Newport Wasps v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Sunday 12th July 2009, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Recent changes have strengthened the Newport lineup, but not enough to withstand another excellent performance by the Scotwaste Monarchs.

Even though two of our riders didn?t score, we still came from 6 down at heat 6 to move smoothly into the lead over the second half of the match. We were two up going into the last race and clinched victory with another advantage.

We had eleven race wins from five different riders, with Andrew Tully in particularly brilliant form (he won four including the last heat decider, and set a new track record!)

Thomas Jonasson continued his excellent return to the team, recovering from a third place to reel off three thrilling wins by large distances, and Ryan Fisher had another fine Newport meeting.

In the first heat, restarted, Leigh Lanham went ahead, but Ryan Fisher wore him down and slipped by on the outside entering the third bend of lap two. Michal Rajkowski trailed in this one.

Wasps then took the lead with a win for the impressive James Holder from Aaron Summers. Byron Bekker kept up a strong challenge on Marek Mroz but finished pointless.

Heat 3 was disappointing as the home pair led all the way. Thomas was just behind but Matthew trailed after an untidy first turn.

Then Tully exploded on the scene. He simply blasted past everyone on the first turn and put in four flying laps, winning by a mile. His time was introduced by the announcer saying: ?Listen to this!?

He then announced 57.74 seconds, 0.3 below the previous best.

However we were six down so there was work to do. Frampton won nheat 5 with Fisher and Rajkowski sharing, then we were delighted to see Aaron Summers make a good start to win heat 6. It did look as though the track record holder would finish at the back after a bad start, but he got a gift point when Kerr fell on the last lap.

Thomas gated in heat 7 only for Matthew Wethers to lose control badly and fall awkwardly. He needed treatment but walked back to the pits. Thomas did it again in the rerun, winning easily.

Heat 8 was a hard-fought race won by Rajkowski in good style. Kerr fell again and we took 4-2 to cut the deficit to just two points.

Tully was sensational again in heat 9, beating the formidable Frampton by a long way, but Aaron suffered an engine failure at the start and we missed a chance to at least level the scores.

Matthew came out to ride in heat 10 but trailed at the back while Thomas Jonasson flew to another win. He was looking in great nick now.

Paul Fry gated in heat 11 but lost it on the first turn, which allowed Fisher and Rajkowski to race clear and put us two points clear.

Thomas was impressive again in heat 12, but Aaron could not pick up anything even though he had Andersson under strong pressure.

We clearly needed a good result in heat 13, and even though Lanham gated, both Tully and Fisher flew past round the outside in brilliant moves to take the 5-1.

That was nullified in heat 14 when Frampton and Holder took 5 in spite of Aaron?s great effort to pass his fellow Aussie. So we were two up going in to the last heat, Lanham and Frampton v Fisher and Tully (how hard must it have been to leave out Thomas?)

The visitors were better away initially but Fisher squeezed between them Tully flew round the outside and passed Lanham but Frampton hit the fence and fell.

It was all four back, a sensible decision. At the second attempt, It was Tully swopping to the front from gate 4 again for his most important win yet, with Fisher battling for the point which made it a four-point success.

Full Result Details