Watt In The Lead

NEWS Wednesday 4th January 2017, 11:18pm

by Howard Willaims

  Edinburgh Monarchs

In the most even Australian title field for years Sam Masters quickly discovered there were going to be no easy points on offer and would have been disappointed to only pick up a semi final placing when in the previous two years he had taken the silver medal and would have been hoping to go one better this year.

Sam's night started reasonably well with a dropped point to Troy Batchelor who had won the local state title on the same track the night before but second wasn't a complete disaster. Normal service was resumed in Sam's second ride with a very impressive win against the fast finishing Justin Sedgmen who had been in red hot form recently where Sedgmen narrowly failed to catch Masters in the run to the line. Five points from two rides against Batchelor and Sedgmen was certainly a pass mark on the report card so far and things were going mostly according to plan.

Then the first lowlight, in his third ride Sam was outside Watt and Fricke and couldn't find a way round those two out the gate and from then on he seemed uncharacteristically slow and eventually pulled up and retired from the race. That wasn't what the script required so now Sam was now looking at a semi final berth with a subsequent win if he wanted to make the big final. On his fourth ride Masters had a win / win, Sam won the heat rather easily in impressive fashion but with Rohan Tungate dropping a silly point through shutting off a bit early Sam had clawed back two points over one of the other semi final contenders.

In his final heat Sam had drawn his only gate 4 of the night with Nick Morris to his immediate inside. It's a long way to get across and get to turn one in front from out wide and Morris had just enough to keep Sam behind him and that's the way it stayed for the remainder of the race. Ten points including one failure to finish was no disgrace and it saw Sam with first gate choice in the semi final which was against Batchelor, Tungate and Fricke. It could easily have been the line up for the main final such was the quality on display. Masters chose gate 2 which had been working well but had what would best be described as an average start with Tungate leading from Batchelor for three laps before Batchelor discovered a narrow inside gap and didn't need a second invitation. More bad news for Sam as he ground to a halt mid race with more mechanical gremlins. Seventh place overall with 10 points wasn't quite what the doctor ordered.

New Monarch Josh Pickering got an instant preview of what tough league racing might be like but coped well to end up with five points and was far from disgraced. To put that in perspective last years Australian champion Brady Kurtz also scored five with Poole new boy Jack Holder only scoring one better with six so Josh was in good company. Pickering had picked off Jordan Stewart for third in his first ride (behind Batchelor and Masters) and did likewise to grab third from Mason Campton (behind Watt and Tungate) on his second outing. It would have taken an optimist to expect Josh to score much more up to this point. Pickerings third heat was a weird follow the leader race with all four riders about three bike lengths apart for over three laps with nobody gaining or dropping back and Josh finishing sandwiched in between Nick Morris, Cooper Riordan and Jaimon Lidsey. Another point went on Josh's scorecard but he certainly wasn't off the pace. His fourth ride was a bit of a disappointment trailing home behind Sedgmen, Todd Kurtz and Proctor and although Sedgmen always had the upper hand a point or two for Pickering might have been a nice little confidence boost. Finishing on a high note is always a good plan and Pickering did just that by harassing a somewhat subdued Max Fricke all the way to the finish line to pick up two points and leave Holder and Brady Kurtz in his wake. A tidy enough nights work on Pickerings part and I'll be interested to watch his progression over the next three rounds.

At the pointy end of the field a resurgent Dave Watt showed he has still got what it takes at age 38 to win the final from Sedgmen (who had been bridesmaid two nights in a row), Batchelor and Morris. I don't think it was a coincidence that the first three from the previous nights state title were also the first three in this round albeit in a different order.

The speedway convoy moves on to Mildura for round 2 this coming Saturday with a forecast top temperature of 41 to add an extra dimension to the night. Masters is carrying a 7 point deficit to the leaders as they head to the next round and it has to be minimal mistakes from here on from Sam if he wants to challenge for the major prize at the end of the four rounds.