Former Pirate Lee picks up honours

From the Echo, first published Monday 20th Oct 2003.

IT WAS a night for former Poole riders, rather than current Wimborne Road favourites, as Lee Richardson landed the ELRC title at his home track at Coventry on Saturday.

Richardson took the trophy - and a brand new Jawa bike - ahead of Bees colleague Andreas Jonsson and former Poole man Scott Nicholls after Jason Crump, another ex-Pirate, blew his engine at the start of the Grand Final.

Neither Tony Rickardsson nor Leigh Adams finished in the top six - the leading two went straight into the Grand Final and the next four into a semi-final - and Pirates skipper Rickardsson admitted: "I didn't really get dialled in and on top of things."

Rickardsson, the defending ELRC champion, ran a last in his first ride in heat two, and was never able to recover. A tricky Brandon track meant that gating was paramount, and although Rickardsson won his third outing in heat 11, he trailed at the back in his final race and finished with just six points.

An equally subdued Adams fared no better, also finishing with six points after two seconds, two thirds and a last. Poole will hope that both have got Saturday night out of their system when the Pirates return to Coventry this weekend for the second leg of the KO Cup final.

Mark Loram also failed to finish in the top six, despite providing one of the racing highlights of a mediocre meeting with a typically assertive back-straight pass of Todd Wiltshire in heat 17 that denied the popular Aussie from ending his competitive career in this country with a win.Crump finished at the top of the qualifiers with 13 points, and Nicholls joined him in winning an automatic place in the Grand Final. He tied on 11 points with Richardson and Eastbourne surprise packet Dean Barker, and got the nod for beating both during the qualifying heats.

That meant Coventry had three riders in the one-off semi-final, and it was Jonsson who led Richardson home, with Billy Janniro doing his utmost to split them and Barker left at the back.

Crump got first choice of gates in the Grand Final and picked the inside. He looked firm favourite to repeat his 1999 ELRC victory at Brandon, but he broke a con-rod just as the tapes were about to rise. With Nicholls momentarily distracted, Richardson swooped from the outside grid to complete his first major individual victory in this country - after winning only two of his seven rides on the night.

Qualifying scores: Jason Crump (2-3-2-3-3) 13, Scott Nicholls (3-0-3-3-2) 11, Lee Richardson (2-3-2-2-2) 11, Dean Barker(3-2-3-3-0) 11, Andreas Jonsson (3-0-3-3-1) 10, Billy Janniro (2-3-2-2-1) 10, Mark Loram (3-1-1-0-3) 8, Todd Wiltshire (1-2-1-1-2) 7, Tony Rickardsson (0-2-3-1-0) 6, Mikael Max (1-3-0-2-0) 6, Leigh Adams (2-2-1-0-1) 6, Peter Karlsson (0-1-0-1-3) 5, Charlie Gjedde (0-1-2-2-0) 5, Joe Screen (1-1-0-0-2) 4, Chris Harris - reserve (3) 3, Jason Lyons (1-E-0-1-1) 3, David Norris (R-0-1-E) 1.

HEAT DETAILS Ht 1: Loram, Richardson, Screen, Karlsson 59.8 Ht 2: Nicholls, Crump, Lyons, Rickardsson 58.9 Ht 3: Jonsson, Adams, Max, Norris (ret) 58.7 Ht 4: Barker, Janniro, Wiltshire, Gjedde 59.8 Ht 5: Crump, Barker, Loram, Norris 58.1 Ht 6: Janniro, Adams, Screen, Nicholls 58.3 Ht 7: Max, Wiltshire, Karlsson, Lyons (ef) 58.5 Ht 8: Richardson, Rickardsson, Gjedde, Jonsson 59.7 Ht 9: Nicholls, Gjedde, Loram, Max 58.9 Ht 10: Jonsson, Crump, Wiltshire, Screen 58.6 Ht 11: Rickardsson, Janniro, Norris, Karlsson 59.3 Ht 12: Barker, Richardson, Adams, Lyons 60.5 Ht 13: Jonsson, Janniro, Lyons, Loram 58.2 Ht 14: Barker, Max, Rickardsson, Screen 59.8 Ht 15: Crump, Gjedde, Karlsson, Adams 59.6 Ht 16: Nicholls, Richardson, Wiltshire, Norris (ef) 58.8 Ht 17: Loram, Wiltshire, Adams, Rickardsson 59.7 Ht 18: Harris, Screen, Lyons, Gjedde 61.0 Ht 19: Karlsson, Nicholls, Jonsson, Barker 59.8 Ht 20: Crump, Richardson, Janniro, Max 59.8 Semi-final: Jonsson, Rich-ardson, Janniro, Barker 59.7 Grand Final: Richardson, Jonsson, Nicholls, Crump (ef) 59.2