Ross Brady fell exiting the 2nd turn in heat 1 collecting André Compton in the process. After straightening his bike André followed Craig Watson home in the rerun. Stoney won heat 2, and Rory Schlein heat 3 after Chris Neath nudged the tapes earning himself a 15m handicap. Simon Stead flew home to win heat 4 just one tenth of a second outside his own track record with Craig Boyce in second and Jason Lyons being overtaken at the back.

Craig Watson once again powered away to win heat 5 from Mark Lemon, but Jason Lyons lost control just as Danny Bird was passing him on the second turn with Danny clattering into the fence. I would have adjudged Jason the guilty party, but not this referee. He then lost control of the meeting completely as Stoney led a riders revolt and demanded all the top shale be bladed off. Ok, the track was grippy, but there were 17 more races to go and it was improving heat by heat. The riders may have been caught out by finding grip on the track, but they've all been around Owlerton before and should have been expecting it. If their tuners have got the setup wrong then it is hardly Graham Trollope's fault and it should have been down to the riders to adjust their machines accordingly. Craig, André and Simon managed it, so how come such an experienced ex-Grand Prix rider couldn't. Perhaps he was trying to generate an Elite style surface to favour the gaters, and all the other non-racers jumped on the band waggon. When the racing did eventually recommence Tomas Topinka took a tapes to flag win from Jan Stæchmann, and then Steady showed Stoney a clean pair of heels to win heat 7. André took heat 8 and thanks to the lack of grip Craig Boyce was unable to make a move on second placed Adrian Rymel.

Heat 9 saw Rory Schlein clatter heavily into the fence on the second turn and while he was able to limp from the track with bruising to his back he joined Ross Brady (knee ligaments) in withdrawing from the meeting. In the rerun Craig Boyce left it late but dived under Craig Watson on the third turn, last lap to claim his first win. Steady trapped to win heat 10 from Mark Lemon, and Danny Bird bounced back to win heat 11 from Adrian Rymel with Shane Parker again retiring at the back. André scorched clear to take heat 12 but Stoney was perhaps beginning to regret his foray into track preparation taking three laps to pass Jason Lyons in order to follow Jan Stæchmann home.

Stoney trapped in heat 13 to put himself back into contention and Chris Neath opened his account following Craig Watson's retirement. Adrian Rymel was gifted a win in heat 14 following a Glenn Cunningham fall and Jason Lyons pulling up in the rerun. Craig Boyce took his second win in heat 15 ahead of Mark Lemon, and Steady took heat 16 with ease as André settled for 2nd place.

After yet another delay for the blade to do yet more damage Steady recorded his clean sweep ahead of Craig Watson, with Stæchmann powering around Adrian Rymel off the pits turn to take third. Danny Bird got stuck in to win heat 18 from Craig Boyce, and Stoney's 'take it easy and just qualify' tactics came adrift as he rolled to a halt. The countback system meant that Danny Bird took the last place in the semi by virtue of beating Stoney in this heat! Tomas Topinka strolled to a win in heat 19, and Jason Lyons trebbled his score by beating the woeful Chris Neath. Second place was all André required to qualify directly to the final with Steady but he dropped it on the first bend as he looked for the grip by the fence. Although he jumped back on he was too far adrift even to catch meeting reserve Luke Priest as Mark Lemon booked his semi-final place by winning from Shane Parker.

More drama in the semi-final, André powered around the field to lead down the back straight but Danny Bird shed a chain on the second turn and tumbled into the fence. André did it again in the restart, and Craig Boyce passed Craig Watson on the pits bend heading for the final. Watto grabbed a real handful around the outside but came to grief on the second turn and credit to him for quickly removing his bike from the track. With choice of gate position in the Grand Final Steady curiously went for gate 2. Craig Boyce plumped for gate 1, André gate 3 leaving Mark Lemon off the outside. Craig Boyce then suffered some mechanical problem and with the seconds counting down his spare bike was rushed onto the track. With Craig astride it and just fitting his cut-out the pillock of a referee decided to delay proceedings just a little longer and excluded him!

When the final eventually started Steady made another beaut of a gate and it looked to be all over. André however had other ideas and after scraping the fence for three laps building up momentum he made a heroic dive down the inside of the first turn on the last lap. As the two riders exited the second turn it was with André half a bike length ahead. I fully expected Simon to do his own third bend inside dive but it was not to be. Instead he tried to lean on André from the outside and succeeded in catching his arm in André rear wheel catapulting himself into the fence and causing André to lose control and demolish yards of the safety fence as he was thrown like a rag doll into and along it. (See for yourself by downloading Steve Shovlar's screen capture of the crash). How they both were able to walk away from it must be a testimony to the design of the fence and their own fitness. André was able to take his place on the winners rostrum but Steady was whisked away to hospital where he had his shoulder popped back in and treatment for a broken finger.

It was getting very late so I didn't hang around for all the celebrations but it seems that some moronic Workington fans staged a track invasion and that a rider was threatened with violence before the security guards were able to intervene. A sad end to a forgetable night marred by poor refereeing, and a riders revolt which was resolved by compromising track conditions which destroyed the quality of racing in the latter stages.

Return to Sheffield Speedway Fixtures & Results
Return to Sheffield Speedway homepage