Workington’s young Australian Tate Zischke helped Redcar Bears to their first win in the Cab Direct Championship.
Zischke was a guest for the Bears and scored eight points in their 50-40 win over title holders Glasgow at the ECCO Arena.
One of the finds of the season Zischke had two wins and a second, but also ran a last and had a fall in his five outings.
Former Comet Charles Wright led the way with 11 and a bonus while last season’s number one for the Comets, Australian Connor Bailey scored seven (never out of the points in four rides) plus two bonus.
Ace Pijper, who rode for the Comets last season, was at reserve for Glasgow and scored just one.
Pijper is contesting the British Under-21s final today on his home track at Glasgow and said: “I’m always careful about expectations. I always have targets in my mind but sometimes it can affect you if you don’t get to those targets.
“I’ve always been taught to ride the wave. Just so what you can and move on, whether it’s been a good or bad result, treat it the same way.
“It gets to a point that you can only have so much advice. A lot of the top riders will say it’s important for us youngsters to make our mistakes and learn from them.
“I’m definitely doing that. But I know deep down I’m making progress.”
Comets current skipper Craig Cook was riding for the third night in a row when he guests for Berwick last night when they were beaten 46-44 by Scunthorpe Scorpions.
It was a mixed night for Cook as he scored five and a bonus riding at number one. That included a win, a second, a last and a retirement
However it was a bruising clash at Shielfield Park with the Scorpions losing both Michael Palm Toft (suspected broken collarbone) and Nathan Ablitt (knee) in a Heat 6 crash when Palm Toft suffered a chain failure on the first bend.
And the Bandits had their own problems as Jye Etheridge was ruled out with concussion after coming to grief in Heat 5.
Scunthorpe led by two points going into Heat 15 but the Bandits held a 5-1 to turn the meeting around, until ex-Comet Kyle Howarth and Connor Mountain forced their way past Drew Kemp on lap two for a 3-3 to win it for the Scorpions.
Mountain kept up his good form with 11+1 and skipper Simon Lambert, another ex-Workington rider, scored 10, whilst Rory Schlein (14) and Kemp (11) led the way for the home side.
Scunthorpe captain Howarth also paiod tribute to ex-Comet Luke Harrison, a promising member of last season’s National Development League side for Workington.
“We won because of a whole team performance tonight, and fair play to young Luke at reserve, because his points played a big part in our victory.”
Poole booked their place in the BSN Series semi-finals with a 47-43 win at Plymouth to join Workington, Scunthorpe and Edinburgh in the last four.
The holders only needed to score 33 points at the Coliseum for the aggregate point they required to top the Southern group, but they raced to victory on the night with Richard Lawson top-scoring on 14 points.
West Cumbrian Lawson, yet another former Workington rider, was backed up by a solid Pirates team effort as five other visiting riders won races.
