Short Track Racing
Short Track Racing: Short Track UK meeting report Round Three Peterborough.
By Admin
Sep 17, 2007, 22:02

It was a case of “here’s to you, Master Robinson” at Peterborough’s East of England Showground last weekend with Pennsylvanian dirt track motorcycling sensation, Brandon Robinson marking his UK racing debut with a double Short Track victory.

The event was the ever-popular Short Track UK championship (sponsored by Silkolene): where especially-adapted bikes ranging all the way from 125cc to 1200cc do battle in 12 to a race match-ups over the Speedway circuit at Awalton.

Winner last time out at the Showground, Italian Marco Belli went into the championship round on Saturday (the penultimate stage of the seven round 2007 series) on the very verge of regaining the UK title he last annexed in 2005; but found himself this time totally eclipsed by the amazing teen star from the States.

Indeed so emphatic was the performance of the 17-year-old from Oxford PA (where remarkably he has his very own practice track in his front yard!) that he remained unbeaten in all qualifying rides not only on Saturday but again on the Sunday when he claimed victory in the one-off Helmets4u Flat Track challenge.

Mounted on his trusty 450cc Honda CRF  the 2005 American national dirttrack champ Robinson squashed all comers to serve up a true Oxford education in power-sliding as the opening weekend of his brief racing holiday over here saw him remain unbeaten.

The large crowd packed into the main arena as part of the BMF show marvelled at Robinson's sheer motorcycling craft but were treated too to some splendid racing on a racing circuit made in to a very fast track by the considerable compacting down of the shale by the preceding Moped Enduro marathon which preceded both afternoons’ events.

After untroubled qualification, Robinson then saw off the champion-elect Belli in the first semi-final.  The other winner at this penultimate stage of proceedings was the fast-improving rider from Skegness, Glyn Pocklington: though highlight of his semi was the breathtaking action taking place behind him as GB international Steven Hall and the Stamford-based moto-cross expert Victor Bull locked horns for four laps of side-by-side action: Hall seeing off the late charge of Bull in the end.

True to the form established earlier in the afternoon, the Grand Final was dominated by both Pocklington and the hugely impressive young Yank with the Lincolnshire racer leading the way for the opening three laps before Robinson stormed around him.

Drama followed on the next lap with Belli a faller when in third; and the following pack having to scatter at record pace to avoid a collision.  That the pack comprised Short Track’s most experienced pair of Peter Boast and Tim Greig plus Bull and Hall was just as well, as no harm came to the fallen Italian who remounted to finish ninth and clinch the points necessary to ensure he is the 2007 series winner.

No similar decision yet reached in the Harley-Davidson-sponsored ‘sister’ flattrack event, The Thunderbikes: though Boast’s Sunday spin to finish ahead of Belli leaves the Market Rasen rider on the very brink of his first national title.

No such last round anxieties will plague young Tom Wooley from Burton who remarkably won his sixth round victory in a row to clinch the CCM Junior Cup : second was Ben Baker, like Pocklington (a best ever runner-up in the STUK round the day before) hailing from Skegness.

On this Saturday the Moose Racing starlet Robinson will seek to retain that 100% record as the Silkolene STUK series reaches its climax at Mildenhall Speedway in West Row, Suffolk near the RAF base.  The action gets underway at 6.30pm with the young American likely to face his biggest challenge from Belli, former Fen Tigers’ Speedway rider Darren Pearson and the north-eastern former Road Racer, Rusty Hodgson – who warmed up for the event by an impressive third behind Robinson and Greig in the Helmets4u one-off event on Sunday.

There’s four-wheeled action too at Mildenhall in the form of the Welbourns of Wisbech Short Track Quads championship - with it all to play for as this inaugural championship reaches its climatic round five.  Adrian Smith from nearby Peterborough is one of the lead contenders in this brand-new class of Quad racing – one which features six machines per race riding off a unique grid system meaning that the passing is plentiful and the action frenetic.

Lastly, a major prize is up for grabs for one lucky spectator on Saturday: a Harley-Davidson Sportster XL883.  The awesome machine is the prize in a season-long competition: all for the price of a £1 ticket and answering a couple of simple questions: correct answers being entered into a draw.

Gates at West Row on Saturday September 22nd open at 6.00pm with the action underway at 6.30pm: adults £10, concessions £8, juniors (12-15) £5, under 11s free.