Stead takes win!

Thursday, October 20, 2005 By Nigel Pearson. FORMER Sheffield star Simon Stead was a happy man after taking victory in a dramatic Northern Classic, the final meeting of the season at Owlerton. Stead, now of Elite League Belle Vue, struggled to find his best form in the qualifying races and was three points behind top man Andre Compton going into the latter stages with Compton clocking up a full 15-point maximum.The Final was high drama as Compton came to grief on the back straight and landed awkwardly, and was excluded from the race so finished fourth overall despite his earlier maximum performance.His Tigers colleague Sean Wilson also hit trouble in the re-run as he shed a chain and landed on his shoulder, but as the crowd held their breath he managed to walk away with only his pride hurt.That left two survivors to battle it out for the title, and Stead, who had previously won the semi-final, made his third successive start off gate three to pull clear of Magnus Karlsson, who tried his best to close the gap but could find no answer to the superior speed of the Great Britain International.Stead said: "It was a high quality field in the Final and I'm absolutely delighted to come back to a place I love and win a meeting like this."I couldn't believe it when I made three good starts in the Final, that's more than I've made all year!"The fact that the meeting went ahead at all was an achievement in itself after heavy downpours two hours before the start, but thankfully the track held up well and there was a sprinkling of good racing.RESULT: 1. Simon Stead, 2. Magnus Karlsson, 3. Sean Wilson, 4. Andre Compton.SCORERS: Andre Compton 15, Sean Wilson 13, Simon Stead 12, Magnus Karlsson 11, Mark Lemon 9, Ben Wilson 9, Robbie Kessler 9, Adam Skornicki 6, Richard Hall 6, Scott Smith 6, Sam Ermolenko 5, Kyle Legault 5, Rusty Harrison 4, Adrian Rymel 4, Luke Priest (res) 3, James Birkinshaw 2, Ricky Ashworth 1, Benji Compton (res) 1.