Scottish Open v Scottish Open

REPORT Friday 19th March 2010, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Consistent riding throughout the evening saw James Wright emerge as 2009 Scottish Open Champion, heading home Ryan Fisher and Andre Compton in the final.

It was a very satisfactory opening night in most respects, including a four-figure sum raised for Barry Briggs? fundraising efforts on behalf of Sport relief and the injured Speedway riders. Briggo did a couple of laps on his off-road Yamaha, with Neil Hewitt as passenger and alongside son Tony on another Yamaha.

Max Dilger did pick up rib injuries in one of a number of hair-raising incidents, though we hope it is not serious.

The early pace-setters were Ryan Fisher and Kevin Doolan but for different reasons they couldn?t keep it going, while Kevin Wolbert had a disastrous night.

The first three heats were mainly incident-free, although Michal Makovsky fell in the first heat and picked up an exclusion. Matthew Wethers was well away to win the opening heat from Compton and Rajkowski in what was to be Monarchs? current captain?s best Open to date, the Doolan beat Wright and Tully in heat 2 and Lawson won heat 3 from McGowan.

This was Jozsef Tabaka?s first ride and he rode steadily, heading James Grieves who seemed out of sorts.

Fisher and Wolbert met in heat 4 so we expected some drama ? but not quite the kind we got! Fisher leapt from the start with Wolbert close behind, but on turn four of lap one the German locked up and his bike simply took off. He was thrown off, rodeo style, and the bike kicked and bucked its way up the home straight, thankfully not collecting the starting staff.

It turned out that Wolbert had blown an engine in the pits and was mounted on a less suitable engine along with one of the new silencers. That knowledge put his performance in perspective.

Compton began to build his challenge with a heat 5 win, but the interest lay behind him where Katajisto and Tabaka were ahead of Paul Clews, only for the Berwick rider to blast through to second in his own inimitable style. First decent heat of the evening.

Andrew Tully beat James Grieves in heat 6 and then we saw an entertaining ride by Rajkowski in a heat won by Fisher. The Raj swept past Lawson and Wright, but then lost both places again before the end of the heat. No points but still worth watching!

Max Dilger tried a bold outside move in heat 8 but came down, possibly assisted by Doolan moving out a bit. He could have been allowed in the rerun, but wasn?t. Doolan won from Wethers.

Compton was plugging away effectively and took a good win over Tully in heat 9, Max Dilger taking a good point ahead of the ?hot and cold? Lawson.

Fisher easily won heat 10 and at this staged he seemed to be gating so well that he might sail through the whole event. Doolan matched his score of 9 in the next one with Wolbert again at the back.

James Wright was on three points from 2 rides but won heat 12 from Wethers to keep himself in the hunt.

Into the fourth round of races, Wright beat Compton in heat 13, then we had an excellent race in the next one. Paul Clews looks so quick when he is behind, that you expect if he ever makes the start, he will win. That theory didn?t work in heat 14 because William Lawson ate into Clews? early lead and finally caught him right on the line in an excellent race.

Next we had another ?flyng bike? incident. Rajkowski lifted and knocked Max Dilger onto the grass, and as he came off his bike sped forward, just missed photographer Ron MacNeill and as it reached the track at the second bend, brought down James Grieves.

Max seemed to get the worst of this but eventually took his place in the rerun, in which he was second to Grieves.

Fisher had looked unbeatable but he met his match in heat 16 as Andrew Tully led all the way. Ryan strained every muscle and got close, but he had dropped his first point.

He was still two points clear of the field, but that all changed in the next race. Grieves gated from Compton and Doolan, and going in to turn three Fisher straightened and fell against the fence.

Grieves beat Compton in the rerun which meant that Andre had finished on a dozen, one more than Fisher! The places in the final were wide open and James Wright took advantage by winning an easy heat 18 in which Tabaka earned an exclusion when he and Dilger came down in a heap on the first bend. That put Wright on 12.

Andrew Tully needed to beat Clews to also reach 12 and he duly did that, which meant that no-one in heat 20 could get straight to the final.

It was a good heat as long as it lasted, which was less than two laps. Lawson led from Wolbert, but Wethers slipped inside the German. For a rider on machinery he wasn?t comfortable with, he was in an awkward place, and he straightened and hit Lawson?s back wheel. Both riders came down heavily, and although William bounced straight up, he was shaken.

He was awarded the win even though strictly speaking the two-lap rule should have applied (good decision) but unfortunately William could not come out for the semi and was replaced by Clews alongside Fisher, Doolan and Wethers.

This was an excellent heat led all the way by Fisher, though not by much! Doolan was close all the way, and Wethers who started at the back used a crafty inside line to creep up on everyone, coming through to second and very nearly taking the win!

The damage to Fisher?s challenge though was probably having to take fourth pick of gate. He was on the inside, with Tully gate 2, Compton gate 3 and Wright on the outside. James Wright made a good start and though Fisher was away well too, he could not block Wright?s outside run.

Tully fell on the first bend and cleared the track, and Compton spun on the third bend but carried on for third place.

A good opening night, flying bikes excepted, and a taster for what should be a good season ahead.