Njlrc

[RCF]

The 2013 ‘Darrian Properties’ Northern Junior League Riders Championship took place at Redcar on Thursday the 8th of August, in a 7 heat second half event with all 5 teams being represented. It was a great show for the large crowd that stayed behind to watch it. Unfortunately, Glyn Picken (Northside), blew his engine up before the meeting so couldn’t take his rides. Sam Darroch (Newcastle), came in as a replacement for Liam Carr, who withdrew earlier in the week and showed some great progress. Tommy Fenwick (Workington) wasn’t at his best due to bike problems, but still needed to be fast to keep the hard pushing Rob Shuttleworth (Northside) behind him in heat 5. Rob tried some really spectacular moves over the full race that made a mockery of his limited experience. He’d already pulled of a great outside pass on Luke Ruddick (Berwick) in the previous race. This was Luke’s first match after coming back from his second broken collar bone this year, but it wasn’t noticeable, with him beating the fast Ryan MacDonald (Workington) in their opening heat. Home rider Dan Phillips was always favourite to take the title, as he went into the match top of the averages, and he didn’t disappoint although he didn’t have it all his own way and was made to fight for it. Heat 4 saw Fenwick leading for a couple of laps before Phillips could pull of his now trade mark inside pass on bend 3, but his best race was in the final itself. Alongside Dan was Shuttleworth, MacDonald and, with Fenwick withdrawing due to engine problems, it opened the way for Kevin Keay (Redcar) to scrape in having ridden consistently well in his heats. It was MacDonald that emerged from the first bend with the lead from Phillips, and for two laps brilliantly held off the challenges of the home man. But Dan wasn’t going to be denied the title he missed out on last season, and pulled of a superbly controlled outside pass round the pit bend banking to take the trophy.

1. Tommy Fenwick 1 , 2, 3= 6

2. Glyn Picken DNR

3. Dan Phillips 3 , 3 , 3= 9

4. Kevin Keay 2 , 2 , 1 = 5

5. Rob Shuttleworth 3 , 1 , 2 = 6

6. Ryan MacDonald 1 , 3 , 1 = 5

7. Luke Ruddick 2 , 0 , 2 = 4

8. Sam Darroch 0 , 1, 0 = 1

 

Heat 1

Dan Phillips, Kevin Keay, Tommy Fenwick

Heat 2

Rob Shuttleworth, Luke Ruddick, Ryan MacDonald, Sam Darroch

Heat 3

Ryan MacDonald, Kevin Keay, Sam Darroch

Heat 4

Dan Phillips, Tommy Fenwick, Rob Shuttleworth, Luke Ruddick

Heat 5

Tommy Fenwick, Rob Shuttleworth, Ryan MacDonald

Heat 6

Dan Phillips, Luke Ruddick, Kevin Keay, Sam Darroch

Final

Dan Phillips, Ryan MacDonald, Rob Shuttleworth, Kevin Keay