West Cumbrian Richard Lawson helped Poole Pirates clinch their third Cab Direct Championship title in four years last night.
A stirring second leg fightback in an incident-packed Grand Final with Oxford saw them pull back 12 points from the opening clash at Cowley to hit back with a 56-34 win.
It was an incident-packed return leg at a packed Wimborne Road as the Pirates took the league title by ten points on aggregate.
Lawson bounced back from a Heat 1 disqualification for bringing down Sam Masters by scoring 10+1 from his remaining four outings.
They levelled overall with a 5-1 from Ben and Zach Cook in Heat 9 but it took until Heat 12 for them to finally take the lead, with Zach Cook and Tobias Thomsen securing their triumph with a 4-2 in the penultimate race.
Tom Brennan top-scored with 13 points from five rides while Thomsen put in a key display at reserve with 10+2, which combined with Lawson’s effort saw them home.
Masters led the way for the Cheetahs with 10 points, but their hopes were hit by the withdrawal of high-scoring reserve Luke Killeen, who was involved in two early crashes.
The league title battle between the clubs is not the end of the story for 2024, as the Pirates and the Cheetahs will meet again over two legs later this month in the Cab Direct KO Cup Final.
Whitehaven-born Lawson, 38, started his career with the Comets in 2009 after a successful carer in motorcross which included winning the British 125cc championship in 2003. He rode for Workington until 2013.
