ELLIE ROSE TRAVEL Scunthorpe Scorpions will stage the biggest meeting since 2012 at Scunthorpe’s Eddie Wright Raceway on Friday evening (October 2) at 7.30pm, when they host reigning champions Poole Pirates in the first leg of the Cab Direct Championship Grand Final.
The second leg will take place at Wimborne Road, home of the Poole Pirates in Dorset, next Wednesday (October 7) and the aggregate winners will be crowned Cab Direct Championship league champions.
It is the first time that Scunthorpe have qualified for a play-off final since 2012. Scorpions defeated Somerset Rebels by 92-91 after two epic legs of speedway, with Nick Morris and Josh Auty securing victory with a 3-3 in the final race.
Three-time World Individual Speedway Champion Tai Woffinden – born in Scunthorpe in 1990 and a member of the 2006 and 2007 Scunthorpe Scorpions – will be in attendance. Local hero Woffinden has recently retired from speedway due to injury and stages his testimonial at Northampton on Saturday (October 3).
Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey was clearly emotional, after Scorpions completed a semi-final 92-88 aggregate victory over the Glasgow Tigers in Scotland last Friday. Godfrey has been in charge at the Eddie Wright Raceway ever since the venue opened in 2005.
Looking forward to the huge meeting in Scunthorpe on Friday evening, Rob Godfrey said: “Our riders did superbly at Glasgow. They dealt with the nerves far better than I did that night.
“No-one gave our team a chance at the start of the season and many tipped us for the wooden spoon and we’ve proved many people wrong and reached the Grand Final of the Cab Direct Championship.
“There’s a small core of people who help at Scunthorpe Speedway and that makes it all the more special. There’s Nigel who washes my fence; there’s Shane and Mandy (Houghton) who are our main sponsors through Ellie Rose Travel but help out in so other many ways as well; there’s my wife Gail. There’s others as well – they know who they are and they know we’re grateful. We couldn’t run the club without them.
“We fancy that we can beat Poole Pirates over the two legs of the final. I know many people will say ‘no, you can’t, they’re too strong’ but we do fancy our chances. We’ve been proving folks wrong throughout the season and this is one more chance to do that.
“The semi-final against Glasgow actually worried me more. It’s a difficult place to go to, and a sixteen-point lead can soon disappear, but our riders never looked like losing on aggregate.
“For the final, we need to do the same. We need to build up a lead at home, and then go to Poole with a similar defensive attitude we had at Glasgow. I was heartened how Redcar performed at Poole in the BSN Final – they didn’t get steamrollered. I believe we can beat Poole on aggregate and so does David Howe, our team manager, and so does Josh Pickering, our superb skipper, and the rest of the boys.
“The first leg at Scunthorpe on Friday is absolutely crucial to our hopes. It’s going to be a huge night – the biggest night at the Eddie Wright Raceway since 2012. We’ve got treble World Champion Tai Woffinden – who was born in Scunthorpe and started his career with us – saying he’s going to come along and be in attendance. Speedway nights at Scunthorpe don’t get any bigger than this.”
* Team news for Friday’s huge clash to follow later in week
PHOTO BY IAN RISPIN
