Suffolk riders won both the Senior and Junior titles in cycle speedway’s inaugural HSBC Elite GP series.
The final round at Astley and Tyldesley in Manchester saw Great Blakenham’s Josh Brooke leading Newport’s Ben Mould by seven points, meaning Mould would need to better Brooke by two or more places.
This was the first national meeting at Astley and Tyldesley’s track since a major refurbishment, and Ipswich’s Ashley Hill broke the track record in the day’s first heat beating Brooke; by the end of the meeting Myke Grimes and Lukasz Nowacki had lowered it again to 40.15 seconds.
Brooke and Mould met in the final heat. Brooke took the lead before the race was stopped, with Astley & Tyldesley’s Reece Pollitt excluded for bringing down Mould.
In the re-run, Mould gated over Brooke and sped away for the win. This gave Mould the meeting win, but 2nd place in the match gave Brooke the overall series win, with Mould second.
The two riders meet again on 20th August when the South and South East squad face the South West and Wales squad at Great Blakenham, then the following weekend Mould will defend his British Individual title at Wednesfield.
Then come November the two will both join the Great Britain squad for the Tour of Australia.
Ipswich’s Pierce Bacon led the Junior series but was unable to ride the final match, meaning Sheffield’s Edan ‘Ed’ Morton could still take the series by winning the meeting.
Morton was beaten by Astley’s Max Evans but kept his hope alive by beating club mate Adam Watson, the two Sheffield riders tying on 15 points.
Watson won the toss for the run-off and held out Morton, taking the win on the day and making Bacon the series champion.
A special mention goes to Macie Schmidt of Poole, current British Under 16 Girls champion, who showed her ability in an under 18 open competition series to take sixth place overall.
Results
HSBC UK Senior Elite Grand Prix - series result (Best three scores from rounds)
1st: Josh Brooke (Great Blakenham) 70
2nd: Ben Mould (Newport) 68
3rd: Myke Grimes (Coventry) 54
4th: Lewis Osborne (Great Blakenham) 49
5th: Lukasz Nowacki (Horspath) 48
6th: Paul Heard (Wednesfield) 40
HSBC UK Junior Elite Grand Prix – series result
1st: Pierce Bacon (Ipswich) 66
2nd: Ed Morton (Sheffield) 63
3rd: Adam Watson (Sheffield) 59
4th: Fraser Garnett (Poole) 46
5th: Max Evans (Astley & Tyldesley) 33.25
6th: Macie Schmidt (Poole) 33.25.
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