BEES extended their lead at the top of the Elite League table with a 39-24 win over Lakeside despite rain forcing the meeting to be abandoned after ten heats at Brandon on Monday night, reports Robin Allen.
The threat of rain seemed to affect the home side early on with Hans Andersen and Stuart Robson struggling to get out of the start resulting in a 4-2 to Lakeside in the opening race.
Bees’ fortunes improved massively with back-to-back 5-1’s in the next two races with wins going to James Sarjeant on his return from a back injury and Chris Harris as Bees moved 12-6 in front.
Gary Havelock’s team were in total control of the meeting as Danny King romped to his second win of the night in heat five while his middle-order partner Kylmakorpi secured second place for another 5-1.
The powerhouse partnership of Andersen and Harris were back to their best in the following race with another 5-1; as the home side number one put to bed the ghost of his opening ride with a win.
With the score 28-14 in Bees’ favour, Hammers boss Neil Vatcher was forced to put Kim Nilsson on a tactical ride in heat eight meaning Sarjeant and King needed to be at their best to keep the Swede at bay.
And it seemed the Bees plan had worked as Sarjeant and King made a superb gate; leaving Nilsson at the start only for the race to be stopped after Ellis struggled with the wet conditions and fell on the third turn.
The home side were hit by the curse of the re-run as Nilsson popped out of the start securing Lakeside a 6-3 advantage cutting the lead to 11 points.
Bees responded with yet another 5-1 in heat nine with Garrity and Robson teaming up with the score 36-21.
Despite Harris getting his second win of the night in heat 10; the meeting had to be abandoned because of the unsafe conditions meaning Bees secured their third home win of the campaign.
“We focused beforehand, and our chat was all about not being complacent,” said Bees boss Gary Havelock.
“The law of speedway suggests the fact that we won there means we should be able to beat them easily at home, but that’s not always the case.
“One thing that can make you come unstuck is being complacent, and we wanted to start as hard as we could because if you can get on top of a team who don’t travel too well in the first five or six heats their heads tend to go down.
“As they have done all season, the boys listened to what I had to say, they took it on board and it was another good win.”
