Robert Lambert roared to his third national title and his second in succession with a dominant display in the Cab Direct British Final at Belle Vue.
Grand Prix star Lambert, who will lead Great Britain in the World Cup Final later this month, scored a 15-point maximum in the qualifying races and then converted that to overall victory in the Final.
Lambert selected the outside gate for the deciding race at the National Speedway Stadium and made it around Leon Flint on the back straight of lap one, whilst the major battle thereafter was for the remaining rostrum places.
Former champion Charles Wright stormed inside Flint to finish runner-up for the second season running, which also secured a Wild Card slot at next year’s British Grand Prix, and Flint finished third for his best-ever result in the meeting.
Fourth place overall went to 16-year-old Cooper Rushen who put in a sensational performance on debut to make it all the way to the Final.
Lambert said: “Sometimes having first pick in the Final is dangerous! It’s hard to know what to do – a couple of the gates were working well early on, then gate two came good later on.
“I won the British Final in 2018 from gate two, and last year from four, and the track was a little bit similar and I made it work in the last race (Heat 20) and Coops made it work in the semi-final. So I had to go for it and I backed myself to be able to do it.
“Today is one of those days where you need to win. I came here and everyone thought I’d already won before I turned a wheel.
“But the others are all gunning for that first spot and I can make mistakes with bike set-up, so it can be more difficult to come to a meeting like this than probably being in the Grand Prix sometimes because of that kind of pressure.
“That makes me stronger and being in that kind of environment helps me for the massive meetings like the World Cup coming up, to be able to handle that kind of pressure and still be able to perform.
“I’m happy to get my name on the trophy for the third time and for the second time in a row.”
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Photo credit: IAN CHARLES