THE 2012 speedway season got under way last weekend at Shielfield Park, Berwick, with the Fence Fund Challenge.
All competitors’ wages and the gate takings went back into the kitty to pay for the new polyfoam fence.
In front of a huge opening-night attendance, the pre-match favourite, Elite League rider Davey Watt from Lakeside, suffered a tricky start – his machine spluttered on gate four, grinding the Aussie to a halt.
Early leader Josef Franc, Lee Complin, Adam Shields and Oliver Allen all won their first races but, come heat five, Sebastian Alden just failed on horsepower as Elite start and Allen took the win.
Complin chased his former team mate Franc hard throughout heat six, just easing his way in fighting style round the Czech to take a superb win and move on to five points.
Complin made it three out of three, again the hard way, with a wild outside pass round Glasgow Tiger Josh Grajczonek in heat nine, meaning that following Allen’s heat 12 win, way ahead of new Bandit Filip Sitera, they remained the only two unbeaten with eight races left on the card.
Watt tinkered with his settings and come heat 13 had taken two solid victories to throw himself right back into the mix, but with four rides each, Allen was the only remaining unbeaten as Complin had succumbed to new Berwick number one Ricky Ashworth who finally got into the groove to take heat 16 with a big win.
Heat 19 saw Complin and Allen up against each other, but a rocket of a gate from Allen shot him into the lead, which, despite some great chasing from Complin, gave him the win and the championship gold medal.