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One of the most popular series on the Cycle Speedway calendar is the Euro vets Grand Prix which brings together many of the sports main stakeholders and longest serving officials into friendly but competitive race action.
Events are split into three groups – over 40s, over 50s and over 60s. Depending upon race numbers on any given round, sometimes the groups are amalgamated to arrive at the required racing format. However, race trophies are then divided, so that awards reflect each age group classification.
This year’s Eurovets GP has just swung into action, with a highly successful opening round at the Oxfordshire village track at Horspath on 3rd March 2014. For the first time in over a decade, a Cycle Speedway race event took place under a different governance hosting umbrella, with TLI Cycling being an ultra-accommodative and extremely cost effective alternative.
The main Eurovets promoters are Fred Rothwell and Kevin Smith who do a magnificent job of organising each round. Put them together and a more diverse range of accents could not be found on the planet!
With his rich Yorkshire vowels, Fred gets on with things in an unflappable manner, often determining complex entry lists and tight race results to everyone’s agreement. He then turns a fine wheel out on the track, a dodgy ankle not limiting his ability to compete or his boundless enthusiasm for the shale ways of the UK.
The stereotypical arch `cheerful cockney` is Kevin. With a lingo any `Eastender` would envy, Kevin is one of the sports friendliest characters. His upbeat manner only diminishes when he talks about his latest (sterling) efforts to keep his beloved East London afloat but come his next race, he`s all smiles again.
The East Londoner missed the opening round after a sad personal bereavement in the winter and health issues that even sagged at the normally positive mind-set of one of sports nicest guys. All the Eurovets crew missed Kevin at Hospath and we all hope to see him at the next round at Coventry.
Health problems also accounted for the absence of legendary Glaswegian Chick Mackie and Bury administration kingpin John Whiting. Both have been mainstays of the Eurovets troupe and it was oddly strange not to see them in attendance. Chic hopes to be back in July. There was no firm news on when Mancunian John will be back on a bike.
Talking of health issues, one rider who was pleased just to be lining up was Coventry`s Joe McLaughlin. For large parts of the winter, the 2013 British Final promoter was incapacitated by a succession of illnesses and the aftermath of a tricky operation.
To compound matters, just as he was recovering, Joe was hit by piecing and horrendous on-going pains in his right arm from mid March, which severely limits his gating and run-in to the first bend. He survived a final ride heavy fall on the affected arm, to regroup for a trademark win from the back to make the final.
The Coventry man has an ultrasound scan on Friday May 9th on his arm and his appearance at Hearsall Common the following day for round 2 is doubtful, particularly after another heavy fall in training last week which left him nursing 11 cuts.
Another rider who defied the injury odds was Birmingham`s polished Paul Timms. After breaking his collar bone in December during indoor training, the reigning Over 50s Eurovets champion aggravated the injury in March.
He delayed his return to the track until the opening Eurovets, calling upon just a couple of tepid training outings as preparation. Amazingly, Timms turned on the style at Horspath, overcoming obvious discomfort to win the final in fine style.
The opening round at Horspath witnessed a number of new debutants in the series. In the Over 40s grouping, Birmingham`s turbo charged Mark Winwood, Hellingly`s ultra-loyal Martyn Hollebon and Sheffield`s stylish Jason Burke were all welcome additions.
Winwood eventually capped a fine day by emerging victorious but Hollebon just missed the final, confirming how competitive these Eurovets rounds are.
In the Over 50s, Horspath witnessed a whole influx of new riders into this category of the Eurovets. Wednesfield provided comeback man Kevin Marson, looking as slim and fit as ever, and Dash Trophies director Steve Mullinder, who certainly cut a dash on the track.
Both the Aces made their presence felt, just missing out on the final and they are likely to provide keen opposition throughout the 2014 series.
A surprised but welcome debutant was tall in the saddle Dave Mould, father of Welsh wizard Ben. Dave showed a fair turn of speed, enjoyed himself immensely and managed to complete the whole day without saying “My thoughts only”!
A trio of newcomers came from nearby Swindon in the form of Paul Matthews, Martin Glover and Jim Collyer. The Oasis trio were always in the mix and look set to appear at Coventry in round 2.
Unluckiest rider of the day was unassuming quiet guy Steve Hodgkinson of Birmingham. He tallied 17 points but missed out on a final place after drawing (the wrong) lots.
The busiest rider on the day was again Wednesfield`s evergreen Mick Aris. Although in his early 60s, Mick regularly qualifies for both the Over 50s and 60s finals, as he did at Horspath, requiring `Mad Mick` to compete in a gruelling 12 races during the day. Typically, Mick was to be seen enjoying a well-earned pint in the village pub afterwards.
With many of the riders present holding senior positions within their clubs and wide influence within the sport, and with the opening GP held under the TLI Cycling banner, discussions between races and in the pub afterwards invariably centred on the new framework.
There was wide agreement that TLI Cycling provided an easy, affordable and very cost effective days racing for all concerned. From the easy to deal with TLI Cycling officials beforehand, to a years total race membership of just £10.00 per rider and, with no time consuming and costly rider levies to collect on the day, the user friendly TLI Cycling experience certainly won many converts at Horspath.
The next round of the Eurovets Grand Prix is at Hearsall Common, Coventry, this Saturday at the slightly later 2pm start time.
Somehow we managed to reach the Grand Finale in this much curtailed racing season (due to the Covid-19 global pandemic) at the beautifully prepared Wednesfield Aces circuit in Ashmore Park, Wolverhampton. Massive thanks to the staging club for their magnificent efforts in preparing for our closing event.
In the Over 35s Lukasz Nowacki claimed top spot for 2021, Kev Burns runner-up after making LN work for it, and the oh-so consistent Mark Winwood third.
The Over 40s saw the same two on the top steps while Nicky Whitehead squeezed into third spot after today's results.
Top two in the Over 50s looks a bit familiar, Norman Venson adding yet another title with teammate Dave Frith second and World Champion Paddy Wenn third. Bit of a seasonal swing here with Lady Luck at times deserting Paddy but for once not crippling Dave's performances.
The Over 60s was claimed by Chris Ward after a disappointingly inconsistent entry list over this strange season, but he never missed a meeting all year and clocked up some big mileage.
Local hero Chris Jewkes made his E-V debut and was simply stunning on home turf (no, the track was not covered in grass cuttings!).
And much credit to our Deep South buddies from Exeter and Poole who made the long haul up for this one, great to see you all.
Edit* how remiss of me, I forgot to say "Get Well Soon" to poor Matt Davis who'd hardly turned a wheel at the Newport round before falling and breaking his wrist - rotten luck. We hope to see you back and racing next year.
Overall Podiums: 35s-40s-50s-60s
Final 2021 Results Charts - once again, please let me know if you spot any anomalies! e-mail to terry at eurovets dot uk or on our FB page.
Meeting sponsor Steve Mullinder, aka Dash Trophies, prepares the awards while "Burtie" Burt is already getting the track ready for Season 2022!
About the 2021 Grand Prix Series
TeeKay's footnotes
We saw an absolutely excellent bunch of returnees to the Sport, all with something to offer and all extremely welcome to "The Family". I say again, there's no escape from getting older, so we simply must be THE ultimate growth area for Cycle Speedway! (and word is that there are new bikes being prepared for even more such bodies next year!).
The amazing Lukasz Nowacki went through the card, 12 Over 35/Over40 "A" Finals ridden, 12 won! He was also the only ever-present Over 35/40 entrant.
Leicester's dynamic duo, Dave Frith and Norman Venson, were ever-present in the Over 50s.
Chris Ward was the sole ever-present in the Over 60s.
Once again the final match of the season decided a couple of final podium places, quite a regular thing in E-V racing.
In the Over 60s Dave Murphy and Steph Whitehead won every round they competed in.
Some tremendous racing in the final round and although I haven't had time to check oput my videos yet (if the thing worked) I will post a few up when time allows.
Jason Keith ended one of the longest unbroken runs in the Series from 2014 to date when he broke his shoulder in the Will Burns Pairs at Leicester.
Someone, who shall be nameless, was most embarrassingly presented with the Chic Mackie Annual Award for Good Sportsmanship and Gentlemanly Conduct On and Off the Track after the match, and he still doesn't know why. But he is very grateful to the decision makers.
And finally,
A one-legged man and 36-17 do not work around Wednesfield. I could console myself with the thought that I won the non-existent Over 70s, but if there'd been anyone else there I wouldn't have!
VIDEO LIST
The Finals:
35A
https://youtu.be/38dUc--WzfM
35B
https://youtu.be/_VOiW1SznlA
40A
https://youtu.be/Yr00_HScIl4
40B
https://youtu.be/QuxJwLOKkeA
50A
https://youtu.be/_w0yhUVa2dw
50B
https://youtu.be/QLUYYj7WrZs
60A
https://youtu.be/wHpwJ1INBYE
Some of the main match heats will follow...
I must apologise for my absence at Newport for Round Five. A test of the old limb at Heckmondwike clearly told me it wasn'r ready yet, although only 5 months ahead of the Consultant's prediction :)
Similarly, Jason Keith's broken shoulder hadn't given him much confidence to mix it at Heckmondwike, and with us both having a longstanding commitment to the Fife club for the Scottish Open the very next day, travel to Newport the day before would have been daft to say the least.
Anyway it sure looks like it went off well, so congratulations to all involved, especially any new returnees to the Sport and my sincere good wishes for a speedy recovery to the unfortunate Matt Davis. How unlucky can you be?
Another very successful Euro-Vets Grand Prix hopefully helping the progress of a revival of the Yorkshire club on a cloudy but dry afternoon with a decent turnout of riders in the Over 40 and Over 50 categories. On show a veritable gaggle of past and present British, Polish, Euro-Vet, European and World Champions at many levels.
Polish superstar Lukasz Nowacki continued his brilliant run of unbeatable form on a dry, tricky surface which had to be watered several times in the interests of safety, but he was chased all the way, and stubbornly, by an equally impressive Kev Burns, their clashes being a whole lot faster than anything else on display and quite mesmerising.
There were a couple of clashes on track with resultant falls, the worst looking being Paddy Wenn's in unlucky heat 13 of the 50/60s event and others that also hurt plenty for local newcomers Stuart and Chris in a manic heat 17 of the same match. I could dare to suggest these double crashes may have been caused, inadvertently of course, by fellow returnee Dave with that wobbly, vision-blocking full face titfer!
There were also a few self-inflicted whoopsies, most notable with the home straight outer kerb catching out a couple of the most capable riders, and also a very unfortunate heat 1 "off" for home legend Darren Kent who succumbed to the slippery exit of turn four and wrecked his chances of a richly deserved "A" Final appearance. In stark contrast to all this falling about, Darren's younger brother Martin made a brilliant return to serious competition after resisting for a good long time and fought his way to second overall in the Over 50s, a tremendous performance.
Once again our MC was our Bossman Fred Rothwell who did his usual consummately professional job on the microphone, ultimately wearing the thing out by presentation time :)
A very good meeting well presented and provided for by the home club, and great to see them hopefully in resurgent mood after this one. Thanks go to Hecky's Patrick Beacock, another recent returnee to the Sport, who got his firm to sponsor the event.
Speaking of returnees, I must mention my Northumbria/Edinburgh teammate Jason Keith who shouldn't really have been engaging with these lads yet with his broken shoulder only six weeks old, but he stayed out of trouble and got his reward. Oops I almost forgot - brilliant to bump into ex-Tameside gargantuan star Brian Eaton who very kindly nipped over the hill to referee for us, although personally I would have much preferred to see him back on a bike!
Anomalies? World Champion Paddy Wenn and British Champion Mark Winwood missing out on an "A" Final and Dave Frith missing out on any! Dariusz Pilas picked up an exclusion in heat 3 of the 35/40s which may well have cost him a Final place too.
Couple of videos coming along some time soon, see below...
Lukasz may have got the biggest score but Kev sure got the shirt!
Little Flying Machine. And Dad didn't do too bad either!
Over 35/40s Heat One: https://youtu.be/QWKEvfMtgtg
Heat One of the Over 50/60s: https://youtu.be/X2f8ZjMA6QM
Hectic action from Heat 13 with a trio of the World's best Over 50s current and ex-Champions doing battle. Who's in the lead? Er, no, yes, no... If in doubt, wipe them out!
Norman Venson takes out not one, but two front wheels in one svelt manoeuvre!
More Video Links:
https://youtu.be/mSMIZl95TE4 o35 A final
https://youtu.be/mx5JSjGnIng o35 B final
https://youtu.be/cu21StszvaY o40 A final
https://youtu.be/2FVDtuUCPR4 o40 B Final
https://youtu.be/x0gPjgNQ1rM o50 A Final
https://youtu.be/0ipUUInB7iU o50 B Final