In their penultimate home league fixture the Kent Iwade Garage Royals raced to their biggest home victory of the season racing to a 20-point win by beating the National League’s basement side Armadale Devils 55-35 at The Old Gun Site on Sunday afternoon.

It was a fixture that the hosts controlled throughout but accelerated away from their visitors in the final three races to add the finishing gloss to an all-round great performance by The Royals.

The Royals were led from the front once again by the combination of Max Clegg and Ben Morley, who once again came up with full and paid maximums respectively. Clegg was involved in what was arguably the race of the season at The Old Gun Site in Heat 11 and not to be out done Morley was involved in a terrific battle in Heat 13. There was also back up throughout the ranks, reserve pairing Chris Watts and Sam Woolley, combined for a total of thirteen paid 17, Sam looking back to the form he was in at the start of the season.

Connor King also supplied a return of paid 9 on his return to the main body of the team, and even stand in James Laker, although only scoring a point, he was not outclassed stepping from the MSDL into a second string role in the National League.

For the visitors, five heat wins shared between four riders and only one heat advantage.

The meeting started well for Kent in a re-run opening race as Morley took the win from Armadale’s number 1 Tom Woolley and James Laker after visiting second string Josh Embleton took a tumble in the initial staging.

This was followed up in terrific style by a maximum heat advantage in the reserve’s race, as Chris Watts took his first race win of the season in a Royals race jacket backed up by Sam Woolley to put The Royals six up after the opening salvo’s.

Clegg entered the fray in the fourth race and took the first two of his five heat wins in the fastest time of the afternoon, and in both of those races the hosts took 4-2 heat advantages which moved The Royals ten points up at the halfway stage.

The gap was closed to eight points in the ninth race when Armadale took their only heat advantage when Lee Complin got a heat win and an engine failure for Royals captain Danno Verge when holding third gifted a point to reserve Gregor Millar.

After a shared tenth race, then came an incident packed eleventh. The initial staging saw the unbeaten Max Clegg take a jump at the start and hit the tapes and was disqualified. Clegg was put back in the re-run off a 15 metre handicap. Starting last, he was up to second by the start of the second lap getting past teammate Chris Watts and Josh Embleton to put the pressure on Tom Woolley.

Woolley made a mistake on the first turn of the second lap which allowed Clegg through to take the lead and take the win.

After the excitement in Heat 11, Heat 13 was also a great race, between Ben Morley and Lee Complin. Clegg gated and Morley and Complin took up a battle over the second spot for the opening two laps, when Complin suffered an engine failure which allowed the Kent duo to claim a maximum heat advantage which sealed the match for the hosts.

Kent then finished up with 5-1’s in both heats fourteen and fifteen to settle the dust on the match.

Next up for the Iwade Garage Royals is a trip to Oxford on Wednesday (7/9) before completing their league campaign next Sunday (11/9) against the Belle Vue Colts.

Kent Iwade Garage Royals

B Morley 3 3 3 2’ 2’ 13+2
J Laker 1 0 0 1
D Verge 2 2 R 2 6
C King 1’ 1’ 2 3 7+2
M Clegg 3 3 3 3 3 15
C Watts 3 1 1’ 0 5+1
S Woolley 2’ 1 2 1’ 2’ 11+3

Armadale Stellar Devils

T Woolley 2 3 2 1 1 9
J Embleton FX 0 3 1’ 4+1
D Phillips 3 2 2 3 0 10
E Kelly 0 0 1’ 1 2+1
L Complin 2 2 3 R 7
G Millar 1 1’ 1 0 3+1
K Lyden 0 0 0 FX 0

Heat Details

1. (re-run) Morley, T. Woolley, Laker, Embleton (FX) 60.8 (4-2)
2. Watts, S. Woolley, Millar, Lyden 63.8 (9-3)
3. Phillips, Verge, King, Kelly (X2M -15m) 60.5 (12-6)
4. Clegg, Complin, S. Woolley, Lyden 58.6 (16-8)
5. T. Woolley, Verge, King, Embleton 62.0 (19-11)
6. Morley, Complin, Millar, Laker 59.4 (22-14)
7. Clegg, Phillips, Watts, Kelly, 58.6 (26-16)
8. Embleton, S. Woolley, Watts, Lyden 62.3 (29-19)
9. (re-run) Complin, King, Millar, Verge (ret) 59.6 (31-23)
10. Morley, Phillips, Kelly, Laker 60.1 (34-26)
11. (re-run) Clegg (exc tapes – 15m) T. Woolley, Embleton, Watts 60.9 (37-29)
12. Phillips, Verge, S. Woolley, Millar 63.2 (40-32)
13. Clegg, Morley, T. Woolley, Complin (ret) 60.3 (45-33)
14. (re-run) King, S. Woolley, Kelly, Lyden (FX) 62.0 (50-34)
15. Clegg, Morley, T. Woolley, Phillips 61.2 (55-35)

Pictures supplied by Amanda Morrison – Oddshots Speedway & Grasstrack Photography.