Last three heats kill us at Cowley

REPORT Wednesday 29th May 2024, 10:08pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Stellar Monarchs were fairly happy at the end of heat 12 tonight at Oxford, with 7 of the heat wins and just a 6-point deficit. However the last three races were all lost 5-1 leaving an 18 point loss to be recovered for the aggregate bonus when Oxford come to Armadale a week on Friday.

Team boss John Campbell said at the end of the match "We had the bad gates at the finish and it was thrown away at that stage. We had some good performers, Kye Thomson won two races, Craig Cook and Justin Sedgmen did well until they got the poor gates against the top men at the end.

"Lasse battled really hard, what else could he have done? Made the start I suppose, that's what Sedgy said when we had a team talk – 'that's all you've got to do, make the start and get in front. Get to the first corner in front and you can't go wrong.'

"Craig Cook was a very cheery character in the pits, he came down in heat 1 and that might have put him off but he was very positive all night."

Monarchs more than held their own in the early stages with Cook winning heats 1 and 5, Thomson in heat 3 and Sedgmen heat 6. Fredriksen narrowly missed third place in both heats 1 and 5 or we may have been even better placed.

Losses in heats 7 and 8 left us 6 down but speedy use of Craig Cook as a tac sub alongside Sedgmen gained us a 5-1 in heat 9, Cook cleverly slipping past the home men to join his partner on the opening lap.

We then lost a 5-1 but further heat wins for Cook (heat 11) and Thomson (heat 12) kept hopes alive. The last three heats saw these hopes dashed.

There were no GP heroics from Paco Castagna on this occasion and he must be scratching his head at his inconsistency. He had the favourable gate one in heat 14 but completely missed the start.

John Campbell added "I look forward to maximums from both Craig and Paco on Friday night against Glasgow!"

Full Result Details