Premier League Fours Final
East of England Showground, Alwalton
Sunday 30th August 1998
Peterborough predictably won the Premier League Four Team Tournament. Despite having by far the strongest top four in the Premier League and having advantage of the considerable home advantage of the Alwalton track, they made very hard work of both their semi-final and the final. Hull and Edinburgh, neither of whom were strongly fancied pushed Peterborough all the way and it came to a last heat decider.
The track had plenty of dirt but afforded little in the way of passing opportunities. A lot of the passing came as the result of mistakes or moving too far off the white line. Speed on the straight was also useful. The name of the game was making the gate.
The final involved eight heats using the same format as the semi-finals with four 'nominated' heats for lowest scorers, second lowest, second highest and highest scorers for each team.
Another gate for Grahame was enough to win from Carr and Berge. Mullett retired and was not seen again.
(3-1-0-2)
Another fast start from Kokko gave Reading their first (and last) win. Woodifield retired.
(5-1-3-2)
The first win for the hosts ahead of McKinna and Dicken.
(6-4-3-5)
Cunningham edged ahead of Little to win and tie things up.
(7-7-3-7)
A second successive win for the home number 1. Marcus Andersson was again way off the pace.
(8-10-5-7)
Petri Kokko was excluded for tape touching and was replaced by Justin Elkins who promptly retired. McKinna started well but Thorp lead by the end of the first lap. McKinna seemed to slow around the last two laps allowing Berge to catch and pip him on the line.
(11-12-5-8)
Justin Elkins came in for Mullett and was excluded. Little made the gate but Woodifield clearly crossed the white line cut across and barged Little towards the fence. Little managed to stay on and amazingly the referee looked the other way and did not exclude Woodifield. This heat was probably the key event.
(12-15-5-10)
Peter Carr exploded from the start for this first win while Clews retired with Reading in total disarray.
(14-16-5-13)
Blair Scott came in for Andersson in the heat for the lowest scorers but finished last as Edinburgh slipped out of contention.
(15-19-7-13)
Kenny McKinna won this from Woodifield to bring Edinburgh second equal with Hull.
(16-21-7-16)
Thorp gated to win and keep the final alive. Kevin Little was stuck at the back leaving Edinburgh out of the running.
(19-22-9-16)
Peter Carr gated from Bentley. First Cunningham and then Kokko passed Bentley. This gave Peterborough the title and brought Edinburgh into joint second place.
(19-24-10-19)
| Hull Vikings | |||||||
| Alan Grahame | 3 | 1 | 1 |
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| Paul Bentley | 2 | 2 | 0 |
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| Lee Dicken | 1 | 1 | 1 |
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| Paul Thorp | 1 | 3 | 3 |
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| Paul Lee | Did not ride | ||||||
| Peterborough Panthers | |||||||
| Glenn Cunningham | 3 | 3 | 2 |
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| Phillipe Berge | 1 | 2 | 3 |
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| Brett Woodifield | E | 3 | 2 |
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| Nigel Sadler | 3 | 1 | 1 |
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| Simon Stead | Did not ride | ||||||
| Reading Racers | |||||||
| Lee Richardson | 0 | 2 | 2 |
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| Paul Clews | 0 | R | 2 |
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| Dave Mullett | R |
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| Petri Kokko | 3 | T | 1 |
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| Justin Elkins | R | X | 0 |
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| Edinburgh Ziebart Monarchs | |||||||
| Marcus Andersson | 1 | 0 |
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| Kenny McKinna | 2 | 1 | 3 |
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| Kevin Little | 2 | 2 | 0 |
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| Peter Carr | 2 | 3 | 3 |
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| Blair Scott | 0 |
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Hull went well and surprisingly made no use of track specialist, and match winner from last year, Paul Lee. They only had one non-scoring ride, the last heat when Bentley was pipped for third place, over the whole 18 heats.
Edinburgh did as well as can be expected for effectively a three man team. Peter Carr made a welcome return to form with his new engine. Kenny McKinna was also competitive throughout with three wins out of five rides. Kevin Little only failed to score on one occasion.
Peterborough had effectively four riders of heat leader standard including the number one riders for last season from Reading, Isle of Wight, and Oxford. This and track advantage gave them the edge. Hopefully, this will be the last Fours Finals staged at the Showground.
John Lowe