CLUB NEWS: 2 podiums for Stars riders in British Championships

Saturday August 20th saw the 3rd British Youth & Junior League National round take place at Newport which saw Shaun Kell take 3rd place in the Under 14’s A Final ahead of series leader Ryker Jolly (Kesgrave) who finished 4th in the A Final. The gap between the 2 riders is 3 points going into the final round at Astley & Tyldesley on Saturday 17th September

Wednesday 24th August saw the 4th round of the Norfolk Grand Prix series for the Under 16, Girls and Senior categories take place at Harford Park where Norwich riders finished 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the Senior event. Tom Blackmore took the win with Jamie Medler 3rd, Shaun 4th and Rory, having won the B Final by default, 5th.

The August Bank Holiday Weekend meant one thing – the British Championships which this year were staged in the Midlands and this saw 2 Norwich riders achieve podium placings. Shaun scored 19 points in the Under 14’s event at Wednesfield and finished as runner-up to Kesgrave’s Ryker Jolly. The following day the Under 12 Boys Championship was decided at East Park and Will Blackmore finished 3rd in this event having lost a run-off for 2nd to Poole’s James Randall. Will got further in this event than he did in the corresponding event at Southampton in 2021 where a nasty crash in his first race saw him taken to hospital. Meanwhile at Coventry the British Over 50’s title was up for grabs and Paddy Wenn scored 16 points to finish in a 3 way tie for 4th having been unbeaten in his first 3 races but then running 2 3rd places in his last 2 races. A change to the schedule saw the British Over 40’s Championship staged on the final day which this year was at Birmingham. Paddy rode in this event and finished in a 4 way tie for 6th with 12 points. Lee Grange also rode, scoring 10 points and finishing 12th

September started with Norwich riders in action on Saturday 3rd at East London and East Newport. At East London it was round 6 of the South-East Grand Prix and in the Under 10’s event Frank Spauls finished 3rd in the A Final. Will rode in the Under 12’s event, as did Zachary Eastwood who finished 3rd in the B Final whilst Will took 4th in the A Final. Shaun then won the Under 14’s A Final before going on to take 2nd in the Senior A Final, the latter earning him the Rider of the Day award. Steve Copping was undecided at the start of the week as to whether to race at East Newport or East London but plumped for East London where he finished 2nd in the Over 40’s B Final. Meanwhile at East Newport Paddy was in action in round 6 of the Eurovets where he started the day 3 points behind the Over 50’s series leader Lee Galley (Newport) but he finished 3rd in the B Final which means he cannot now win the championship as Galley’s 2nd place in the A Final puts him on 134 points and although Paddy is on 125 points even if he wins the final round at Birmingham his East Newport score will be discarded (as riders can drop their worst score) which would leave him on 133.

The following day saw Ipswich make the visit to Eaton Park for South East League action but the Eagles won all 3 matches. The Division 1 match was won 102-58 by the visitors. Norwich’s scorers were Lee 12(2), Shaun 12, Jamie 10, Paddy 9(1), Ritchie Tayler 8 and Rory 7. The Division 2 match finished in a 1 point victory on the track for Ipswich by 78 points to 77 but they had 15 penalty points subsequently added to their score as Norwich used Lee who is a restricted rider for Division 2. This made the final score 93-77 in Ipswich’s favour. The Stars scorers were Shaun 14(1), Lee 14, Jamie 14, Will 11(3), Ritchie 9, Tom 7(1) and Rory 7. The Stars were 1 rider short in the Youth League match and this proved costly as they went down by 65 points to 61. Will scored a paid maximum, 19(1) whilst Zac scored 17, Shaun 14, Tabby Nierop 7 and Rou Tayler 4

This coming Sunday (11th September) sees the Norfolk Championships decided at Hethersett whilst the home matches against Kesgrave in Division 1, Division 2 and the Youth League (against the Kesgrave Pumas), which were postponed in April, will now take place on Sunday October 16th