COOPER SCOOPS NIGEL PEARSON AWARD AND FINISHES FOURTH IN FINAL

A night of awesome racing from Cooper Rushen secured him the People's vote for the Nigel Pearson Award, presented to the rider who provides the best entertainment during the Cab Direct British Final. In an unanimous vote Cooper was confirmed the winner even before he produced a stunning semi-final ride to book his place in the Grand Final 

Reaching the semi-final with a more than creditable 10 points, Cooper made an outstanding move to win from Leon Flint, who had stunningly won his first three rides before William Cairns and Anders Rowe both lowered his colours in heat 13. 

Cooper just came up short of a rostrum finish but as he himself admitted, 

"If you had offered me fourth place before tonight I would have taken it, but once you get yourself into the final then of course you want to get something out of it. But given the way I have been scoring lately, and I just don't know why, this was a very big confidence boost for me. I didn't really clutch well in the semi-final and so knew I had to just send it. Then I saw Leon move off the line and I went for it and made it pay off. So, yeah a good night for me and it was a lot of fun out there."

The meeting was won by the unbeaten, pre-meeting favourite Robert Lambert with Charles Wright finishing second and Flint third. The result earns Charles Wright the wild card for the 2027 British GP.

Will Cairns finished the night with five points but like Rushen provided a performance to be personally proud of.  

 Top four (qualifying heat points in brackets)
1st Robert Lambert (15) , 2nd Charles Wright (11), 3rd Leon Flint (10+2) 4th Cooper Rushen (10+3) 5th Dan Thompson (10+1) 6th Anders Rowe 7th (9+0)
Others: 7th Tom Brennan (8), 8th Adam Ellis (8) 9th Danny King (7) 10th Ace Pijper (7) 11th Chris Harris (7) 12th Jason Edwards (5) 13th William Cairns (5) 14th Drew Kemp (4) 15th Jake Mulford (3) 16th Jody Scott (1)  

Photo credit: Liam Cockwell