Spratt makes bright start to UK Tour in Birmingham

OMAGH’S Lewis Spratt enjoyed a bright start to the 2025 Arenacross UK Tour in Birmingham.

The teenager, who was feeling under the weather in the lead-up to the first round of the series at the BP Pulse Live Arena, had done little to no preparation ahead of the opener but he still managed to come home fourth overall after the two races.

The Omagh High School pupil qualified fifth before going on to finish fifth and fourth in the two races, which will give him a solid platform from which to build over the remaining rounds in London, Belfast, Aberdeen, and Manchester as he seeks the amazing prize of a place at the world finale in Abu Dhabi which is up for grabs for a small number of competitors.

Having been laid low with a nasty bout of flu ahead of the opening round in Birmingham, Spratt’s expectations were not high for the weekend and when he awoke with a sore and stiff neck on the Saturday morning, his aspirations were limited to just finishing the two races intact.

But the youngster surpassed those aims by some margin in the end. After surprising himself by qualifying fifth he took the ‘hole shot’ in race one to lead for half a lap before lethargy caused by his ill health saw him drop back to fifth.

Boosted by that performance, he started race two on the front foot also, bursting into the lead at the first corner and he held that advantage for the first three laps, building a fairly commanding lead before he again dropped back as his energy levels dropped after a mishap on the ‘whoops’ as he finished fourth.

“Everything worked a treat,” beamed Lewis’s dad, Mark. “We’re home with a bike that’s in once piece and a rider who is not healthy, but he’s not injured.

“We went into it on the back of no prep, no nothing and we approached it as practice, with the aim of coming through unscathed to get warmed up for the next round.

“But we came out of it with points in the bag, we’re home safe and we’re lying fourth in the championship going into the next round.

“It’s early days, but he rode very well and the boys in front of him have tracks in their back garden, they have been in Spain training and we’ve done nothing, so we’re buzzing.

“It feels like we’ve got out of it what we wanted to get out of it and Lewis feels that he can do better in the next round. His confidence is there now.”

Lewis will return to action this coming weekend of January 18th at London’s Wembley Arena for the next round of the Tour.