pairing Mark Lemon and Andre Compton and with the light’s flickering still, referee Reeve abandoned the meeting with the two team’s level on 39 points each.

 The Potters took the lead in heat two as Tom P Madsen and Craig Branney gained a 5-1 over John Branney and Craig Cook who had to go off fifteen metres due to exceeding the two minutes time allowance prior to the start of the race, as Stoke open up a four point lead with the score 8-4 in favour of the Potters.

 Workington struck back in heat four as the Comets gained a 4-2 as former Potter Mark Lemon took victory from Potters skipper Lee Complin with Justin Sedgmen holding Klaus Jakobsen at bay to reduce the Potters lead to two points.

 Stoke immediately struck back with a 4-2 of their own as Jason Bunyan takes a comfortable victory over Compton with Jesper Kristiansen taking third place as the Potters lead 20-16 after six heats.

 The Comets levelled the scores at the halfway point as John Branney and Adrian Rymel gain maximum points over Robert Ksiezak and Craig Branney to leave the scores at 21 points each.

Former Stoke Spitfire John Branney gained his second successive victory of the evening as he held of the challenge of both Madsen and Kristiansen to keep the scores level, Justin Sedgmen being disqualified from the race after bringing down Tom P Madsen at the first time of asking.

 The Potters looked to be taking the lead in heat nine as Lee Complin and Klaus Jakobsen were on for maximum points holding out Compton and Cook but Jakobsen suffered an engine failure on the final lap forcing a drawn heat keeping scores tied at 27 points a piece.

 Referee Graham Reeve was again at the forefront of the controversy as John Branney seemed to lock up in front of Jesper Kristiansen causing both riders to fall but Kristiansen was disqualified from the rerun as the primary cause of the stoppage. Potters number one Bunyan made no mistake in the rerun as he took a comfortable victory from Adrian Rymel and Branney.

 Robert Ksiezak lowered the colours of fellow Aussie Lemon for the first time of the night as he headed the Comets number one home for victory.

 Ksiezak was disqualified at the first staging of heat thirteen after falling on the first turn and as the riders came out for the rerun the light’s went out plunging the stadium into darkness.

The result leaves the Comets firm favourite’s going into the second leg at Derwent Park on Sunday afternoon at 3pm.

 Former rider Nigel Crabtree said “We’re totally devastated we were looking to take a lead into the second leg and as we’ve seen all season we’ve come on strong in the final few heats and we could have perhaps taken a six to eight point lead into the second leg. One of the major problems we had tonight is one we’ve had all season and that is we just have not been able to get out of the starts we’re giving opponents a ten yard start. I don’t think Workington are as strong using guests as they would be with their own riders and our lads really want this and tonight may well have fired them up even more for tomorrow afternoon. It’s going to be tough for us now but we pulled things out of the bag at Somerset last week and we now have to do the same at Workington on Sunday.”

 Promoter Dave Tattum said “I do feel that a couple of riders need to look at themselves very hard and decide if they want extra meetings because at the start we were very slow out of the blocks. Tomorrow we really have to get out and at them early on if we’re going to stand a chance of going through.

As for the electrical problem it was sorted out very quickly, what made it look worse is that the track lights have to cool down before being switched back on and obviously with the track being in darkness for five minutes or so it may well have felt longer to supporters. We still have all the car park, bar, lights on at the moment and it’s now 10.20pm but the referee decided that the track lights were dimming and felt that the meeting could not go on and he called a halt to the meeting. “We had all the arena lights on for five hours on Friday night and there was no problem and I am confident there will not be a problem again. We know what happened tonight and the problem has been resolved. I felt we could have continued and completed the meeting tonight. I would like to apologise to the supporters for what happened tonight, we knew straight away what the problem was and quickly rectified the problem.”

 Stoke 39: Jason Bunyan 10+1, Tom P Madsen 8+1, Lee Complin 6+1, Robert Ksiezak 5+1, Jesper Kristiansen 4+1, Klaus Jakobsen 4, Craig Branney 2+1

 Workington 39: Mark Lemon 10, John Branney 8+1, Andre Compton 8+1, Adrian Rymel 7+1, Justin Sedgmen 5+1, Craig Cook 1+1, Richard Lawson (Rider Replacement)

 The Potters are back in action on Sunday afternoon as in the second leg of the Young Shield semi final at Derwent Park 3pm.