Bright prospects on show in the final meeting

NEWS Saturday 12th October 2019, 10:39pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The big winners in the closing meeting of the Armadale season, the Northern Junior League Riders' Championship, were George Rotheray in the 500cc class and Luke Harrison in the 125cc class.

Luke thus added the Northern title to the British one he won last night, and there can be no arguments that these two were very worthy winners.

The 500cc final was one of the best heats of the night because Harry McGurk sprung a surprise and went to the front round the first corner. He led for the first two laps but Rotheray didn't panic and pulled off an outside overtake on the first turn of lap three.

He said "I was happy there was a gap there and I gave it my best to get the win."

Third place went to Mason Watson who visibly improved as the event went on, and the fourth placed rider was home man Lewis Millar.

The younger riders in the lower capacity event produced an even more intense competition. There was little to choose between Luke Harrison, Ace Pijper and Ben Trigger in the qualifying heats with four wins for the first two and just a point dropped (to Harrison) by the far-travelled Trigger.

Harrison won the first semi from Trigger but Pijper, who had the easier draw in the second semi, spun on the first turn and lost his chance. William Cairns and William Hocaniuk were the two qualifiers from that one. Harrison made no mistake in the final with Cairns and Trigger taking the other rostrum places.

12 year old Harrison said "Last year I won all my heats then got second in the final so it was a good thing to get a maximum this year."

There were a few fallers during the night but no serious injuries, and the 24 heats were rattled through in two hours. We can look back in a few years and see how many of these enthusiastic lads have made the grade in speedway!