Workington Comets will have three riders contesting the British Under-21s final at Glasgow on July 16.
Ace Pijper and Sam McGurk were among the leading six riders in Sunday’s qualifier at Northside while Comets number one Connor Bailey had already been seeded through to the final.
Belle Vue Colts’ Sam Hagon was the leading rider on the day with 14 points ahead of Ben Trigger (Mildenhall) and Nathan Ablitt (Kent Royals) who were both on 12.
The next three all finised on 11 and their positions were decided on count-back – how they had fared in races against each other.
Ashton Boughen (Leicester Lion Cubs), who was also voted the most exciting rider in the meeting, just edged fourth ahead of the Workington pair of Pijper and McGurk.
Just missing out with 10 points was Jody Scott (Oxford Chargers) while Freddy Hodder (Belle Vue Colts) scored nine, and was unlucky to pick up an engine failure in one of his outings or he could have been in the shake-up.
The well-attended meeting, contested in glorious sunshine, produced some keen racing between the leading contenders.
The dust was a problem – at times it seemed Stop the Oil protestors had invaded the stadium with their sprays – but regular watering did help the situation.
Early on it looked as though Boughen would be the front-runner as he won his first two races.
But it didn’t work out for him in the next two, already beaten out of the gates and trailing he went down and managed to push his bike off the track.
Then he was trailing Nathan Ablitt when he fell almost on the line but was able to take the two points as it was deemed that he still had control of his machine as he slid over it.
Boughen roared back with a third win in his final outing to cement his place in the final.
There was mixed luck for Workington’s Pijper who had been leading the field after winning his first three starts.
But already having received a referee’s warning for moving at the start he repeated it in heat 15 and was excluded.
It proved a costly error as he was beaten by Boughen in his last outing and had to settle for fifth place – but enough to get him through.
McGurk, his Workington team-mate, had a mixed afternoon with two wins, two seconds and a third – again just enough to squeeze him through to the finals.
The meeting winner Hagon only dropped a point in what potentially could have been the race of the afternoon, heat nine.
Four of the eventual qualifiers all lined-up but Boughen fell; McGurk couldn’t make an impression on the front two with Ablitt beating Hagon in a cracking race.
The qualifiers: Sam Hagon 14; Ben Trigger 12; Nathan Ablitt 12; Ashton Boughen 11, Ace Pijper 11; Sam McGurk 11.
Other scores: Jody Scott 10, Freddy Hodder 9, Mickie Simpson 7, Max James 5, Kai Ward 5, Max Perry 5, Bailey Fellows, 2, Owen Booth 1, Jack Shimelt 1. Reserves: Henry Davison 0, Layden Richardson 0.
Seeded straight to the final are: Connor Bailey, Kyle Bickley, Jason Edwards, Leon Flint, Dan Gilkes, Drew Kemp, Jake Mulford, Anders Rowe, Dan Thompson, Joe Thompson.
