Mike's Jottings:

Mike

A beautiful, warm, late spring evening welcomed home the Somerset ‘Dickies’ Rebels after a ‘hot’ performance the night before, when they beat tonight’s opponents, the Redcar Bears, 51-41 on their home shale to gain their first Premier League away points of the season.

With Lubos Tomicek away on Grand Prix duty, the Rebels fielded a strong guest in Kevin Doolan, but were without James Holder, who dislocated a shoulder after Gary Irving collected him in Heat 2 the previous evening. Irving was making his Bears debut, but that crash appeared to have temporarily curtailed his Premier League career, as the Bears used Robert Branford as his guest replacement, and still operated Rider Replacement for the injured Ben Wilson.

As a consequence of what was probably the hottest day of the year so far, early track conditions were a little on the damp side, and this caused mix fortunes for the riders. Whilst Ritchie Hawkins blasted away from the tapes to lead Heat 1 all the way from Tomas Suchanek, Henning Bager and Kevin Doolan struggled for visibility at the rear of the field, never getting in a blow.

Lee Smart, in for James Holder, made the best of a level break in Heat 2, but couldn’t hold off Redcar stalwart Stuart Swales, and the Rebels Mark Baseby as they sailed around his outside on the second bend. Baseby never gave Swales a moment’s peace, harrying him for all four laps, often side-by-side, but could never quite get the upper hand. Smart easily held third place to share the points.

Sam Masters returned to the side on Thursday, at Redcar, after missing last weekend’s fixtures to ride in the World U21 Championship. He may not have qualified for the later rounds of that competition, but he has steadily added to his growing reputation since arriving in the UK, and his performances here and the previous evening have done nothing to diminish that. Shane Parker made a great start, with former World Champion, Gary Havelock, close up. Parker led out of the first turn; cleverly keeping Havelock’s inside run under wraps in the process. Masters came roaring around the outside of the pair, joining Parker at the front as they exited the second turn. Once at the front the Rebels middle order pairing pulled well clear of their opponents, to record a surprisingly easy 5-1.

After a couple of early shared heats, the full house seemed to kick the Rebels into life, and they took advantages in each of the next three heats to build a good lead by Heat 6. Cory Gathercole carried on where Parker and Masters had left off. His Heat 4 task was made easier when Emiliano Sanchez’s machine spluttered off the line before expiring on the back straight. The rest of the field left the line together, but it was Gathercole who emerged from the first bend in front. Once in front Gathercole pulled clear, leaving Stuart Swales and Mark Baseby to battle out second place, with Baseby trying all lines to pass the experienced Swales, but just coming up short.

Parker and Masters were back on the maximum trail in Heat 5 as Parker once again made the best start to lead at the opener. For the second time on the spin, Masters came with a big run around the wide line to account for Henning Bager and Robert Branford, pulling clear with Parker to another easy full house for the Rebels. Branford rode a great race to hold third place, after Bager had gone wide in the opening turn, until the Dane inexplicably decided he would race his young team-mate for the single point. He drove hard under the inexperienced National League rider, causing Branford to take a heavy tumble on the final bend of the race.

The Rebels pulled 12-points clear after Heat 6, where Kevin Doolan opened his account for the home side. Blasting off the line, he led every inch of the way to easily defeat Emiliano Sanchez. Sanchez’s attentions were taken up in trying to hold off the hard charging Ritchie Hawkins, who threw down a wide challenge on the second turn, which narrowly failed to stick. Cutting back inside, he once again got upsides the little Argentinean on the final bend of the lap. Sanchez held off the move, but Hawkins redoubled his efforts, covering every crumb of shale, working the inside and outside lines in his quest for second spot. However in the end he had to settle for third spot, but it wasn’t for the want of trying.

Brian Havelock didn’t allow the Rebels another opportunity to add to the lead, sending out son, and Bears top man Gary in the ‘Black and White’, but the move was only partially successful. Havelock broke quickly, but had Cory Gathercole for company. Gathercole looked to have cooked the Bears goose as he drove hard under Havelock to lead off the second bend, only to see a flying Tomas Suchanek come high, wide, and handsome around the battling pair. Suchanek was carrying so much speed that he pulled several bike lengths clear in the blink of an eye. Gathercole didn’t panic, as he got down to work, to haul in the speeding Czech. He worked the lines, inside and out, closing the gap on Suchanek, eventually switching his attack to the outside, delivering the final blow with speed and daring, squeezing between Suchanek and the fence, as they ran onto the final lap. It was a breathtaking display that had the crowd on its feet, with Gathercole all over his machine, hanging right off the side at times, leaning at almost impossible angles as he wrung every bit of grip and speed out of the track. As they raced back to the line, Suchanek allowed Havelock through to second place, to maximised the Bears returns, and give then a heat advantage, 3-5.

The Bears took another advantage in Heat 8, but in unusual circumstances with the race eventually being contested by only two riders. As the tapes rose in the original running it was the two reserves, Mark Baseby and Stuart Swales, who made the best starts. The pair raced clear of Ritchie Hawkins and Emiliano Sanchez from the first turn, with Baseby in front. As they entered the third turn, Swales ran wide, losing grip and falling into the fence. Almost immediately Baseby, several yards in front, appeared to catch some grip, straightening up, and hitting the dirt, and the fence with some force. Swales was quickly up, but Baseby took a while to rise, having taken a hard knock to his foot in the crash. When he did rise, the referee had no option to exclude him, as well as Swales, as the causes of the stoppage.

That left Hawkins and Sanchez to contest the re-run, but despite it only being the two of them they served up a fine race for the crowd. They broke level, with Hawkins getting the narrowest of advantages off the turn. Sanchez was soon upsides, and the pair were locked together for the first lap. Sanchez took the inside line early on, but switched his run to the outside on the second lap, and it paid dividends as he swept passed Hawkins on the second bend. As in their previous encounter, Hawkins wouldn’t lie down, and made sure that Sanchez was kept on his toes for the whole four laps. He closed up the Bears man, only to see him pull out the gap again, and it was back and forwards right to line with ‘Potty’ just holding sway to grab a single point advantage for the visitors.

With the gap now closed to 9-points the Rebels slammed in two maximum heats to force the Bears into a second tactical move. Heat 9 saw the return of the ‘Maximum Men’ when Shane Parker and Sam Masters added a third full house in as many rides. Parker took a level break with the busy Emiliano Sanchez, but was soon in control as they exited the first curve. Meanwhile Masters cut back inside from the outside gate, to put a superb inside pass on the former Argentine and Italian Champion as they ran onto the back straight. From there the Rebels pair pulled clear for a bloodless victory.

Kevin Doolan and Ritchie Hawkins added the second full house as the broke level with Tomas Suchanek. They entered the first turn three abreast, with Suchanek the meat in the sandwich. The Rebels pair unceremoniously squeezed him out as they raced clear to take another full compliment of points. Suchanek held third place, until he suddenly slowed on the final bend of the lap, allowing Gary Havelock to take third. Whatever ailed Suchanek’s machine didn’t last long, and cleared after a few seconds allowing him to continue and finish the race.

Henning Bager was the next to carry the Bears hopes as he took the tactical ride in Heat 11. Once again it produced only limited success, but that was probably more to Cory Gathercole’s quick thinking than anything else. Gathercole broke level on the outside of Bager, and just got over the top of him on the opening turn. Quick as a flash, he clamped Bager to kerb hard, allowing Lee Smart to come barrelling around the outside. Bager’s focus of attention was now defending his position from Smart, and not trying to close a quickly disappearing Gathercole. Smart stuck to his task in occupying Bager, making sure that he worried more about losing the double points than gaining the win. Smart’s presence had the desired effect as he harried Bager right to the line, and ensuring sharing the points 4-4.

One of the beauties of Speedway is that it can occasionally pitch the relatively inexperienced against the top of the tree, often with stunning results. That was the case in Heat 12, as Sam Masters came up against Gary Havelock, and what a race it produced. With nothing between the pair from the tapes, they served up a feast of racing, as they ran wheel-to-wheel for the first three laps. Havelock held the lead, but Masters was all over him, trying every line he could think of the best the ‘Old Master’ . Havelock looked to have got the better of the New South Wales U21 Champion, and you would be forgiven for thinking Masters might give up the win, but somehow he conjured up a final bend blast that saw him close on Havelock with every turn of the wheel, just failing to get up on the line. With all the excitement up front, many missed the equally enthralling battle going on behind, as Stuart Swales just held Mark Baseby by a similar margin.

More excitement followed in Heat 13, but from the Rebels point of view it was of the wrong kind. The race took three attempts to get underway, whit the first start being called back after Cory Gathercole made a lighting start that referee Stuart Wilson deemed unfair. In the re-start Gathercole was last away, but was soon into his stride, catching the field as they entered the first turn. Things got a bit tight, and Emiliano Sanchez, on the outside gate went crashing to the ground. Much to the delight of the visiting Redcar fans Gathercole was excluded as causing the stoppage. In truth it was probably a bit of a harsh exclusion, as Gathercole caught them just as the field was shuffling out, and tightening up from the inside. Kevin Doolan was the only Rebels rider at the tapes for the second re-start, but he made no mistake, blasting of the line to lead out the whole four laps, despite a brief challenge from Emiliano Sanchez late in the race. With the match in the bag after the previous heat, the Rebels had now ensured taking all three league points on offer, with the only issue now being, would Shane Parker complete his first unbeaten meeting Rebels colours.

He went a long way to that objective taking Heat 14 with a superb outside run, to pass the quick starting pair of Tomas Suchanek and Lee Smart, on the opening turns. Suchanek went passed Smart on the third bend, but could never pull out a telling gap. The pair were soon joined by Stuart Swales, who gave Smart the same dilemma that he, Smart, had given Bager in Heat 11. In the end Smart held off Swales to take third place.

The question of whether Parkers maximum would be over four or five rides was answered when the Rebels tracked Kevin Doolan, alongside Sam Masters in the final heat. It was a well deserved appearance for Masters, who had been in superb form all night, despite not taking a heat win. Redcar’s woe continued in Heat 15 as their original choice of Tomas Suchanek proved to be ineligible to take part, so Gary Havelock took his place. Then Henning Bager failed to make the two-minutes, and had to start of 15mts.

Over the years Gary Havelock has been involved in some fantastic races at the Oak Tree Arena. Who can forget his epic struggles with Magnus Zetterstrom and Jason Doyle, and he had already served up another in his earlier battle with young Sam Masters, and he did it again here. Kevin Doolan got the drop from the tapes, but Havelock was soon on his case, and the pair went at it ‘hammer and tongs’ racing side-by-side for the first two laps. Havelock got the upper hand taking the wide line out of the final bend of lap two, but as with Masters earlier, Doolan was persistent, and never allowed Havelock to relax. He put together a late run, throwing down a big challenge in the last two turns of the race, getting up the inside of Havelock, but was not able to grab back the lead, as the Bears fans roared home their top man, as the Rebels took a great 55-38 win.

Whilst the Bears struggled to cope with a National League guest, and the continued use of rider replacement, the Somerset ‘Dickies’ Rebels gave a great all round team performance, with every rider contributing important points. It may not have been a meeting that generated the level of excitement as last weeks offering, but there were some great races to keep the fans entertained. It would be difficult to single out one person for special praise, but it would wrong not to mention Shane Parkers four ride maximum. Shane would probably tell you himself that he has struggled to get to grips with things since arriving at Somerset, but two paid maximums, and a four ride full maximum in a week shows that at least one corner has been turned. Shane has also made some changes in his equipment that have reflected in his improved performances, and it can only get better from here. Sam Masters celebrated his impending 19th birthday (Sunday), not only in a titanic battle with Gary Havelock, but with a superb 9+4 return from his rides. Hopefully James Holder’s dislocated shoulder won’t keep him out for too long, as he will surely relish the chance to face his former side, Stoke, in two weeks time.

Report courtesy Dave Thompson