Tully Takes The Title

The Armadale season got off to a great start when Andrew Tully romped from the back to win the final race. It was a smoothly run and entertaining night’s racing.

For Andrew of course this is probably the highlight of his career so far and will hopefully be the boost he needs to go on and have a good season.

There was a good atmosphere in the stadium as the racing got under way for 2012, and what a fine first ride James Grieves had in the opening race. Oliver Allen was in front but Grieves came through on the pits bend to take over the lead. He didn’t even need a warm-up race.

The second heat featured an overtake as well as Kevin Doolan passed Proctor, and there was a pleasant surprise in heat 3 from Theo Pijper who was very quickly into the groove, leading Kevin Wolbert all the way. Also in this heat Derek Sneddon passed Ostergaard (one of the favourites) for the point.

Unfortunately Derek then suffered a bike problem and missed his next ride, later coming out on Micky’s second bike.

The three Monarchs heat leaders were all in heat 4, and they had a good battle, but it was for second spot as Josh Grajczonek looked exceptionally quick in front.

That was an excellent first four heats completed and it wasn’t even quarter to eight!

Over the next few races the outside line became a bit stronger and we didn’t see so much passing until later in the night.

The next four races went to Tully, Wolbert, Doolan (who beat Grieves) and Allen. So Doolan was the only unbeaten rider and Ostergaard (maximum the night before) was still pointless!

It was obviously going to be tight for the final stages with 7 riders going through. So much so that when Proctor and Ostergaard won the next two heats, we had had NINE different race winners in the first ten heats!

James Grieves kept his strong challenge going in heat 11 when he headed home men Pijper and Cook in a good race, and we had another important one in heat 12.

Andrew Tully did very well to pass the early leader Ollie Allen who tried to come back with a bold burst into the second lap, coming under Tully. Andrew cut back but Ollie clipped the fence and fell, so Andrew was going to have to do it again. Considering that was against Wolbert and Doolan that wasn’t going to be easy, but he did it and moved onto 7 points.

Craig Cook made his best start in heat 13 to beat Doolan who was now on 9 after 4 rides. Andrew Tully won his third race, then we had a fierce ride by Wolbert to pass Grieves in heat 15, with Grajczonek also in this heat not quite maintaining his impressive start.

Oliver Allan needed points after his exclusion and just held off Theo Pijper who was finding an exciting inside line in heat 16.

We now had Grieves, Wolbert and Tully on 10, Doolan 9 and four on 8 – Pijper, Grajczonek, Cook and Allen.

Wolbert was unlucky in heat 17. Trying to come across from the outside, his chain was knocked off and he was going to have to hope he qualified for the next stage. Had this not happened he would surely have gone direct to the final.

Pijper continued his excellent run by winning heat 18 from Doolan, and Grajczonek’s third place proved insufficient.

There was a great battle in heat 19, won by Grieves to finish on 13. He held off a powerful challenge from Ostergaard who came good too late.

Oliver Allen beat Cook in heat 20 which was enough to put Ollie in the final along with Grieves and Tully.

Two Monarchs and an ex-Monarch were in the semi but they all had to admit defeat to Kevin Doolan, though Craig Cook did chase very hard.

The final lined up from the inside: Grieves, Allan, Tully, Doolan. It was quite surprising that James took gate one and he wasn’t best away. Allen led but Grieves got into second early on. Tully got round him into second but it seemed he would have too much to do, until Allen made an error on the pits corner and slowed. This allowed Andrew to power past and he finished the job from there to the delight of the fans.