ASTLEY & Tyldesley hosted the second of this year's Manchester League Individual Finals on Wednesday evening. A&T's Duncan Whalley raced to maximum scores in both the u-13 and u-19 championships, to add to the two maximums he scored in the previous Sunday's Northern Individual Finals at Sheffield.
The Cycle Speedway Battle of Britain series made a welcome return at Birmingham on Sunday, after last being staged in 2019. A re-vamped format saw all four regional teams contesting a 24 heats match. In an exciting match, the outcome went to the very last race.
The South & South Wales team needed to take maximum points over the North & Scotland team in the last race, to take the overall win.
However, it was the North pairing of Reece Pollitt and Steve Harris who raced into the lead, which they held for two laps, before Harris picked up a harsh exclusion.
Pollitt took the race win, so the South's five points score meant that they finished one point behind the Midlands team, in second place, on 65. The South East & Eastern team finished in third place on 57, with the North & Scotland team fourth on 50. A&T's Reece Pollitt top scored for the North & Scotland team, with 11 points.
Battle of Britain result.
Midlands 66 South & South Wales 65 South East & Eastern 57 North & Scotland 50.
The Battle of Britain match was followed by the opening round of the HSBC UK Elite Grand Prix series.
Again, the outcome went to the final race, when Birmingham's Chris Timms beat Horspath's Ben Mould, holding off a series of strong challenges from World Champion Mould, to take the race win and win the opening round, collecting £80 prize money in the process. In a run off for second place British Champion Paul Heard, of Birmingham, beat Mould, to take the race win and second place on the day. Ipswich's Ashley Hill was fourth. Astley & Tyldesley's Reece Pollitt lost a run-off for 5th place against Ipswich's Lewis Brinkhoff, after both scored 15 points. A&T's veteran Steve Harris scored 11, to finish a creditable joint 10th in a quality field.
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