Sam Second

NEWS Thursday 12th January 2017, 11:07am

by Howard Williams

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It was a past and present Monarchs 1-2-3 in the third round of the Australian titles at Undera. Taking the victory in fine style was a clearly delighted Justin Sedgmen by narrowly heading home Sam Masters with Max Fricke in third. Rounding out the top four was leading qualifier Troy Batchelor who seemd to get caught out at the start and couldn't make an impression on the other three.

Masters had gated in first but had seen Sedgmen storm underneath him going into turn three the first time around and hold Masters at bay after that despite Sam trying all he knew to get on level terms. The overall wash up from the round was that both Sedgmen (13 + 4) and Masters (14 + 3) totalled 17 apiece and it is "as you were" heading to Kurri Kurri with Justin three points to the good of Sam in the race for the overall title. Dave Watt and Fricke are four points further adrift and you would think everyone else is too far back to be in serious contention for the major prize.

On the flip side new Monarch Josh Pickering didn't enjoy the best of nights. the tighter Undera layout seemed to stifle his style somewhat but that said it is a quality line up he is competing against. Josh only managed to get the better of Todd Kurtz and Copper Riordan, although his effort against Kurtz was his unfortunate but becoming familiar slow start but then stalk his man and pick off the third placed rider to pick up a point. He will be better off for the experience.

Masters first assignment was against Troy Batchelor and try as he may Sam couldn't make any impact on the fast starting Batchelor and it was only two points on to the Masters scorecard but certainly not a disaster with Batchelor having won here before and one of the favourites for the round.

Second time out was against in form Dave Watt the series leader coming into the round. Watt had experienced mechanical problems during practice and was on a patched up bike but Masters was rapidly out of the gate and there was no catching him and it was a fairly comfortable three points on the board with seemingly no problems as he headed home Watt and Brady Kurtz. Always good to get a ride like that in early to help settle things down.

It was a similar occurrence in Sam's third ride against the consistent Nick Morris who wasn't getting many heat wins but seemed to finish in second more often that not. Again Masters nailed the start and despite Morris never being fair away the feeling was that Sam always had plenty in reserve and his score was up to eight points and ticking along quite nicely. At this point only the unbeaten pair of Fricke and Sedgmen were scoring any better.

The fourth ride saw both Monarchs in the line up with hopes of an Edinburgh 1 - 2 with Jordan Stewart and Ty Proctor who had both been scoring about the same as Josh rounding out the quartet. Masters duly delivered his part of the bargain in fine fashion but unfortunately Josh was last out the gate and could make no impact on the other two.

Masters concluded his heat rides in the final heat of the night and it was shaping up as a beauty with Sam (11 points) against Fricke (10), Sedgmen (12) and Jack Holder (10). It was so tight at the top that Sedgmen who was leading after four rounds could have missed an automatic place in the main final should he fail to score. The heat did not disappoint and was simply stunning. After a very tight start Fricke narrowly held sway from Masters with Sedgmen lurking not far behind. Just when the crowd thought Fricke had done enough to hold on to the lead Masters came from nowhere to dive underneath Fricke entering turn three and then somehow managed not to run wide in the turn and he didn't give Fricke a second chance to come back at him. It was wonderful speedway and three more points on to the tally.

The result at the end of the twenty heats saw Batchelor the top qualifier along with other automatic qualifiers Masters and Sedgmen and later joined by Fricke who had won an anticlimactic semi final with Morris falling and Brady Kurtz retiring. Then on to a wonderful final with Sedgmen determined to do well and proving an incredibly difficult man to keep down for long. As we head to Kurri Kurri Masters will have to be mistake free in round 4 and hope that a couple of other riders can lower Sedgmens colours in a heat or two if Sam wants to stand on the top step after the sound of the engines dies down. After finishing in second place in the championship in each of the last two years another second is definitely not what Sam is thinking about !!

The championship points after three rounds

Justin Sedgmen 46, Sam Masters 43, Dave Watt 39, Max Fricke 39, Troy Batchelor 35, Nick Morris 31, Brady Kurtz 25, Jack Holder 23, Rohan Tungate 19, Ty Proctor 16, Josh Pickering 15, Jaimon Lidsey 15, Jordan Stewart 13, Mason Campton 12, Todd Kurtz 11, Cooper Riordan 7.

Roll on Kurri Kurri ................