Hopwood wins British U-15 Championship Round

The cream of young speedway talent took centre stage at The Scunthorpe Raceway yesterday afternoon and Manchester's Ben Hopwood edged out Bolton's Joe Haines, Hull's Kye Norton and Blackpool's Adam Wrathall in a great final. Hopwood now joins Haines at the top of the championship table, whilst in the 250cc demonstration class Sheffield's James Sargeant was the top rider.

The meeting started with first round winner, Joe Haines, defeating his nearest rival in the championship, Ben Hopwood, in heat 1 but Hopwood then remained undefeated in the remainder of the meeting. With Kye Norton just dropping one point in his qualifying rides it left Haines to take part in the semi-final where he and Adam Wrathall saw off George Piper and Richard Franklin.

The final was a great race with it possible to throw a blanket over all four riders they were that close at times. Haines missed the gate and fought for a couple of laps to pass Wrathall. He then set his sights on Norton and just managed to squeeze around the outside coming of the last bend but it was too late to try and challenge Hopwood who led from early in the race.

Hopwood, who was 15 in March, was the oldest in the field and is already scoring well for the Mildenhall Fen Tigers. The rest of the riders in the final will surely follow in his footsteps and become successful league riders too.

The 'Lincs FM' Scorpions are back on track next weekend with two crucial league fixtures. Firstly they travel down to Devon on Friday to take on the Plymouth Devils. The teams are tied at the top of the table on 22 points and the meeting will go a long way to deciding who will finish the regular season in first place. Then on Sunday, 16th July, the only other team who can finish top of the league, the Rye House Raiders, visit Scunthorpe.

British Under-15 Championship Round 2 final positions:
1st Ben Hopwood (Manchester), 2nd Joe Haines (Bolton), 3rd Kye Norton (Hull), 4th Adam Wrathall (Blackpool), 5th George Piper (Sturminster Newton), 6th Richard Franklin (Coventry), 7th Daniel Greenwood (Aston Magna), 8th James Sargeant (Sheffield), 9th Ben Reade (Swindon), 10th Jack Butler (Boston), 11th Scott Meakins (Carmarthen), 12th Brendan Johnson (Poole).

Championship standings (after two rounds):
1st= Ben Hopwood & Joe Haines, 3rd Adam Wrathall, 4th George Piper, 5th= Kye Norton and Richard Franklin, 7th Ben Reade, 8th Brendan Johnson, 9th Scott Meakins, 10th Daniel Greenwood