Last Monday it was Danny Ayres and James Shanes who’d recorded their first-ever maximums and this week that distinction went to 17-year-old Jack Thomas.
With the SLYDE-backed Kings plunging through the 60 points barrier again and the triumphant septet recording not a solitary last place amongst them, over 15 heats, it’s perhaps remarkable that in the end only the Norwich-based teenager Thomas was to record a maximum; but that was down to one man in the visitors’ ranks: with Dan Greenwood producing, against the odds, a virtuoso performance which is quite possibly the finest ever seen by a visiting rider to Central Park.
Greenwood’s exploits included setting a new track record (lowering the time set nearly three years ago by former Kent skipper Steve Boxall) in heat one; single-handedly ending the maximum hopes of Messrs Bowen, Ayres, Mason, Verge and Shanes in the homesters’ ranks; and producing an incredible winning ride from a 15 metres handicap in heat five.
But with Greenwood’s tally being 13 points, this amounted to a huge 54% of his side’s total with only Martin Knuckey representing any other kind of meaningful opposition to the rampant home side and with Kent in such a hot streak of form anything other than a strong all round team performance by visitors to a buoyant Central Park is going to be punished hard.
Following the sensation of Greenwood storming away from Bowen in heat one in a smoking time of 57.4 seconds, it was down to the two home reserves to do what is now becoming customary in heat two and take a maximum 5-1. It wasn’t done the easy way though – with Danno Verge coming from behind and off a tapes punishment 15 metre handicap to pass Callum Walker on the last bend. With his reserve team mate Thomas taking the plaudits as the meeting sponsors’ choice of Man of the Meeting it should still be noted that Verge’s paid 11 was a career best in the TPNL too.
That 5-1 was to be one of a magnificent seven home side maximums in the first nine heats – breaking the resolve of the West Midlanders. But Greenwood, none the less, was writing the headlines of his own – somewhat harshly excluded when falling in his second outing (a case of overcrowding going from first to second bend is more typically called a racing incident and reprieves issued all round), the Storm number one found himself in trouble with the referee again in the very next heat, nudging the tapes and put back off a 15 metres handicap. Up against the pairing of Ayres and David Mason with 15 metres to make up would seem a hopeless task, but Greenwood producing the individual performance of the season so far by taking first Mason (thus denying what would have been a record extending maximum for the evergreen Kings man) and Ayres to claim an amazing race victory.
Further race wins for the former GB Under 15 champion in heats 13 & 15 gave him individual bragging rights and lessened his team’s pain; but save also for a rare sortie into the points by Knuckey in heat 10 when he held off the unlucky Luke Clifton (who’d been well clear of the Storm’s skipper when the first staging was stopped after Ryan Terry-Daley tumbled off when a distant fourth but was unable to extricate his machine from under the air barrier) the rest was plain sailing for the Kings.
Next week it’s the annual Invicta Pairs meeting with pairings representing Rye House and former tracks Romford, Canterbury and Crayford (whose supporters are sponsoring the meeting) taking on a Kent SYLDE Kings duo in a celebration of Kentish Speedway – many riders who wore with distinction the colours particularly of the north-west Kent club Crayford but also the Crusaders from the Cathedral City will be attending as special guests. The action gets underway at 6.30pm Monday 23 May.
Image courtesy of Elizabeth Leslie