Speedway and Motorsport

In a meeting that was full of incident, controversy and excellent racing, the Somerset ‘Sharp’ Rebels were disappointingly beaten by Newcastle in this Premier League encounter.

Although the Rebels did take the lead after the second heat, the home side immediately hit back with a maximum heat win in the next race to gain an advantage they were never to lose despite some sterling performances by the Rebels, for whom Magnus Zetterstrom who have surely recorded yet another maximum if it had not been for a tapes infringement in heat 13.

With the home side already a man light due to injury to Sean Stoddart and operating rider replacement in his absence, both teams then lost riders to injury as a result of separate incidents.

Newcastle’s young Danish prospect Jonas Raun, hitting the safety fence in his second ride and was taken to hospital with what looked to be afoot injury, and then in heat 8, Somerset’s Jordan Frampton was challenging the two Diamond riders for the lead when all three came to grief, and although Newcastle’s Sam Dore was adjudged to be the cause of the stoppage and excluded from the re-run, Frampton was taken to hospital suffering from concussion.

The Diamonds were indebted to reserve Paul Clews for giving them the victory scoring paid 18 from reserve, his best return since joining Newcastle last month, but for Somerset, this defeat, coupled with other results on the day which did not go their way, now means that qualification for a top four Championship play off spot becomes all the more difficult, and a home win over Redcar on Friday [14th] becomes even more important.