PIRATES DOWN BUT NOT OUT AFTER TOUGH BATTLE AGAINST SCUNTHORPE

The Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates are just fifty race points shy of winning their third successive SGB Cab Direct Championship title and completing the league and BSN Series double, after a tough night in North Lincolnshire on Friday.

The defending champions had to dig deep after the Scunthorpe Scorpions got off to a blistering start with two 5-1 heat advantages in the space of the first four heats, Poole's big two players, Zach Cook and Richard Lawson finding themselves on the wrong end of the heat score in their respective opening rides.

For Lawson it proved to be one of those rare race nights without a win, whilst new number one Zach Cook managed to secure a crucial win in heat eleven when up against two of the shining lights for the Scorpions, Luke Harrison and Ryan Ingram. 

The home side also had Josh Pickering in typical unbeaten form - until he came up against Pirates star of the night Cooper Rushen in heat 10, whilst Michael Palm-Toft's unbeaten performance lasted until heat fifteen when Cook crucially split him from Pickering to keep Scunthorpe's first leg advantage to single figures, with their 49-41 victory. 

A modest Rushen said after:

"It was good tonight. I think we started off a bit rough, but we kind of really brought it back in the end. It seems to be the way with these finals, we seem to start a bit rough. You know, the home team seems to get the set up and then we all kind of, you know, fight for each other and get back into it.
I've never been so good around this place, so I started off with a completely different set up going into it and yeah I made a few slight changes. Two too many, to be fair. The bike was working quite well. Although I would have liked to have made a change for my last one, I think, in hindsight, but we'll take it. The spirit is good in the camp. I think we were, you know, in danger of being about sixteen down at one point, so to hold it to just eight down, we're all quite buzzing now, but one thing's for sure, you can never count Scunny out.  I think, you know, they can make it really hard for us so, yeah, we'll just take it as it comes. Wednesday's a fresh day, and we've been strong at home this season, so I hope we can continue that." 

Making his first visit to the Eddie Wright Raceway was Slater Lightcap who came away with a paid seven score but was amongst the points for much of his heats, although ran a couple of last places. His verdict on the night's performance was:

"I wish I had figured it out much earlier than I did. It took me until my last ride to really work out the lines. I was gating alright, it helped because the starts were a bit slick and I am used to that out in America, it was just I couldn't read the lines there until the end. But we are in a good position. I would love to win a title with the Pirates just as my good friend Greg Hancock managed. They say follow in his footsteps but they are some real big boots to fill."

Scorers
SCUNTHORPE 49 -Josh Pickering 13+1 (2',3,2,3,3) ,Michael Palm-Toft 13 (3,3,3,3,1) ,Ryan Ingram 10+1 (3,3,RS,2,0,1',1) ,Luke Harrison 7+1 (2',3,2,0) ,Connor Mountain 5+1 (3,1,1',0) ,Nathan Ablitt 1 (0,RS,0,RS,1) ,Jacob Hook 0 (0,0,RS,0)
POOLE 41 -Zach Cook 8+1 (0,1',3,2,2) ,Cooper Rushen 7+2 (1',1',3,2) ,Lewis Kerr 7+1 (2,2,1,2') ,Slater Lightcap 6+1 (2,0,0,1',3) ,Richard Lawson 6+1 (1,2,2,1',0) ,William Cairns 6 (1,2,3,0) ,Kyle Newman 1+1 (1',0,RS,0)

Photo credit: Liam Cockwell (Library Photo)

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