Rampant Redcar dismantle Monarchs
The rampant Redcar “Agilia” Bears produced one of their best displays of the season as they defeated Edinburgh 58-32 at the ECCO Arena. On a night where the track record was broken by Josh Pickering AND Connor Bailey, Redcar added 3 more points to their Cab Direct Championship tally! Charles Wright hit a sublime 4 ride paid maximum with 11+1 whilst Josh Pickering hit 14 for the visitors.
The Bears started the meeting off in superb style with an opening heat 5-1 as the ever improving Danyon Hume made a superb start to take the win, and with Charles Wright rounding Craig Cook on bend 3 lap 2, the Bears had the dream start they envisaged at the ECCO Arena. The dream start continued in heat 2 as the reserve pairing of Jason Edwards and Luke Harrison cruised to a comfortable 5-1 to send the hosts into a 10-2 lead in the early stages.
The Monarchs hit back with their first heat advantage in heat 3 as Josh Pickering took the win whilst in the race for 2nd, Connor Bailey passed Paco Castagna at the conclusion of lap 1 to limit the visitors to a 4-2 which reduced the early arrears to 6 points. Heat 4 saw Josh Pickering win extremely comfortably and with Harrison coming to grief at the back, Edinburgh had another 4-2 to reduce the gap to 4 points in the early stages. Pickering, who looked extremely quick at the front had indeed broken the track record as he shaved 0.1s off his previous track record of 52.8s.
The Bears then struck back to head back into an 8 point lead as the fast starting Erik Riss was joined at the front by Connor Bailey with the Monarchs pairing of Bastian Borke (3rd) and Craig Cook (retired) having no answer to the Bears middle order as Redcar hit their 3rd 5-1 of the evening.
Wright continued his superb 2023 as he used his favoured outside line to get the better of Pickering, and with Hume in a comfortable 3rd position, Redcar’s lead was extended to 10 points, with the Bears supporters scratching their eyes at such a big lead so early in the meeting!
After a brace of shared heats won by King (7) and Hume (8) respectively, Connor Bailey amazed the crowd in heat 9 by passing Pickering on bend 2 of the opening lap and then winning despite educated Pickering pressure but the achievement of beating the Edinburgh skipper was then eclipsed when it was announced that Bailey had broken the track record that was held for only 4 heats with an impressive time of 52.6s.
With the headline heat winner and a new track record, the Bears fans also had a 4-2 heat advantage to celebrate as Riss followed in a comfortable 3rd and Redcar had a huge 12 point lead on Teesside. Heat 10 saw Edinburgh bring in Josh Pickering as a tactical substitute to partner Paco Castagna but with Pickering unhappy at being pushed out on the opening bends, he retired and took up his frustrations with referee Michael Breckon by gesticulating to the SCG official from the starting gates. However, with Mr Breckon unmoved, the race continued with a relatively comfortable 5-1 for the “Agilia” Bears.
Heat 11 saw yet another Bears maximum as King gated and won comfortably whilst Jason Edwards rode well to hold off Craig Cook and with Redcar’s 7th heat advantage in the bag, they had a 20 point lead!
Heat 12 saw another sublime move by Connor Bailey with the Australian missing the gate, only for the Bears number 3 to unbelievably glide around the outside of both Monarchs on bends 3 & 4 of lap 1 to take the win, but with Harrison at the back, Redcar could not extend their huge lead even further. Heat 13 saw further misery for the Monarchs as Wright and King took another 5-1 to send the Bears into a 51-27 advantage against the downbeat Monarchs.
Heat 14 saw yet another maximum heat advantage for the Bears with Riss and Edwards looking good from the gate to take the 5-1 whilst heat 15 saw Josh Pickering win and with Paco Castagna in 3rd, they restored some pride for the Monarchs with their 3rd heat advantage of the night and their first since heat 4!
Nevertheless, the night belonged to the Bears and Connor Bailey with the entire Bears 1-7 being awarded the man of the match award!
The rest on the night meant the Bears took the bonus point 105-75
Redcar Bears = 58 (105)
1. Charles Wright = 11+1 Paid Max
2. Danyon Hume = 11+1
3. Connor Bailey = 10+1
4. Erik Riss = 7
5. Danny King = 10+1
6. Jason Edwards = 7+2
7. Luke Harrison = 2+1
Edinburgh Monarchs = 32 (75)
1. Craig Cook = 2
2. Bastian Borke = 4+1
3. Kye Thomson R/R
4. Paco Castagna = 8
5. Josh Pickering = 14
6. Dayle Wood = 1
7. Max Clegg = 3+2