Christian Henry expects to take delivery of an new engine this week. He hopes that it will put an end of his mechanical problems that have dogged him since he crashed out in his first heat at Armadale wrecking his bike.
Since then he has been riding a bike made up of bits borrowed from Ross Brady. He has blown three engines. While his riding has won him much praise the lack of reliability of his equipment has certainly cost Edinburgh valuable points. Edinburgh lost by a single point at Glasgow after Christian retired when leading heat 2. He failed to score in that match after piling up 11 points paid 12 in two previous visits to Ashfield despite three engine failures and a tape exclusion.
One recent engine failure that particularly stands out is his failure to finish heat 4 of last Friday's encounter with Workington. Oppoonents Mick Powell and Lee Hearne had already been excluded so Christian had only to follow Peter Carr around for four laps to take a 5-0 heat advantage. He turned down an offer to ride Will Beveridge's bike and broke down after two laps. All in all, Christian has failed to finish nine heats out of 64 started in the Premier League and Premier National Trophy. This compares with 20 non-completions for the rest of the team put together.
The new engine has been purchased from Christian's mentor Ivan Mauger. It has been shipped from Australia and is currently clearing customs. It is hoped that this will go some way to sort out the niggling mechnical problems. Christian added:
"It's not the best set-up for Armadale but at least it will be reliable and will be better round some of the bigger tracks in the Premier League. Basically it will have all new electrics which should cut out all the problems I've been suffering lately."
Christian was subject to some critisism from promoter John Campbell but has taken it well:
"John doesn't like losing matches, and isn't keen on people tossing away points. I'm just hoping that once I'm on my new engine I can get on and concentrate on my riding without worrying about other things."
With Blair Scott down at reserve for the remainder of the month, if Christian can ride to his potential, Monarchs could have the most powerful reserve pairing in the Premier League. They certainly seemed to have got into the habit of taking heat advantages in the reserves race. Blair led Christian home to a 5-1 against Workington on Friday while Christian did the same for Blair at Berwick on Saturday. One week previously Blair and Christian recorded a a 4-2 and a 5-1 in the two legs of the cip tie against Arena Essex.