SPEEDWAY by Alan Goodman

A busy weekend saw Bees take six league points to ease their position in the Elite League. Matches against Leicester finished honours even with similar scorelines in the two matches while on Monday Bees hit top form to defeat Swindon by a twenty-two point margin.

Storm were also in the act, winning their first match after a run of eight defeats by winning at Buxton on Sunday.

Bees 50, Leicester 40.

Bees were at full strength with Jason Garrity returning after injury. Leicester however were without number one Patrick Hougaard and operated rider replacement.

Garrity was obviously keen to get going but burst through the tapes at the start of heat one. He was handicapped fifteen metres but could not catch the others which resulted in Leicester taking an early 4-2 lead after a rather processional race.

Bees reserves made the start to heat two but the visitors Josh Auty took second place from James Sarjeant on lap two to keep things level.

Heat three did not go Bees way as Chris Harris was excluded for bringing down Szymon Wozniak when chasing second place. Danny King won the race so the scores were still level.

Leicester went ahead in the next with Auty and Lewis Rose making the best of turn two to take a 4-2.

Bees suffered their third exclusion of the match as early as heat five. Kacper Woryna got into trouble on turn two of the penultimate lap and when trying to correct himself clipped Aaron Summers with both riders crashing heavily but fortunately with no injury. Garrity won the race to keep Bees in contention.

Heats six and seven went better for Bees with King winning heat six with Josh Bates holding out Auty and then Krzysztof and Harris taking maximum points to put Bees ahead for the first time.

Leicester still kept pushing away and took a 4-2 in heat eight after Sarjeant had fallen to leave the halfway score at 25-23 to Bees.

Garrity won the next with Woryna finally taking third after a good race with Rose.

Wozniak made the start to heat ten but Harris and King went by on laps one and two respectively to increase Bees lead to 34-26

The next three heats were shared and heat fourteen appeared to be going the same way until Bates pulled out with machine problems.

This left the visitors in with a chance of taking a league point by losing by less than six but although they made the start to the final heat both Bees went by at the start of the final lap to give Bees victory by 50-40.

It was a good team effort with Garrity marking his return with a well earned paid eight.

Bees’ scorers: King 13(1), Kasprzak 11(1), Garrity 7(1), Harris 6(2), Woryna, Sarjeant 5, Bates 3.

Leicester 52, Bees 41.

Bees were always going to be up against it in this one. Kasprzak was absent due to riding in the second round of the European Championship. Unfortunately the BSPA does not recognise this competition and will not allow any facility to replace any contestants. Bees could only track bottom end Premier League rider Ashley Morris.

Garrity kept up his upsurge in form with a heat one win. Morris however fell on the first turn.

Bee’s reserves made the start to heat two but Sarjeant was passed by both home reserves coming out of turn two.

Leicester took the lead in heat three with maximum points over a strangely subdued King and machine troubled Harris who failed to leave the tapes.

Sarjeant was excluded for a tapes offence in heat four and was replaced by Woryna. The home side took maximum points after Woryna lost second place and Bates fell at the end of lap three.

Woryna was again in the thick of a hectic heat five, losing third place on the second lap.

Leicester now led by eight points and three successive 4-2’s took them to 28-14 after seven heats.

It was no surprise when Garrity was nominated for a tactical ride in heat eight and it proved the right move as along with Woryna they led out of turn two to give Bees an 8-1 race win. This left the halfway score at 29-22 to the Lions.

Leicester soon recovered and took maximum points in the next after Sarjeant lost third place to Michael Palm Toft.

Garrity won heat ten after Morris had again fallen on turn one before Leicester took a 4-2 in a race which saw Harris go from third to first and then lose out on the line to Patrick Hougaard.

Heats twelve and thirteen were shared, the latter seeing Harris go from third to first in the space of two laps.

Another home 4-2 ruined any chance of Bees taking a point and despite Harris and Garrity taking maximum points in an exciting heat fifteen, Bees were on the end of a disappointing 52-41 scoreline.

Although the absence of Kasprzak made all the difference if all of the remainder of the team had ridden to their full potential, Bees could have still pulled off a surprise. King in particular, was a disappointment, recording just three points. Garrity was outstanding; his paid sixteen was probably his best in Bees colours. Morris, although failing to score showed promise in the race he completed.

Bees’ scorers: Garrity 16(1), Harris 10, Woryna 8(1), King 3, Sarjeant 2(1), Bates 2, Morris 0.

Bees 56, Swindon 34.

Kasprzak was back for Bees but it was not the best of starts. Garrity, for the second time in two home meetings, broke the tapes and was replaced by Sarjeant. In the restart Jason Doyle and Rohan Tungate held off Kasprzak for an opening 5-1.

The reserves pulled two back in the next when Bates overtook Charles Wright for a good win with Sarjeant third.

King won heat three with Harris, despite a late blip, taking third to bring the scores level. Woryna and Sarjeant squeezed out Justin Sedgmen on the second turn to put Bees ahead.

Heat five was shared before King and Woryna took a 4-2 to increase Bees lead.

Kasprzak and Harris took an easy maximum in heat seven to increase the lead to ten.

This put Swindon in tactical territory but it went very wrong from the start. Tungate was given the ride but was penalised for tape touching and handicapped fifteen metres. To further add to his problems he brought down partner Wright when challenging for third and was excluded.

Garrity and Bates worked their way to the front to win heat nine before Bees hit problems in the next. Harris was sent crashing into the fence after bunching entering the first turn. After some delay he was able to take his place in the rerun but finished on the wrong end of a visiting maximum.

Bees dropped just one point in the next two heats to ensure victory.

Doyle won a shared heat thirteen before Nick Morris took King wide to win the penultimate heat.

Bates was given the nomination for the final heat and crowned a good display by taking advantage of a Doyle mistake to add another win to his already impressive total. With Woryna third, Bees finished up 56 -34 winners.

It was a good all-round display with all riders contributing valuable points. Star man must be reserve Bates who dropped just one point all night.

Bee’s scorers; Bates 13(1),Woryna 9(1),Kasprzak 8(1), King 8, Garrity 7(1), Sarjeant 6(2), Harris 5(2).

Buxton 42, Storm 46.

Storm ended a run of eight defeats in an incident packed meeting at the Buxton Raceway. Storm was at full strength while their hosts included two guests and also operated rider-replacement.

The win was not without cost as Storm lost Dan Greenwood with a collarbone injury after a heat eleven crash.

Buxton opened with a 4-2 heat win before the next two races were shared.

Storm hit back with to draw level at heat four but the home side promptly scored a max to restore their lead.

Storm got their own max in heat seven and with heat eight shared the halfway score was 24 points each.

Heat nine was shared before heat ten had only two finishers with Buxton getting the advantage.

A home maximum in the next put Buxton in the driving seat and with Greenwood out things did not look too rosy for Storm.

However the loss of Greenwood appeared to spur them on and after another heat with only two finishers Storm then took two 4-2’s and a 5-1 to run out 46-42 winners’

Liam Carr was Storm’s star with a fifteen point max and support came from Mitchell Davey and the returning from injury Jamie Halder.

Storm scorer’s; Liam Carr 15, Mitchell Davey 11, Jamie Halder 7(2), Conor Dwyer 5(1), Callum Walker 5, Ryan Terry-Daley 3(2), Dan Greenwood 0.

European Championship

Krzystzof Kasprzak did not have the best of success in round two of this competition at a rainy Daugavpils. After making the dash from Brandon on Friday night he managed just five points and finished well down the field in a meeting won by Grigorz Laguta from Joonas Kylmakorpi and Emil Sayfutdinov. He lies halfway in the overall standings with one meeting to go.

Preview

There is no Elite League action at Brandon due to the Grand Prix in Malilla, Sweden. There is a big National League meeting on Sunday (14th) as Brandon stage the national League Fours. The competition is staged between the top eight teams in the league and is over twenty-four races. The meeting starts at 2.30pm.

Storm should have been in action last night (Wed) at Birmingham in the restaging of the match rained off earlier.

Alan Goodman.