A full house saw the Kent CTA Fire Kings kick-off their inaugural Speedway meeting at Central Park with a defeat.
In glorious sunshine more than 3000 speedway fans packed the stadium to witness Kent King’s rider Steve Boxall win the first ever heat at Central Park.
The star of the show was most definitely Jason Garrity who rode away with four straight wins for the American Internationals, he also netted the lap record in Heat Four which currently stands at 58.0 seconds.
The Internationals ran away with a 41-49 victory thanks to the support from Dan Greenwood, Aaron Baseby and Scott Campos.
Speaking about the opening event of the season the Kings first ever heat winner, Boxall said: “If it wasn’t for Len (Silver) I wouldn’t be racing this season. I want to keep the number 1 race jacket this year and win as many races as I can for the Kings and hopefully get a chance in the Premier league during the season.
“I’ll be helping all the other boys out in the team as much as I can and get them all going so that we can become contenders. As long as all the boys give it 110% then there is no more that they can do. The team is younger than me and Dave (Mason), we have some good kids on the team and if they can all put a point on their average then everyone will be happy.”
It was Ben Morley who scored for the club in its inaugural meeting posting an impressive eleven points, which included three wins.
A delighted Roger Cearns owner of the Kent Kings was pleased with the turnout for the opening event at Central Park Stadium.
He said: “After an awful lot of hard work and many years in the difficulty of getting planning permission, we’ve got it off the ground at last. I don’t expect that we will get the crowd we have tonight on a normal night but hopefully a lot of them will come back and follow the team, it also give us another activity at the stadium for the people of Kent to look at with a good feeling towards speedway and motorbikes so I hope that we’ll get good crowds.”
Next week the highly regarded Isle of Wight Islanders are in town for the opening National Trophy event, with racing getting underway on Monday night at 6:30pm.
KENT CTA FIRE KINGS
1. Steve Boxall 3, 2, 3, R, 1, = 9
2. Jack Kingston 0, 1′, 1, 2′, = 4+2
3. Ben Morley N2, 3, 2, 3, 3, = 11
4. Connor Coles 1, 1, 1′, 1, = 4+1
5. David Mason (C) 1, 2, 2, 2, = 7
6. Sam Woods 2′, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, = 3+1
7. 3, R, FX, N2, = 3
Team manager: John Sampford
AMERICAN INTERNATIONALS
1. Aaron Baseby 2, 2, 3, 1, = 8
2. Chris Thomas 1′, 0, 2′, = 3+2
3. Scott Campos (C) 2′, 1, 0, 2, 2, = 7+1
4. Dan Greenwood 3, 3, 1, 3, = 10
5. Jason Garrity 3, 3, 3, 3, = 12
6. Jamison Dilkey 1, 0, 0, 0, = 1
7. Hayden Sims X, 2′, 3, 1, 2′, 0, = 8+2
Team manager: Laurence Rogers
REFEREE: Chris Gay
GATE POSITIONS: CTA Fire Kings won the coin toss and took gates 2 and 4 in heat 1. Internationals took gates 2 and 4 in heat 15.
HEAT DETAILS:
Heat 1: Boxall, Baseby, Thomas, Kingston, 58.7 (Track Record), (3-3) 3-3
Heat 2: (Re-run): Awarded: Kirby, Woods, Dilkey, Sims (X), No Time, (5-1) 8-4
Heat 3: (Re-run): Greenwood, Campos, Coles, Woods (RC), Morley (N2), 62.2, (1-5) 9-9
Heat 4: Garrity, Sims, Mason, Kirby (R), 58.0 (Track Record), (1-5) 10-14
Heat 5: Morley, Baseby, Coles, Thomas, 59.7, (4-2) 14-16
Heat 6: Garrity, Boxall, Kingston, Dilkey, 58.2, (3-3) 17-19
Heat 7: Greenwood, Mason, Campos, Woods, 62.1, (2-4) 19-23
Heat 8: Awarded: Sims, Thomas, Kingston, Kirby (FX), No Time, (1-5) 20-28
Heat 9: Garrity, Morley, Coles, Dilkey, 61.4, (3-3) 23-31
Heat 10: (Re-run): Boxall, Kingston, Greenwood, Campos, 59.6, (5-1) 28-32