SPEEDWAY
SPEEDWAY stars Wightlink Islanders have booked their place in the end-of-season plays-off, securing qualification at their last chance on Wednesday night.
They romped to a 50-40 National League victory at King’s Lynn and, while all six team members on view played their part, the undoubted star of the show was 16-year-old reserve Adam Ellis.
Adam had to miss celebrating his stunning 19 (paid 20) score from his seven rides because he had to return to school in France.
Adam’s outings for the Islanders have been somewhat limited because his British parents have made their home in Marmande, in the south west of France, where Adam was born, but because of school holidays he was available to ride on Wednesday.
Not that it was a one-man show by any means, for every other Wightlink Islander riding won a race — barring Danny Stoneman, who suffered a blown head gasket on the new engine he bought for £1,000 last weekend.
Teenage star Ellis sat in second place behind skipper Danny Warwick for all four laps in the opening heat for a 5-1 advantage and from that point onwards the Wightlink Islanders were never seriously threatened.
By the end of the seventh race, they had moved into an eight-point lead and, bearing in mind their prime objective once they arrived at Saddlebow Road was to ensure they at least secured one point by not losing by more than six points, qualification for those play-offs was nigh on certain.
And victory was cemented in heat 14, when Ellis took the chequered flag for a fifth time, with team mate Steve Jones right behind him in second place.
In buoyant mood after the meeting, co-boss Chris Hunt simply said: "Mission accomplished."