Lynn rider celebrates individual title

Chris Harris is celebrating an individual league riders’ title for the first time in his long and distinguished career.Racing in the colours of his Championship club Glasgow, Harris won the big showdown of all the top contenders in the second tier at Scunthorpe last Sunday.The King’s Lynn newcomer is a veteran of the event, which no longer takes place at Premiership level but in which he competed for many years, whilst in the Championship this was his seventh attempt at the silverware.After finishing as runner-up twice, at last he ended up on top with a spectacular ride in the Final to go between Kyle Howarth and Steve Worrall on the opening lap, and the result kept up the momentum of a terrific start to the season with the Stars.Just getting to the Final itself was a battle as he had to overcome his Lynn team-mate Richard Lawson, racing for Poole, in a ding-dong scrap for second place.“It’s been a long time coming,” Harris said. “I’ve been trying for years but I’ve finally got it.“The day started good but then I had a few issues with set-ups along the way. “I wasn’t happy with the last place because I knew it was going to be tight to get into the semis. “Then at one point I was third in the semi but I managed to just get past Lawson and then I got the glory.“I made an okay start off three in the Final, but not the best. I think what helped was Kyle lifting just coming out of the (second) corner, which knackered his run.“Stevie locked up a little bit and it just opened up in time as I cut back, got my wheels in line in time, kept my head down and got through the middle.” But as an indication of how fortunes can rapidly change in speedway, Harris suffered easily his lowest score for Lynn when they were heavily beaten at Belle Vue on Monday.Mechanical trouble whilst he was holding a clear lead in Heat 2 got things off to a bad start, and his score of 3+1 mirrored the issues of the team as a whole in Manchester. Stars were hoping for better when they visited Sheffield last night (Thursday), another tough test against a side who are exceptionally strong at home.But the biggest meeting of the early weeks of the campaign comes at the Adrian Flux Arena on Monday when they host Leicester – a team who many expect to be direct rivals for a play-off place this season.