A thrilling grand Final saw Sevenoaks-based Mark Baseby claim an unexpected victory over a Kent SLYDE Kings trio of riders to secure the first individual title of his Speedway career: the Silver Ski Holidays Cup.
The 12-rider individual held at Central Park (on Friday 25/6) was billed as a (near) seasons-end celebration event with the SLYDE-backed City Gearboxes National League [CGNL] squad amply represented among the field. But the very popular former Sittingbourne Crusader Mark Baseby who learnt his trade at the nearby Iwade training track was something of a party pooper, denying Kent club captain Ben Morley the title the crowd was willing their skipper towards.
To complete a great evening for the Baseby family, younger sibling Aaron (a mainstay in the Central Park-based side of course) took third place in the Final, holding of Morley’s National League Pairs title winning partner, Danny Ayres.
Baseby senior had sent out an early marker holding off his ever attendant brother to win heat one. Heat three saw the homesters’ top two Morley & Ayres in direct competition (the first of four scraps between the pair on the evening) – with the Newmarket-based Ayres storming from the tapes to hold off his team mate and fly to a notable race victory.
Mark Baseby’s win in heat six meant after two completed rounds of the qualifiers the Coventry Storm man was the only unbeaten rider – this after Ayres had got himself badly out of shape in the previous heat allowing popular and always impressive visitor, Tom Bacon to take a well-received race victory.
Heat seven was probably the most surprising result of a single heat of Speedway in the whole of the Central Park racing season – Stoke Potters’ Anglo-Kiwi Ryan Terry-Daley keeping Morley behind him for four breathless laps to take a hugely unexpected race win.
The second half of the meeting in terms of the qualifiers belonged, though, to the younger Baseby brother, with Aaron taking two heat wins to move to an impressive double figures tally.
Ayres’ win over Mark Baseby and then holding the one-time Mildenhall man at bay in heat 12 meant that Baseby’s younger sibling had bragging rights back over his elder brother in the finishing positions in the qualifiers. Morley’s impressive win in that final qualifying heat moved him onto 10 points too – topping the rankings and asserting himself as favourite as the meeting went into the tense knock-out stage.
The semis went to form: Morley repeating his heat 12 win over Ayres; and Mark and Aaron in that order coming through the second eliminator.
So the top four in the score-chart lined up in the Grand Final. Few might have foreseen what was to come in this one; but for seasoned Kentish Speedway aficionados the sight of Mark Baseby lining up in the outside gate brought back memories of his fence-scraping exploits from Iwade-days of the past. And sure enough, the one-time National League-title winner with Bournemouth Buccaneers rolled back the years to get himself – from that handy outside berth – into a first lap lead.
Morley was hugely determined to get past his rival and for three and a half nerve-shattering laps the pair rode locked together as if Strictly dance partners (except in this case at huge speed on 500cc machines without brakes)! But try as he would, getting level with the leading Baseby was the closest the ardent Kent SLYDE Kings skipper could get; and on the last bend the elder Baseby rode a perfect line to hold his advantage and make it in triumph to the chequered flag: taking the Cup and £300 winners’ cheque.
Ayres had missed the trap badly in the Final (moving back as the white tapes headed skywards) and was not able to make any impression on the younger Baseby brother; thus missing out on the rostrum.
There was consolation for the hugely popular Morley at the Annual Club Presentations event held in a packed-to-the-rafters main bar after the meeting, the ever-present over the three seasons of the Kent club, Ben Morley winning to great acclaim the 2015 Rider of the Year Award.