STORM continued their remarkable away form with a dramatic 43-46 win against King’s Lynn Young Stars at the Adrian Flux Arena on Wednesday night, writes Observer Speedway reporter Robin Allen.
The visitors had a hectic start to the meeting with Team Manager Laurence Rogers and number one Dan Greenwood breaking down on route and only made it to Lynn thanks to Callum Walker’s dad – who rescued them.
And when the meeting finally got underway Storm had further bad luck with Callum Walker being the victim of controversial exclusion in heat two; while Darryl Ritchings fell whilst leading in the following heat, resulting in a Young Stars 5-1 with the score 11-7.
Young Stars were dealt a big blow in heat four when Tom Stokes fell on the first bend whilst leading and was hit by Storm rider Martin Knuckey; who was trying to avoid him.
Stokes was excluded from the rerun and after a lengthy delay was taken to hospital by County Ambulance complaining of lower back pain. In the rerun Luke Crang survived the challenge of Ryan Kinsley to win with Knuckey falling whilst in third which resulted in a 2-3 to the Storm.
Despite the home side getting a 5-1 in heat seven, Storm hit back straight away with Ritchings and Rob Shuttleworth securing a 4-2 cutting the deficit to five points.
Laurence Rogers team kept the scores close with back-to-back 3-3 in heats eight and nine. But the real turning point was three 4-2 advantages in a row in the following heats which took Storm into the lead for the first time on the night, with the score 38-39
After two further 3-3’s in heats 13 and 14 the meeting headed into a last heat decider with Storm knowing a third straight shard heat would secure their third away win of the season.
After the pre-meeting drama, it was Storm number one Greenwood who secured the victory for his side with a win over James Cockle while Crang secured third for a 4-2 race advantage.
After the meeting, Laurence Rogers said: “That was a brilliant performance – we were throwing points away at the beginning but the boys put 110 per cent in and we bounced back superbly in the end.”
It was unlucky for King’s Lynn that they lost Tom Stokes, which did affect them, although Ryan Kinsley did make up for it for them.”
Rogers added: “I’ve got to say a big thank-you to Callum’s dad James who came back from King’s Lynn to pick us up, because when we pulled in with smoke billowing out of the van and oil everywhere we were really wondering what to do!
We’ve got 12 points on the board from five away matches and no other club has got that, so we must be worrying the top two at the moment as we’re there without having ridden a home match!”
