The changeable British weather was the only winner at Smallbrook Stadium in Ryde last night (Thursday) when a band of heavy rain forced the Wightlink Warriors’ 4TT challenge to be called off after just 3 heats.
The rain started as very light drizzle as the riders were introduced to the fans, but grew heavier to such an extent that meeting referee Ronnie Allan had no alternative other than to abandon the meeting after just 3 of the scheduled 16 races.
The meeting itself was a Four Team event involving quartets representing the Wightlink Warriors and three other clubs, namely the Southampton Saints, the Weymouth Wildcats and the Exeter ‘Chris Richards’ Falcons who, whilst not operational at present, are hoping to follow the precedent set here on the Isle of Wight by being able to stage regular league racing in their respective areas in the future.
When racing did get underway Saints’ Ben Hopwood won the opening heat by cleverly holding off the determined challenge of Warrior Benji Compton, nullifying all Benji’s numerous attempts to pass him and posting a quite reasonable winning time of 70.8secs.
The first attempt to stage heat 2 saw Kelsey Dugard demolish the starting tapes thus earning the referee’s wrath and a 15m handicap for the re-run, but Kelsey made light of that by storming through from last to first, his slower winning time of 78.9 mainly down to the rainfall getting heavier.
Heat 3 – the last race to be staged – again needed two attempts to be completed with James Cockle falling first time out. He was disqualified from the re-run in which 23yrs old Charlie Powell posted a winning time of 82.7secs, some dozen seconds slower than the first race. It was obvious that with the heavy rain still falling track conditions had got to the stage where it would have been dangerous for the riders to continue. The referee abandoned the meeting and it was a decision no one disagreed with.
Whilst the Wightlink Warriors looked set to defeat their 3 opponents in the match, alas they couldn’t get the better on this occasion of the British weather following in the footsteps of many others.
Readmission tickets had been issued to all at the turnstiles that will be valid at future meetings at Smallbrook and it is hoped that, although this was a challenge fixture and not part of any official competition, a suitable date can be found later in the season to re-stage it.
FINAL SCORE:
Wightlink Warriors 8, Southampton Saints 6, Weymouth Wildcats 3, Exeter ‘Chris Richards’ Falcons 1
Meeting abandoned after three heats due to worsening track conditions — result does NOT stand
