Monday August 16, 2010 at 5:15pm
Dirt trackers jump to it at Norfolk Arena!
One of the longest-running internationally, but most rarely seen in the UK, motorcycling disciplines makes its annual much-anticipated return to King’s Lynn’s Norfolk Arena this Sunday (22 August 2010).
Track and Trail not only uses that set of initials so famous in the motorcycling world, but actually this form of ‘TT’ racing has been a staple of the dirt track racing scene in the USA since the 1930s. Here it’s part of the hugely popular and fast-growing Short Track UK series – a series which has adopted the Saddlebow circuit as its spiritual home since the first meeting held there back in 2005.
The format sees the familiar Speedway circuit (home to the Premier League Stars side) converted so that after twice a lap, riders mounted on a variety of flattracking and adapted Super Moto machines, will turn onto the in-field area, traverse a jump and a right turn to re-enter the track. With 12 riders a race in races up to 12 laps in duration, the event is rightly known as dirt track motorcycling’s version of the steeplechase.
Ironically, this - the newest of disciplines here in Europe (with Sunday being just the fourth time the TT has been staged in the UK, each time at the Norfolk Arena) - is sharing Sunday’s date with the 62nd. staging of the sport’s biggest event, the legendary Peoria TT in Illinois. That race has the distinction of being the oldest continuously running dirt track race in the world! For local fans to get the opportunity to celebrate what’s in effect Transatlantic TT day with the best of Europe’s practitioners of this specialist art plus a big name guest from the world of Speedway, is a tremendous boost for the Norfolk Arena and a must-see event for this weekend.
That star young master of the shale is GB international and Speedway GP rider, Ed Kennett – former GB Under 21 national champion and top rider with reigning Elite League champs, the Coventry Bees. Kennett shocked the European Short Track world when he triumphed over all-comers in the continent’s first-ever indoor Short Track meeting, held at Braintree’s Towerlands Arena back last December; before then powering his way to further success, a top six place on the massive half-mile cinder circuit in Ammanford, South Wales. Having triumphed indoors and tried out the monster half-miler, it’s the unfamiliar jumps which Sussex-based Kennett must seek to traverse this time, as this pluckiest of young rising stars is sure to attract many to the Norfolk Arena to see his famous versatility put to the ultimate test.
Kennett will find himself up against the two previous winners of this event: European and Italian champion, Marco Belli (three times winner of the STUK series and a real specialist on the King’s Lynn track) and this year’s STUK series leader, Ade Collins. Collins is the nephew of former World Speedway champion Peter and looks set to add to his legendary family’s long list of British and international titles by clinching his first STUK crown – a repeat of last year’s sensational steeplechasing over the Saddlebow jumps will go a long way to making that dream a reality for the Warrington-based speedster.
Also in contention will be current series runner-up and also a former European champion, Jacopo Monti, former King’s Lynn Speedway skipper, Peter Boast (the reigning STUK champion) and fellow Lincolnshire rider, Tim Greig, perhaps the most experienced Brit in this unusual form of racing having appeared regularly in the famous Springfield TT staged at the legendary Illinois State Fairgrounds.
A packed programme of 25 heats includes also includes the awesome sight of multi-cylinder (up to 1200cc) monster machines doing battle in the Thunderbikes championship: currently led by Italian, Monti. Completing an impressive undercard are two further championships: the ACU Junior Cup and the ever-popular Mini-bikes
The action gets underway at the Norfolk Arena in King’s Lynn (PE34 3AG) on Sunday 22 August at 1pm: adults £10, concessions £6, juniors (12-15 years) £3, under 11s free.
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