Masters takes the title with Kerr third!
Edinburgh’s iron man Sam Masters took the CLRC (Championship Riders Individual Championship) at Poole on Wednesday evening with Poole’s Danny King in second and Redcar’s Lewis Kerr finishing third in the Grand Final. Charles Wright agonisingly finished 7th meaning the Bears skipper just missed out on a semi-final berth.
Lewis Kerr started the meeting in scintillating fashion as he won heat 1 convincingly from the gate ahead of Ryan Douglas in second. After Danny King delighted the home crowd by winning heat 2, Charles Wright took a solid second in heat 3 behind the eventual champion Sam Masters.
In the second batch of heats, King made it 2 wins from 2 in heat 6 whilst both Bears (Wright and Kerr) faced off against each other in heat 3. Kerr took his tally to 5 after finishing behind Josh Pickering who took a tapes to flag win whilst Wright held off Chris Harris for 3rd to put himself on 3 points.
Heat 9 was the first of the third round of heats as King finished last with meeting reserve Ben Cook taking an impressive third whilst Wright took second behind race winner Kyle Howarth.
Masters won heat 10 to take his tally to an impressive 7 points whilst Kerr finished third in heat 11 after a tough first lap involving Scott Nicholls, Richard Lawson and Lewis Kerr.
The race of the night was undoubtedly heat 14 as Wright, (3rd going into the final lap) unbelievably passed both Troy Batchelor and Richard Lawson on the backstraight of lap 4 for a vital win to take his total to 8 ahead of his final qualifying race.
It was back to back Bears heat winners as Kerr made a dream gate in heat 15 to take a comfortable win which took his points total to 9.
Heat 19 saw 3 of the eventual finalists, Masters, Ryan Douglas and Kerr meet with Kerr knowing a race win would send him directly through to the final. The Bears heat leader unfortunately struggled out of the gate and ran a third. Despite not securing direct qualification for the final the Brit secured his place in the semi-finals.
The final qualifying race saw Wright take his last ride with the Bears number 1 knowing second would see him join Kerr in the semi-finals. Wright, riding against the fence was second heading into lap 3 but while chasing the dirt, his bike reared violently letting Douglas through for second and despite Wright’s best efforts he could not regain second and his evening ended in 7th place.
The last chance saloon semi-final saw Kerr come up against King, Lawson and Harris. Kerr gated in second and ultimately held his position fairly comfortably to secure his place in the final.
Kerr had the final gate selection in the Grand Final and the Redcar man was left with gate 1. In the original staging, Kerr made a decent gate but an awful crash between Masters and Douglas saw the air fence shattered and Douglas having to withdraw from the final.
In the restaging, Kerr unfortunately struggled out of the difficult gate and was forced to settle for third place on the podium with Sam Masters taking a fantastic win with home favourite Danny King in second place.
Meanwhile, in other Redcar news, Jordan Jenkins is expected to be fully fit after he withdrew from his National League commitment (as a precaution) on Wednesday with Oxford after suffering a reoccurrence of the stomach injury he suffered at Poole.
1. Michael Palm Toft (Plymouth) = 1 (Withdrawn)
2. Leon Flint (Berwick) = 1
3. Lewis Kerr (Redcar) = 10 3RD
4. Ryan Douglas (Scunthorpe) = 12 4TH
5. Nick Morris (Leicester) = 10
6. Danny King (Poole) = 10 2ND
7. Chris Harris (Berwick) = 7
8. Richard Lawson (Poole) = 10
9. Scott Nicholls (Oxford) = 9
10. Justin Sedgmen (Birmingham) = 4
11. Charles Wright (Redcar) = 9
12. Sam Masters (Edinburgh) = 12 WINNER
13. Troy Batchelor (Oxford) = 5
14. Tom Brennan (Glasgow) = 1
15. Josh Pickering (Edinburgh) = 9
16. Kyle Howarth (Leicester) = 7
17. Ben Cook (Poole) = 2
18. Zach Cook (Poole) = 1