FINAL OUTCOME UN-BEAR-ABLE FOR PIRATES AGAIN

For the second time in the space of four seasons the Poole representatives were pipped to the SGB Championship pairs title by the Redcar Bears.
Ironically, the 'victim' this time around was Lewi Kerr who featured in Redcar's 2022 victory at Oxford after Steve Worrall had been left at the tapes following an ignition problem. 
 

Kerr, making his first appearance of the 2025 season was caught out by track conditions in the final at Workington on Saturday which left him nursing a sore leg and back after tangling with Erik Riss leaving the third turn. Disqualified as the cause, Kerr could only watch on in the re-run of the final knowing that whatever his impressive partner Zach Cook could muster it wouldn't be enough to prevent Redcar winning back to back titles if both Riss and his partner Charles Wright both finished.

A disappointed Kerr admitted "I'm feeling pretty rough, it was a bit of a sad way to end the meeting, but at the same time a decent start for the season. It was great, the whole meeting was fantastic and me and Zach were looking for each other. We knew what we had to do, and it worked but, like I said, it is just a shame the way it ended."

Partner Zach, who had four impressive race wins over the course of his six rides, together with a close call disqualification when adjudged to have forced Ben Barker to crash when the Pirates met Plymouth in the qualifying heats admitted "it would have been nice to have had a proper final, but that was how it was. Neither rider did anything wrong, it was purely down to the track conditions, they just come together because the track was way too wet but yeah, they won it and it was a shame. I just had to go out there in the re-run, try and win it then hope that one of them would blow up, but they got the big trophy. But it was a big confidence boost for both me and Lewi at the start of the season and we can take that on to the season once the league racing and that gets going."

Keeping a watchful eye over the Poole due was Northern-based manager Gary Havelock who described his charges as "as good as anyone on the day. The boys rode fantastic, they were working well together and piling the points up. It was just a shame it happened like it did in the final. They said they weren't going to put any water on before the final but then they went and put the bowser round for two laps and so when Erik was coming round and trying to drop it on Lewi coming out of three, Lewi just couldn't stop and he was just kind of skating like on ice and that's what caused him to crash into him. But, what's that now three times Redcar have been gifted it. They won it last year when Nicholls (Scott) crashed for Oxford and then against Poole a couple of years earlier. It would have been nice to have won it today, without our number one, but there you go, it wasn't to be.

Qualifying scores (4,3,2,0 points awarded)
25 pts Glasgow
24 pts Plymouth, Poole
20 pts Redcar
17 pts Berwick
16 pts Oxford
12 pts Workington, Scunthorpe, Edinburgh