Cheetahs roar back but Warriors still in the lead ahead of final leg of three-team challenge at Smallbrook

The better balanced Cheetahs eased away for a comfortable win - Warriors 26, Cradley 27, Oxford 37 - and are now well placed to strike when the final leg takes place at Smallbrook on August 24, writes ROB DYER.

Warriors’ downfall was, however, entirely understandable as new recruit and solid scorer Alex Spooner was forced out of the event just 12 hours before the off having been summoned to hospital for an urgent medical assessment.

It meant that rookie Wightlink Wizard Jamie Evans was called upon to fill Spooner’s position and unsurprisingly he found the pace to be just too hot for a rider of limited experience.

Also finding points harder to come by was Morgan Williams who was the only rider in the main event to take a fall, fortunately without any serious outcome.

That left the speedy Chad Wirtzfeld and Danno Verge to score all the home team’s points which will now set up an intriguing final leg.

Spooner’s absence left the door open for Oxford, injury ravaged in the first leg, to make great use of their revamped line-up with former Warrior Connor Coles returning to his old stomping ground in blistering fashion.

Fourteen and the fastest race time of the season (69.9 seconds) were just reward as he received good back-up from Ryan Terry-Daley and Charley Powell.

Cradley were again the ‘steady-eddies’ and with just a little more fire power could have been even more involved in a night where a bumper crowd were treated to some ‘heart-in-mouth’ action especially as each team’s top two riders battled hard to make up their handicap in a formula devised specifically for this event.

Aggregate scores after two legs: Warriors 67, Cradley 53, Oxford 60

In the support races, diminutive Stasiu Stevens took three wins in the PeeWee class whilst Kye Elliott’s demonstration races came to an abrupt halt when he fell heavily in his second outing.

After medical attention he was able to walk back to the pits.

A further round of the ‘Upright Challenge’ saw Team Weslake crush Team Jawa with big Nigel Coates always in the action for Team Jawa.

The three ladies races were won convincingly by the Island’s own Steph Whitlock in really impressive style.

Racing was rounded off with a demonstration ride by Bruce Cribb on a very scary ice racing speedway machine.

Scorers:

Wightlink Warriors 26 (Chad Wirtzfeld 14, Jamie Evans 0, Danno Verge 12, Morgan Williams 0)

Cradley Heathens 27 (Luke Harris 10, Chris Watts 5+3, Kelsey Dugard 9+1, Chris Widman 3+2)

Oxford Cheetahs 37 (Ryan Terry-Daley 8+3, Charley Powell 12+1, Connor Coles 14, Jamie Sealey 3+1)

Team Weslake 25 (Keith Cornell 8, Graham Wilson 6+1, Graham Knowler 6+1, Mark Anderson 5+3)

Team Jawa 11 (Nigel Coates 8, David Hollingsbee 1, Martin Tappenden 2, Keith Hill 0)