ANDREW APPLETON is the 2010 Speedway Star British Masters 500cc Grasstrack Champion after a day of hot racing action at Rhodes Minis in Kent at the weekend.
Appleton fended off the attentions of Jamie Rodgers, Tim Nobes and experienced campaigner Paul Hurry in the 500cc final to take the top honours in the UK.
Missing from the final were Paul Cooper and previous Masters Champion Lewis Denham who came together in a serious accident early on the day. Both racers will be out of action for some time and are currently in hospital after suffering various injuries.
Andrew said: “It was a tough day. Every race in the British Championship is hard. I got a very good set up in practice on a track I don’t favour and made some extremely good starts through the heats.
“I won the semi-final and that put me level on points with Jamie in the final, so whoever won would be the Champion. I grabbed the outside gate which I wanted and got another superb start and didn’t really look back. This is the second time I’ve won (2006) and that seems a long time ago, it was great to get on top of the rostrum in front of the British crowd.
“It’s been a pretty tough season since accident in Germany last year and it has taken a while to get back to the front. I’m 11th in World Championship with three rounds to go, if I can make starts like yesterday for the remainder of season I’ll be very happy.”
Mark Cossar and his passenger Carl Blythe won the popular Sidecar 1000cc Final. Mark said: “The last person to retain the title this was Gary Jackson and it means everything to me. It went down to the final as I had dropped two points to Rob Bradley and Shaun Simpson and therefore needed to win the Final. We got the gate and because we were both on very similar pace I managed to win it.
“The bikes can do over 100mph at some of the tracks and it is very spectacular and there is a good fan base. Now I want to win the World title in two-week's time in Coventry on 14th August. We are on good form and have the bike and kit to win it – it will come down to the performance on the day.”
Paul Whitelam and Alan Elliott took an excellent third place to finish the podium in the sidecar class.
For more information on Grasstrack racing visit www.acu.org.uk.