RICHARD Lawson has vowed to bring his best form to Glasgow’s chase for silverware after a strong showing at tonight’s Premier League Riders’ Championship.
The Tigers No 1 finished his qualifying heats on 13 points from a possible 15, level with home favourite Simon Stead at Sheffield’s Owlerton circuit.
It put him straight into the grand final and gave him the second choice of gates.
However, Lawson missed out on a podium finish by coming last in the decider, which was won by Stead. Edinburgh’s Sam Masters was the runner-up, while former Glasgow man David Bellego came third.
The Englishman admitted the result was still raw – but believes there’s plenty to take away from the meeting as he looks to spearhead the Tigers’ challenge for Premier League, League Cup and KO Cup glory.
He said: “I don’t know if it was a bad gate choice from myself in the final. I missed the start and when you’re in one of those heats it’s pretty difficult.
“I am really disappointed to finish like that, but I felt really good and everything went well up until that point. It’s a shame I didn’t finish it off, but it’s a bit of an improvement on last year.
“I had second pick of gates. Stead chose gate three, which was what I was looking for. One and three looked the better gates, so I went straight for gate one, and in hindsight maybe I should’ve gone off two.
“But that’s the decision that I made and you can’t take it away from any of the other guys.
“It is one of the top meetings for the Premier League riders so to put myself at the top of the list does feel good. I will probably wake up tomorrow proud of what I did but I’m still a bit gutted at the moment.
“I can take that form back to the team though. I am a bit more confident now, and I feel a lot better on the bike.
“I had a couple of big crashes last month and was riding in a bit of pain, which I didn’t really want to talk about and I just got on with it.
“But now I’m fully fit and the bikes are working well, so I’m looking forward to what they call the business end of the season – and I think we showed on Saturday at Workington that we’re a team to look out for.”
Lawson’s next opponents in Tigers colours are the Comets again – this time at home in the League Cup semi-final first leg next Sunday – fresh from a 51-39 league win over the Cumbrians last night.