Main Man Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Midland Development League Friday July 27th Scunthorpe Stags 8 Coventry Mercia Vikings 20 (amended from 16-20) Scunthorpe Stags 8 Adam Kirby F/X 2’ 3 5+1 Michael Faulkner 1 0 0 1 David Holt 1 1 0 2 Damien Koppe 3 3 2 8 (Points do not count) Coventry-Mercia NCA Vikings 20 Josh Bates 3 3 3 9 max Adam Portwood 2’ 0 1’ 3 +2 Martin Knuckey © 2 1 2 5 Conor Dwyer X 2’ 1 3+1 The Coventry-Mercia Vikings raced to their first away win of the MDL season with a victory over Scunthorpe on Friday night. Although the match finished with a 16-20 scoreline the eight points scored by Australian Damien Koppe did not count as he is ineligible for this league so the amended result shows a victory by 20 points to 8. The win and the resultant two points sees the Vikings leapfrog the Stags into 4th position in the league table and put them in striking distance of making the end of season play-offs. It looked bleak though in the first two heats with no fewer than three exclusions for Vikings riders but they all showed strong resilience and in fact were ahead at this stage despite the setbacks! Heat one saw Josh Bates disqualified for touching the tapes whilst home rider Adam Kirby also earned the wrath of the referee for delaying the start putting both riders on a 15 metre handicap . In the re-run Kirby went down on the first turn in a racing incident with Bates with both going for the same line with Kirby disqualified. In the second re-run young Bates (pictured) , who has now been added to the Vikings squad as cover for No. 1 Dan Greenwood , came through for a superb win followed by team mate Adam Portwood to give the Vikings a 5-1 start. Heat two was initially re-run after Damien Koppe moved at the tapes then in the re-run Conor Dwyer was excluded for not being under power as his bike stopped whilst partner Martin Knuckey was also excluded for his helmet peak touching the tapes …although the tapes seemed to go up on the inside before the outside gate . With Dwyer’s bike out of use Vikings skipper Knuckey went off 15 metres and secured s fine 2nd spot passing David Holt but unable to catch Koppe but the Vikings held a 7-5 lead. The Stags bounced back with a 5-1 in heat 3 to take the lead 10-8 but the Vikings bounced back in the best possible way to regain the lead at 11-15 with their own maximum 5-1 heat success from the impressive debutant Bates and Conor Dwyer who had sorted out his bike gremlins. A drawn heat in the penultimate race maintained the two point lead at 14-16 . The final race saw the two unbeaten rides in opposition in Koppe and Bates and it was the 16 year old Bates who raced from the tapes to hold off the Australian for victory with Conor Dwyer pressing him hard for the whole race. The 2-4 heat score gave a final match result of 16-20 which for league table and statistics purposes was amended to 8-20. JOSH BATES : Born 1/2/96 Barnsley. British Career: 2012: Mildenhall Fen Tigers (NL) Individual Honours 2011: 4th 250cc British Championship 2011: Amateur Scunthorpe Summer Series Champion (250cc) Additional Information Josh had never been on any type of motorbike until the beginning of 2010, when he got his first 125cc speedway bike. After a few months of practicing on this he was ready for a 250cc, which he got in June 2010. After a few more months of practice Josh entered the 2011 250cc British Championship, where he finished 4th overall. As well as competing in the British championship Josh rode in the amateur summer championship at Scunthorpe which he won and he also competed in the 250cc world championship in Sweden. In January 2012 Josh started riding a 500cc for the first time. Josh bates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemini Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 young Bates (pictured) , who has now been added to the Vikings squad as cover for No. 1 Dan Greenwood , What's happened to Dan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Main Man Posted July 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 He had snapped the diamond at the IOW on Tuesday and is in the middle of moving so was unavailable so Josh , who was due to have ridden for the Vikings at Belle Vue recently but that fell victim to the rain , was called in and he will be covering for Dan for resat of season ..did a Dan type job too with a superb max including taking heat 1 after being penalised 15 metres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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