On Saturday afternoon Scunthorpe Speedway ran the seventh round of the www.jbsportsimages.co.uk Summer Championship with 37 riders in three classes racing 60 races in just over three and a half hours.
The penultimate round of the championship saw the Youth 500cc Champion declared with 14-year old James Sarjeant taking the title after winning all three rounds that took place. However, for once, Sarjeant didn’t have it all his own way with the West Midlands’ Ashley Morris heading him home on two occasions.
Second on the day was Manchester’s Kyle Howarth who is another who looks an exciting prospect after only taking up the sport two months ago. In the overall championship Boston’s Jack Butler claimed second place whilst another youngster from the West Midlands, Cameron Hoskins, finished third. The final rider in the class, Josh Birkett, an accomplished youth grass tracker has recently started speedway and performed well on his competitive debut to finish fourth.
A strong field in the Open Class saw three former riders return to the sport and show they have lost none of their ability. Former Stoke rider Gary O’Hare, in his second meeting back, took his old-style upright bike into third place whilst former Buxton rider Neil Painter picked up eleven points before finishing seventh. The final returnee, Darren Smith, suffered mixed fortunes with a pair of heat wins in quick times along with three retirements. However, the top of the podium had a familiar look with Scunthorpe Saint Stuart Parnaby recording his fourth victory in eight meetings. He was beaten by fellow Saint Jonathan Bethell in the heats but Parnaby made no mistake in the final, holding off Redcar’s Gary Beaton who is a previous winner himself. The final rider in the final was Cambridgeshire’s Ben Hannon who rode well to beat Australian Leigh Boujos, Mike Pickering and Painter and advance from the ‘B’ Final.
In the Support Class the destiny of the title looks to be going to the wire. The championship’s only female rider, 15-year old Montana Jowett from County Durham, now holds a two-point lead from Lancashire’s Duncan Towler and Northamptonshire’s Chris Baldwin. All three made the ‘A’ Final but favourite was another 15-year old Jack Hirst. The young Lancastrian had won all five of his qualifying rides but nerves seemed to get the better of him as he became the first rider to break the tapes in a Scunthorpe Speedway run amateur meeting. With Hirst starting from the fifteen metre handicap mark there was more drama when Towler fell whilst leading the race on the second lap. Finally at the third time of asking Jowett rode well to ensure Hirst didn’t get too close after he had passed Baldwin on the second lap.
The final round of the Summer Championship takes place on Saturday 11th October and riders are encouraged to book early to avoid disappointment. Meetings are open to all-comers on a first come, first served basis but places are limited to sixteen riders in the ‘Open’ and ‘Support’ classes plus eight riders in the two youth classes. In the youth section it is the turn of the 250cc riders in round eight but a round of the British Under-15 Championship has also been planned for that day and that may impact on numbers in that class. Dates have also been set for the Winter Championship with six rounds set for 15th November, 13th December, 10th and 31st January, 21st February & 13th March.
