DUDLEY duo Paul Starke and Dan Greenwood were the winners of the inaugural Supporters’ Pairs Trophy at Brandon on Friday.
The Heathens pair emulated the success of their team-mates Ashley Morris and Lewis Blackbird, who won the National League Pairs earlier in the season as they finished on 34 points, three clear of their nearest rivals.
Neither Starke nor Greenwood ran a last place all evening, which was key to their success – as was the fact that they recorded the only maximum 7-2 of the meeting, that coming in their third outing when they were against Dan Halsey and Ryan Terry-Daley.
Starke was the winner in that race, but it was Greenwood who came to the fore later in the meeting with two terrific wins, getting the better of James Sarjeant in a Heat 18 battle which was as good as anything seen at the track all season as the two riders passed and re-passed.
Second place overall went to Luke Priest and Shane Waldron, Priest giving a fast and consistent display to win three rides and finish second in his other three – whilst Waldron was able to walk away from an awkward Heat 19 crash when he and Terry-Daley made contact going into the last lap.
There were impressive performances, too, from Tom Perry and Ben Morley, but there was no doubt that the individual star of the night was Coventry Storm’s Joe Jacobs, who won all six of his rides for a 24-point maximum.
Unfortunately, Jacobs lost his partner Martin Knuckey to injury in an horrific Heat 5 smash, as Halsey spun and fell right in Knuckey’s path on turn three leaving the Cornishman nowhere to go, and his bike actually cleared the air-fence.
Knuckey suffered cuts and bruises as well as some elbow pain, and was taken to hospital for a check-up leaving Jacobs to be partnered by the meeting reserves – but he still stamped his authority on the meeting in an individual sense, rounding off a highly impressive season at Brandon.
Jacobs said: “I was counting down the rides to my maximum, I’d changed a couple of things on the bike to get out of the starts and tonight it was working awesome.
“It was a good night for me, I can’t complain as I was trying an engine as well and it’s nice to leave the season with Coventry with 24 out of 24, that’s pretty cool.â€
RESULT: 1. Paul Starke 15/Dan Greenwood 19 = 34; 2. Luke Priest 21/Shane Waldron 10 = 31; 3. Tom Perry 20/Luke Chessell 6 = 26; 4. Joe Jacobs 24/Jez Pestell 2/Martin Knuckey 0/Sean Phillips 0 = 26; 5. Ben Morley 21/Marc Owen 4 = 25; 6. James Sarjeant 20/Luke Crang 4 = 24; 7. Dan Halsey 16/Ryan Terry-Daley 7 = 23.