The British Under-21 Championship Final takes lace at Peterborough tonight.
Monarchs riders Blair Scott and Ross Brady line up in a strong field including Monarchs' asset Barry Campbell. Obvious favourites for the rostrum placings are home favourite David Howe and the Poole pairing of twice runner-up Lee Richardson and current champion Scott Nicholls. Other leading contenders include Lee Dicken of Hull, Simon Stead and Paul Lee of Sheffield. Lee and Stead are former Peterborough riders and are track specialists.
Blair Scott, who won the Workington Semi-Final with a 15 point maximum, is realistic about his chances:
"It's going to be a tough meeting. I'm not going down there to win simply to qualify.
Ross Brady who rode for Peterborough in 1997 and 1998 has considerable experience of the East of England Showground and is an outside prospect for a rostrum position. He had a torrid time at Workington in the Semi-Final with engine failures but received the wild card for the final. Brady said:
"I love the track and its suits my gating style."
Barry Campbell was controversially seeded through to the final on account of his Elite League status with Belle Vue. He is an outsider for the final since he, unlike Scott and Brady, has never been noted as a big track specialist.
To qualify for the Continental rounds of the World Under-21 Championship, a top four position is required. Last year, Blair Scott won a run-off for the reserve place and should have qualified for the World Quarter-Finals due to a late decision to allocate an extra place to Britain. However, this place was controversially allocated to Leigh Lanham who had crashed out in the British Under-21 Final.
As an added bonus, the top three riders in the Under-21 Final will join a field including James Grieves in the British Semi-Final at Wolverhampton and Sheffield next week. This may be easier to achieve since Scott Nicholls has been seeded through to the British Final and Lee Richardson is seeded through to the British Semi-Final. Assuming that Richardson and Nicholls are on the rostrum, a top five position will be enough to proceed.