Campos and Andrews relish Slide in Ryde success

After finishing in the runners-up position last year Campos was delighted to win.

He said: '˜Phew, what a night. I'm very pleased.

'˜We got close last year and I was hopeful this year. The pairs were very even and it was a hard meeting to call. We tried something a little bit different with the bike tonight and it certainly seemed to work.

'˜Got to say a big well done to Richard. He took a couple of heavy knocks early on but he kept his chin up, battled away and I'm told did some awesome passes to get with me in the final. Absolutely chuffed. Great night for us.'

The pair made an ideal combination for this type of meeting with Campos' fast starts while Andrews' efforts were great in the final having twice taken nasty falls during heats five and seven.

All the close heats and passing were reflected in the efforts of Taylor Hampshire (Kent) who was a threat with Warrior's Danno Verge tigering away as always. 

Eastbourne's Tom Brennan too was impressive and would have scored more heavily had it not been for the first race gremlins and a heat eight fall when trying a daring pass on Leon Flint (Birmingham).

Flint himself was unlucky to break his saddle just as race 10 was about to start. He missed the time allowance and had to start from a 15m handicap that was just a bit too much to recover.

Facing off in the grand final were Jason Edwards (Eastbourne) and Ryan Terry-Daley (Plymouth) who came through qualification and their semi-final with a consistent series of scores that appreciated the unusual 4,3,2,0 scoring system and the benefit of being second and third in a heat rather than first.

Indeed the two top scoring pairs in the qualification rounds were both eliminated at the semi-final stage because a race win was insufficient when the second team member didn't score.

Racing in front of meeting sponsor Steve Luxton, from Cobra's Garage Mahal, on a flying visit from Florida, the six pairs were certainly well matched with plenty of incident and passing to keep a good sized crowd well entertained.

Warriors Alfie Bowtell recorded wins in all six of his races. However that wasn't enough to manoeuvre his pair into the final as they dipped out 5-4 in the semi-final.