REACTION: DISASTROUS START LEFT THE PIRATES TRAILING THE COMETS

Workington's eagerness to get back into track action after a recent Governing body suspension paved the way for a 12-point victory for the Comets over the Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates.

A turn of events the like of which team manager Gary Havelock had not previously suffered since being in management, saw Poole concede successive maximum defeats in the first three heats, a margin which, they were never able to turn around. 

Havelock said "I was a bit shocked, since I came on board as a manager with Poole I have never seen us start like that. Three 5-1's against us in the first three races. It was incredible . Workington won the toss and went for the best gates so I wasn't too perturbed at that stage as I thought the gates would come to us  and we should  be alright, kind of thing, but we just didn't get to grips with the track all day. We knew it was going to be slick  but we didn't realise it was going to be as slick as it was and I think a couple of the lads were riding with the wrong set-ups in their early races."

Poole skipper Zach Cook, who was unlucky not to score in an exciting heat fifteen when he battled furiously with Tate Zischke and Antti Vuolas before losing out, admitted "I had nothing left in my tyres, they were just torn to pieces  and no matter where I went it just wasn't going for me. It was a difficult night tonight. I think the track was completely different to how it has been before and even when Lewi [Kerr] and I came here in the Pairs earlier on this year. So it caught us a bit off guard but them boys were better out of the starts early on and it was a bit hard to race the way the track was. It was pretty much gate and hold that inside  but I'm not taking anything away from the Workington boys. They were the better side on the day and they beat us. We had a better second half to the meeting after that dreadful start when they really hit us hard, making full use of the better gates. But let's just see how it goes. They have to come to Poole yet and we will just have to go better. Today was just a bump in the road. No stress. The boys can take something away from tonight and we can focus on getting our own back when they visit us at Poole (scheduled for Wednesday 23rd July)."

In essence, after that slow start, Poole provided the bulk of the race winners but all too often were not able to back that up, as the Comets were clearly intent in making up for the two-point penalty they had inflicted on them for breach of the regulations that had led to the temporary suspension of the club's licence. 

 WORKINGTON 51 - Tate Zischke 12+1 (2',3,2,3,2) ,Antti Vuolas 11+1 (3,3,2,2,1') ,Troy Batchelor 7+2 (3,2,1',1') ,Fraser Bowes 6+1 (2',0,2,2) ,Vinnie Foord 5+2 (2',1,0,2') ,Jye Etheridge 5+2 (3,0,1',1') ,Jacob Hook 5 (3,0,0,2) 

POOLE 39 - Richard Lawson 15 (1,2,3,3,3,3) ,Zach Cook 8 (0,2,3,3,0) ,Anders Rowe 6 (2,1,3,0) ,Tobias Thomsen 5+1 (0,1',3,1) ,Lewis Kerr 2+1 (1,1',0,0) ,Paul Starke 2 (1,TS,0,1) ,Will Cairns 1 (0,0,1,0)