BEES won their opening away meeting of the Elite League season with a stunning 52-41 win over Leicester at the Jordan Road Surfacing stadium.
The visitors set the tone for the meeting early on as Cameron Heeps flew out the start in heat one beating Grand Prix newcomer and Leicester number one Jason Doyle with a 5-1.
Bees lead increased even further in heat four as recent signing Joonas Kylmakorpi showed his liking for the small track as he eased to the win while fast-track reserve James Sarjeant did well to hold off the challenge of Szymon Wozniak for second place.
That maximum heat advantage forced Leicester to put guest and former Bees rider Rory Schlein on a tactical ride resulting in a 7-2 to the home side cutting the gap to five points.
Bees duo Chris Harris and Hans Andersen didn’t look worried by the tac’ ride as they both blasted up the inside of Grzegorz Walasek who drifted wide on second bend of heat six notching their third 5-1 of the meeting.
The Lions clawed back the visitors’ lead to five points with back to back 4-2 heat advantages just before the interval.
Bees management were full of confidence though; knowing if they kept being consistent in the four remaining races the victory was theirs.
And with a five point lead Bees pair Kylmakorpi and Andersen knew a heat advantage in heat 15 would give them all four points as they roared out of the gate in front of the Bees faithful on the first bend leaving the Leicester riders far behind easing to victory with a 5-1.
Gary Havelock said: “I’m over the moon; I definitely thought there wasn’t going to be a repeat performance of our first meeting of the season where we got well and truly beat.
We came back with a full team and although maybe not coming here thinking we’re going to win this but at least get something out of it and the team like I said on press day; the team spirit with being able to keep 50 percent of last year’s side it’s great because all the boys hit the ground running.”
