PIRATES PULLING CLEAR WITH WIN OVER SCORPIONS

The Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates extended their lead at the top of the SGB Cab Direct Championship table by a further three points after securing a 58-31 victory over second placed Scunthorpe.

Moving four points clear, the Pirates also revealed another star of the shale in American Slater Lightcap who scored a solid five points and demonstrated his ability to quickly read a track, even after a difficult build up to the meeting with  machinery problems.

Scunthorpe looked to be a force to be reckoned with over the first five heats, but then the Pirates rapidly settled into their stride and outpointed their visitors 23-7 between heats five and ten, and then 20-9 over the final five, which included a last race head-to-head battle between Will Cairns and Scorpions' guest Tom Brennan after both Zach Cook and Luke Harrison had been disqualified for separate falls., Cook in the initial running then Harrison spectacularly losing control in the re-run. Cairns rode a brilliant heat fifteen to get past Brennan and keep the hard-pressing former Pirate behind him.
Speaking afterwards, Lewis Kerr, who would have had a higher return than his paid eight had it not been for a spark plug  issue in his first outing, admitted

"I feel on top of the world to be honest, it was nice to win it so easily in the end. There were a few little things early on and that seemed to let Scunny in a little bit. I done a spark plug when leading and little things like that, but yeah, in the end a great win. We are making this place, you know, a tough place to come and it helps when you've got such a good home track advantage and you've all got good setups it gives you confidence going into the proper stuff at the end of the season. So we will just keep it going. I thought Slater did really well for his first meeting to be fair, so it is up to him now and he's keen. It would be nice to get a full one to seven back at some stage but we will just keep battling on for now."

 Scorpions' guest Tom Brennan gave the Poole fans an early reminder of what they had been missing as he began the night with two storming wins, before Kerr headed him home in heat nine, and whilst Brennan became the first rider in thirteen races to beat Pirates skipper Zach Cook at Wimborne Road, when they met in heat eleven, Cook avenged in heat 13 before Cairns then won that thrilling heat fifteen.

Poole now head for Edinburgh on Friday, taking with them a 14-point lead in the quest for the bonus point, and will have Richard Lawson back in the side.

POOLE 58 -William Cairns 13+1 (2,3,3,2',3) ,Jordan Jenkins 11+2 (3,2',2',1,3) ,Zach Cook 10+1 (3,3,1',3,FD) ,Nick Morris 8+3 (1',2',3,2') ,Lewis Kerr 7+1 (R,2,3,2') ,Slater Lightcap 5 (1,1,2,1) ,Cooper Rushen 4 (1,0,RS,3)
SCUNTHORPE 31 -Tom Brennan 14 (3,3,2,3,1,2) ,Luke Harrison 8 (3,2,1,2,XD) ,Nathan Ablitt 4 (2,R,RS,1,TS,1) ,Jacob Hook 2+1 (2',0,0,0) ,Michael Palm-Toft 2 (1,1,0,0) ,Connor Mountain 1 (0,1,0,0) ,Ryan Ingram 0 (0,RS,0,RS,0)
 

Full scores, heat details and report