SEVEN POINTS FOR CRAIG

NEWS Saturday 4th July 2015, 11:12pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Craig Cook did himself and the Border Roofing Monarchs proud at Cardiff tonight by scoring 7 points in the British Grand Prix won by Niels Kristian Iversen.

He recorded the equal fastest time of the night in winning heat three against one current and one former World Champion, and for reasons we will explain was unlucky not to win a semi-final berth.

It was a meeting governed as almost never before by starting gate positions. This is something which the organisers should be working hard to avoid, but there is no evidence that this is the case. It is never mentioned in GP PR.

Sixteen of the twenty-three race winners came from gate one, and a couple of the other race winners passed the rider coming off the inside who had made the start. Therefore when you had gate one you just had to win, and off the other gates you were scrambling to pick something up.

From Craig's viewpoint it helped him to get off to a thrilling and successful start, but it worked against him later as the two riders who finished a single point ahead of him in the qualifiers (Pedersen and Jepsen Jensen) both had two heats off gate one.

But let's be thankful for what our hero achieved. He was out in heat three off gate one, and wow! Off he sped, easily beating Holder, Hancock and Janowski, in a time of 53.8 which nobody bettered (equalled by Zagar in heat 2).

It gradually transpired that gate one was going to make the start just about every time, but also it proved that Craig was as good as anyone if he could hit the front.

The next Cook ride was in heat 5, which had two runnings. He was off gate two and each time went ahead by cutting back off the second bend, but lacked the momentum to hold the lead, Jason Doyle was excluded for bring down Kildemand (gate 1) so eventually Craig got a point, after keeping right on the tail of Iversen in second spot.

His next ride was heat 12 off gate 3. We have to keep mentioning these gates because they dominated everything. Again he had a clever first turn but finished behind Woffinden and Zagar and ahead of Harris.

Heat 15 was an important one and perhaps Craig's biggest chance to make a big impression, against Kasprzak, Tomas H Jonasson and Jepsen Jensen, all good but beatable. Unfortunately Craig made his poorest start and didn't pick anything up here.

His final ride was heat 17 in which Batchelor was ruled out after a crash in the previous race, and Jonsson earned a tapes exclusion after catching his helmet (Pedersen moved first). Replacements were Garrity and Lambert and with Craig off gate four, he had to deal with the young pretenders of British Speedway. This he did successfully, holding second behind Pedersen (gate 1) all the way and giving Nicki a hard time in the early stages. Eventually Garrity skittled Lambert and earned a last bend exclusion.

So that was seven points and it could have been enough for the semis, had MJJ not won heat 20 (off gate 1 for the second time).

The racing had been interesting without being brilliant. It often looked as though riders were going to pass but they didn't quite make it. The ride of the night was definitely a brilliant Woffinden last to first in heat 19 passing Kasprzak, Harris and Hancock and displaying why Tai leads the Championship.

Both semis went to the rider off gate 1 (Holder and Woffinden) with Iversen and Kildemand also making the final. Nicki Pedersen had been lying second in the first semi, but lost out to NKI. Thus ended a night for Nicki when he was given short shrift by the crowd and announcer, all rather unsavoury and not very fair.

Holder had gate 1 in the final but could not make it count, and Iversen sped home to win. Holder and Kildemand also made the podium with Woffinden this time shut out.

It's another step up for Craig Cook who has the capability of doing even better. He had plenty of backing from a Monarchs' support who enjoyed the event and of course the weekend. Roll on next year.