HOME favourite Richard Lawson headed home a classy field to win the British Championship semi-final at Glasgow.

The 30-year-old beat seven-time champion Scott Nicholls due to securing more race wins over 20 heats at the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium.

Both finished on 13 points and were chased closely by twins Steve and Richie Worrall and Somerset's Paul Starke, who ended the meeting on 12.

Craig Cook of Belle Vue and Peterborough was sixth on 10 and Glasgow's Ben Barker squeezed through on eight.

The headlines were almost stolen, however, by Tigers rider Danny Ayres. After a late call-up to the meeting due to Danny King's commitments on the continent, he scored seven and was put into a race-off with Charles Wright to make it to the British Final as the meeting's reserve. However, Somerset and Swindon's Wright saw off a determined challenge from the home man to secure that slot.

Lawson, whose win came in front of Glasgow's biggest crowd of the season, said: "The home track advantage, you've got to use that to your advantage - but there's also a bit of pressure that comes with it because people expect you to be going well. But obviously it worked for me today."

Many of the Cumbrian's wins came from the start but there was some good racing with Nicholls' opening-heat pass round the outside of Barker among them.

It's a chance for Lawson to redeem himself after he missed out on making the final of the British Final itself last year due to an exclusion.

He said: "I felt fairly confident today that I didn't make a start I could make some passes but I think it's a really good racetrack and if you've got the right riders, it produces it.

"I'm desperate to get in the grand final - it would be amazing to be in that - and see where we go from there. I came up a bit short last year - some people say I should've been excluded, some don't - so I've still got that fire in my belly from then and want to make up for it, for sure."

It might have been different for Ayres had he made it to the tapes in his first race - but he missed the two-minutes time allowance and was disqualified. He then crashed when second in his following race, although remounted to come in third.

The only other man really in contention after that was James Sarjeant, a 2015 Glasgow rider, who ended the day on five points but was put out of heat 14 when Cook appeared to have locked up in front of him and he hit the deck - a decision he didn't appear happy with.

The British Final takes place at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester on Monday June 13.

Scorers: Richard Lawson 13, Scott Nicholls 13, Steve Worrall 12, Richie Worrall 12, Paul Starke 12, Craig Cook 10, Ben Barker 8, Charles Wright 7, Danny Ayres 7, James Sarjeant 5, Lewis Rose 5, Joe Jacobs 4, Adam Roynon 4, Stefan Nielsen 3, Robert Branford 3, Rob Shuttleworth 2, Ryan Macdonald (reserve) 0.