Well today I travelled to Leicester - the home of the Leicester Lions speedway team who have just this season joined the Elite League by making their way up from the Premier League, although without knowing this before I got to the track as the reason I went was to see my favourite rider Tai Woffinden race for the Wolverhampton Wolves.
The track for the Leicester Lions was actually quite surprising - you could get so close to the action! Literally, only 1m away from the track, and I managed to get to front of the 'fan protection barrier' so I could see every part of the track which was cool. Also, an advantage (well, for me) was that you were so close to track, standing on the first corner you got hit with the flying gravel as the riders went past. The reason I say that was a good thing is because it felt like you 'a part of the action'.
Unfortunately, for the 2013 World Speedway GP rider, Tai Woffinden, he was involved in 3 major crashes out of his four heats. Firstly, the first lap of the first heat, Tai pushed into the crash barrier by J. Doyle cause a leg injury for Tai, but still continued to ride in his upcoming heats. All four riders were in the re-run of the first heat.
In the 11th heat, Tai was leading, however, coming up on the third lap he lost control as he went round the last corner and fell also taking Lion rider Mads Korneliussen with him.
and finally, in heat 15, Tai was picked to race in white, but before the heat could finish, Mads Korneliussen took the last corner wide, leaving no where for Tai to go except into the back of him, leaving Tai bouncing off the track and his bike going straight over the air-barrier and into the spectator fence, also Mads taking Doyle out at the same time, however both Lions riders were okay but Tai was taken off in an ambulance with back and leg pain. Mads Korneliussen was disqualified from the re-run of heat 15 due to him being the one who caused the stoppage.
Also, for the Wolves, Ty Proctor was disqualified in heat 8 and 11 for being the primary stoppage - both for taking it too wide on the first corner and sliding into the air-barrier.
Until heat 15, both the Leicester Lions and the Wolverhampton Wolves were drawn on 42-42 meaning heat 15 was the decider of who would take the win or whether the teams would draw.
Heat 15 was definitely action-packed, due to Tai being taken to hospital, he was unable to compete in the re-run so Jacob Thorssell took his place, with teammate Chris Harris and Lion, Jason Doyle. Up until the last couple of metres of the last lap, Doyle was leading but guest, Chris Harris gave the heat everything, and got across the finish line first, winning the meeting for the Wolverhampton Wolves.
Final totals of:
Leicester Lions 44 - 46 Wolverhampton Wolves
You can see the heat winners below:
Heat 1 Ljung, Thorssell, Doyle and Woffinden
Heat 2: Jacobs, Perry, Morris and Cleg
Heat 3: Korneliussen, Hougaard, Harris and Proctor
Heat 4: Thorssell, Stead, Perry and Morris
Heat 5: Hougaard, Doyle, Wells and Proctor
Heat 6: Woffinden, Harris, Korneliussen and Stead
Heat 7: Wells, Ljung, Jacobs and Clegg
Heat 8: Korneliussen, Thorssell, Stead (Proctor DISQUALIFIED)
Heat 9: Morris, Jacobs, Clegg and Perry
Heat 10: Harris, Doyle, Ljung and Proctor
Heat 11: Korneliussen, Hougaard, Wells (Woffinden DISQUALIFIED)
Heat 12: Ljung, Thorssell, Morris and Perry
Heat 13: Woffinden, Harris, Doyle and Hougaard
Heat 14: Wells, Stead, Perry (substitute for CLEGG) and Jacobs
Heat 15: Harris, Doyle, Thorssell (substitute for WOFFINDEN) (Korneliussen DISQUALIFIED)
red = Korneliussen
blue = Doyle
white = Woffinden
yellow = Harris
Rider Points Total:
Jason Doyle -
8
Peter Ljung -
11
Mads Korneliussen -
10
Simon Stead -
5
Patrick Hougaard -
5
Tom Perry -
4
Max Clegg -
1
Tai Woffinden -
6
Jacob Thorssell -
10
Ty Proctor -
0
Ricky Wells -
8
Chris Harris -
11
Joe Jacobs -
6
Ashley Morris -
5
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