The Sheffield Window Centre Tigers eased their way to a comfortable win over injury and illness hit Redcar. Missing Chris Kerr who has a broken leg they booked James Birkinshaw as a guest, only for James to be involved in a collision with fellow Tigers asset Kyle Legault at Perry Bar the night before. James suffered some broken ribs while Kyle has a badly broken femur and may even need a hip replacement. Ex- Bear Thomas Suchanek came to their aid at the last minute. I thought James Grieves had got over his 'sick note' phase. We will see if he makes a miraculous recovery from his chest infection in the next 24 hours.

After a wet stockcar meeting over the weekend the track had to be completely re laid so all credit to Graham and Farmer John because it seemed to ride very well. Ricky got carved up on the first turn in heat 1 and was struggling to make up any ground when he picked up a puncture. Joel Parsons got alongside Gary Havelock down the back straight but Gary had the horsepower to pull away. Tigers guest Simon Lambert took a tapes to flag win in heat 2 and Sam Martin just held onto third spot despite a late challenge around the outside of the pits turn by Dan Giffard. Cooperman made a great start to lead heat 3 and André Compton seemed content to follow him home. Josh Auty made a terrible start and it took him a couple of laps to pass rider replacement Thomas Suchanek but he then very nearly caught André napping on the line. Simon made another cracking start to win heat 4 from Ben Wilson who had Ty Proctor climbing all over him on his Owlerton debut. Paul almost anticipated the start in heat 5 and paid for it when Havvy took him very wide on the first turn, so wide that Havvy himself had no chance of ever catching André at the front. Paul's race was brought to an early conclusion when his HT cable came adrift from his plug cap. Tigers looking good with an eight point lead.

Ricky flew from the gate to lead heat 6 and Joel switched back under Ty Proctor on the second bend to make it a maximum win for the Tigers. Havvy took heat 7 from the tapes and Ben worked hard to stay in contention and ahead of Josh. Simon led heat 8 briefly until Joel blasted around the field exiting the second turn. André led the way in heat 9 and Paul joined him for a maximum heat win by rounding Ty at the end of the first lap. Josh Auty made his first good start to lead heat 10 and his years of practice at Owlerton paid off as not even Ricky could make any ground on him. The shared heat left the Tigers leading by eighteen points.

Brian Havelock had his lad wearing the black and white titfer in heat 11 but Ben responded with a stonking start and then never put a wheel wrong to deny him the full six points. André led heat 12 with Simon at the back but chasing the Bears. Josh was shaping up for an outside pass on the third turn but Arlo took his line. Josh clipped the fence and was very lucky to stay up, while Simon must have thought Josh was going to lose it and began taking evasive action which compromised his line and he sadly never got back into contention. Havvy took the flag in heat 13 but Ricky kept him honest and Ty wasn't far behind Ben. Paul made his worst start of the night to find himself trailing the field in heat 14 and seemingly unable to catch up. On the other hand Joel and Paul had just spent 15-20 mins working on Sam's bike with Paul donating springs and plates to rebuild his clutch. The result was Sam making a terrific start, taking the lead ahead of Josh and only losing it as Josh put everything into a last bend effort. Havvy and Josh are the Bear's nominations for heat 15, while André and Ben are Eric's choice. André makes another cracking start to lead and Ben goes around Havvy to join his skipper out of turn two. Unfortunately that was when Ben's spark plug exploded leaving Havvy closing in on André but running out of laps.

Not a classic meeting then but still entertaining. Paul was out checking his carburettor during the second half, let's hope he found what he wanted. Scott Richardson was looking sharp along with Redcar No.8 Dave Wallinger and Kiwi Jade Mudgeway.

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