Fourth place for Erik on his meeting debut

NEWS Sunday 2nd September 2018, 8:17pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Erik Riss did brilliantly on his first appearance in the Championship Riders Individual to reach the final and finish fourth in a meeting won for the second time by Craig Cook.

Erik won three races, the best being the last (heat 20) in which he gated, dropped back to third and then passed Aaron Summers and Tero Aarnio with a bold drive round the boards. At times the outside line was very strong resulting in some hair-raising overtakes, and in general racing was better than it has been in this event for a few years.

Erik had two other wins starting with heat 3 ahead of Proctor and Cook. After a third he then won heat 9 with a great start off the outside. He did lose a vital point in heat 14 when he was passed late in the race by - Ricky Wells.

That lost point cost him a place in the final which would have meant a better gate in that race. Three riders finished on 11, Erik, Kyle Howarth and Richard Lawson and the two to go through were no doubt decided by the usual unsatisfactory method of race placings and times. But you have to decide it somehow.

Cook won the semi by a mile and then passed Lawson and Howarth down the back straight in the final. He certainly hadn't had it his own way in the qualifying heats. Off gate one, at that stage of the meeting, it would have taken a miracle for Erik to get a top three placing.

Our other contender Ricky Wells had a moderate afternoon scoring six points, missing out on one heat when he stalled at the gate and earned a two-minute exclusion.