Complin wins Christmas Cracker

Lee Complin defeated an array of motorcycling greats in the Christmas Cracker Short Track meeting at Scunthorpe yesterday afternoon.

He lost just one race all afternoon, to Market Rasen's Peter Boast, but his closest challengers in the final were Cumbrian speedway rider Jonathan Bethell and Yorkshire road racer Dijon Compton who pushed him all the way to join him on the podium.

A large crowd saw some excellent racing whilst one of the big draws, Neil Hodgson, the 2003 World Superbike Champion, impressed on his Short Track debut by claiming 6th in the 40-rider field. Eleven-time TT winner John McGuinness just failed to make the 12-rider final whilst Steve Plater performed well before a crash kept him out of the semi-finals.

Boast was the top Lincolnshire rider, finishing fourth after falling in the semi-final and having to come from the back of the grid in the final. The Scorpions representative, Benji Compton, failed to make the semi-finals but Leighton Haigh, Scunthorpe's Super Moto champion improved as the afternoon went on and only just missed out on a place in the final.

For the winner, 22-year old Complin, who hails from Cowling, West Yorkshire, it marked the end of a very successful year. After giving up a promising speedway career a few years back he turned to Short Track racing in 2006 and at the very first attempt, aboard a works CCM 450cc machine, he claimed the national title. Yesterday's victory proved he is still the rider everyone else has to aim at when the 2007 championship gets under way at King's Lynn in April.

In the support class the grid system helped provide some great racing from the Pro Quad Bikes and it was Cambridgeshire's Adrian Smith who claimed the title from Caistor's Alan Hooker and George Penfold who hails from the Isle of Sheppey.