James Wright a fine winner

NEWS Friday 19th March 2010, 0:43am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Elite Leaguer James Wright was the most consistent rider throughout the evening and romped home in the final ahead of Ryan Fisher to land the Keyline Scottish Open title.

He said "I'm just glad I made the start in the final and beat Ryan, reversing the result of the Ashfield Classic last year.

"The track was excellent for this time of the season, in fact I think it's the best I've known it."

There were certainly some interesting heats and good tussles on the night. The early pace-setters were Ryan Fisher and Kevin Doolan, but Fisher took a fall when at the back of heat 17, and Doolan was even more unfortunate to have an engine blowup in his fourth ride.

Both made it to the semi which was an excellent race, with Fisher just holding on under strong pressure from Doolan and Matthew Wethers, who found a very cunning inside line and just failed to come from last to first.

That put the American into the final alongside three riders who had all scored a dozen ? James Wright, Andre Compton and Andrew Tully (in excellent form). Fisher was off gate one and tried to move across to block Wright, but it was too much to ask as the Belle Vue man made it to the front for (in the end) a comfortable win. Tully fell on the first bend and Compton, though he spun round on the next corner, recovered for third.

The track held up extremely well and the racing probably improved as the night went on. Rajkowski, Clews and Grieves were in some of the best races.

All eyes of course were on the home newcomers and they did pretty well. Max Dilger scored 5 and looked purposeful, but was unluckily caught up in a Rajkowski loop at the gate which was one of several spectacular crashes. Max's bike sped forward, cutting the corner and bring down Grieves.

Max seems to have rib injuries but he was quite cheerful by the end and hopeful that the injuries were not serious.

Jozsef Tabaka was steady enough on his debut and will look to build up his speed a little, while Kalle Katajisto might have expected to do slightly better but still looked a more than handy rider at reserve level.

It was a night to forget for Kevin Wolbert! He started by blowing up his best Armadale engine pre-meeting, then lost control while lying second in heat 4. His bike took off and reared wildly towards the starting gate staff, mercifully not collecting anyone.

Kevin was unsettled as well as mounted on an apparently unsuitable engine, and he had another crash in his final ride when he smashed into William Lawson.

Although William had to miss out on his semi-final place, both he and Kevin seem to have escaped unhurt.

We are up and running now and tonight's meeting was a good start to the season.