Last night the Henderson Insurance Scunthorpe Scorpions went close to recording their fourth away win of the season when they went down 49-44 after a last-heat decider against the Reading Racers. 

The match was finely poised with just one point between the sides going into the last race but the Racers’ top pairing of Ulrich Ostergaard and Mark Lemon raced to 5-1 to ensure the Berkshire club claimed the league points.  Earlier six heat wins in nine races had seen the Scorpions claw their way back from an early ten-point deficit.

The opening three heats started well enough for the Scorpions with just 10-8 down.  Richard Hall and Viktor Bergström had kept number one Lemon at the back in heat 1 before the Scorpions’ reserves did the same to Jamie Courtney in heat 2.  Sadly Emiliano Sanchez’s bad luck returned and he was left at the tapes in heat 3 with an engine failure but Karlsson did split the Racers pairing.  In hindsight the Scorpions will probably look at heats 4 and 5 as where the league points slipped away.  Firstly Byron Bekker fell whilst in second place and Carl Wilkinson laid his bike down to avoid hitting him.  As the pair were on the same side the race wasn’t stopped and Wilkinson had to re-mount to claim a consolation point.  Then, when the Scorpions looked to have once again filled the minor positions in heat 5, Chris Mills produced his only decent ride of the night to surge past Viktor Bergström and Richard Hall down the back straight to join Ostergaard for a second consecutive 5-1.

Carl Wilkinson provided the Scorpions with a first race winner in heat 6 and then Magnus Karlsson, on a tactical ride, and Emiliano Sanchez combined for a 7-2 heat advantage and the lead had been cut in half to five.  The next race also looked like being good for the Scorpions until Byron Bekker hit the last bend fence as he tried to round Danny Warwick and join Viktor Bergström for a 5-1.  With little passing all night heat 9 provided the best racing, especially from the Scorpions’ point of view, as Ben Powell and Carl Wilkinson rounded Mills to fill in the minor places being the impressive Ostergaard.

Three drawn heats followed before the Scorpions started to claw back the five point deficit with a 4-2 from Carl Wilkinson and Richard Hall in heat 13 and then Ben Powell and Byron Bekker did the same in heat 14. The second one came after Mills locked up in the second turn and was hit by Byron Bekker in the first running.  Mills was duly excluded whilst the battered Bekker climbed aboard his bike for the re-run to give the Scorpions a chance of victory.  In the end heat 15, like so many on the night, was won from the tapes and the Scorpions couldn’t quite prevent Ostergaard’s full maximum and a Racers victory.

The to sides are in action again this Friday, 5th September, at the Eddie Wright Raceway (7.30pm start) whilst the Scorpions also travel to Sheffield on Thursday night (7.45pm start) for their penultimate away match of the season in the Premier League. 

(a very despondent) Magnus Karlsson – “I’m gutted we lost.  I had a problem with my engine in the last race.  It wasn’t running right and I lost it (the race).  It is just typical for it to happen in that race.  It’s been a tough weekend with engines, one went on Saturday and you could say one went on Friday but we just caught that one in time.  I’m down to just one engine now but hopefully I will have another sorted during the week.”

Ben Powell – “I didn’t start off too well with a paid second and a last.  I was getting a bit worried but we didn’t make any changes to the bike.  I just kept riding the outside and making the dirt work for us.  In the end I got a win right at the last time.  It’s a shame really because it going to be the last time Scunthorpe is going to be here.  I was told before my last ride that we needed nothing less than a 4-2 and thankfully Byron was okay after his crash and he managed to get in the re-run and we got that 4-2.  They are just strong in heat 15 at home like all tracks are”. 

Reading Racers 49
Mark Lemon 8+1 (5 rides), Tomas Suchanek 6+3 (4), Ulrich Ostergaard 15 (5), Chris Mills 3+1 (4), Tom P Madsen 7+1 (4), Jamie Courtney 0 (3), Danny Warwick 10 (5)

Scunthorpe Scorpions 44
Richard Hall 6 (4 rides), Viktor Bergström 5+2 (4), Magnus Karlsson 13 (5 rides, including a six point tactical ride), Emiliano Sanchez 1 (3), Carl Wilkinson 9+1 (5), Ben Powell 7+2 (5), Byron Bekker 3 (4)