SPEEDWAY by Alan Goodman

Bees improved their away record over the last period with a good win at King’s Lynn followed by a narrow defeat at Leicester. Although five league points were gained it was felt in many quarters that this should have been more as the King’s Lynn match appeared to be the harder of the two.

It was a black Sunday for Storm after they suffered a crushing home defeat at the hands of National League runaway leaders, Birmingham.

King’s Lynn 41, Bees 49

Bees were without Jason Garrity after he further injured his arm in a crash at Sheffield and operated the rider-replacement facility. After a run of good scores James Sarjeant moved up into the team proper with Kacper Woryna moving down to reserve. Josh Bates also returned to take up the other reserve position.

Bees made a good start with Krzysztof Kasprzak holding off Stars number one Niels Kristian Iversen and Bates taking third.

Bates was immediately in action in the next and recorded Bees second race win. With Woryna winning third from Lewis Rose, Bees were now four up.

It got even better after an eventful heat three. Bees’ pair of Chris Harris and Danny King made the start only to be passed by Mads Korneliussen coming out of turn two. He could not hold out and a third lap mistake saw both Bees go by and regain the lead.

The Stars hit back in a restarted heat three with maximum points after Bates was forced onto his second machine after shedding a chain at the first attempt to run.

King and Woryna hit back in the next but the home stars began to get it together and in the next two heats firstly Harris and then King had to ride hard to split the fast starting home pair.

Worse was to come in heat eight when the Lambert namesakes, Robert and Simon took another maximum to bring the scores level at the halfway stage.

Bates rode a good outside line to take the lead in a shared heat nine before Kasprzak won heat ten to keep things on an even keel.

An excellent heat eleven saw Harris successfully battle it out with Iversen and with King third, Bees were back ahead.

A tight turn three to heat twelve saw Woryna and Bates take the lead only for Rose to fall. In the rerun the pair were quickly ahead to put Bees six up.

Bees had now realised that not only could they gain their first away win of the season but an extra league point for winning by more than six points was a distinct possibility.

Iversen won heat thirteen after passing both Bees on the first turn but the visitors kept out Korneliussen for a share of the points.

Robert Lambert took the lead in the penultimate race but Bates and King held out for the minor places which left it all on the final race.

This was an excellent race to finish off a good match and Kasprzak was Bees hero after getting the better of Iversen to win. Harris took third to give Bees victory by 49-41 and gain all four League points.

This was a good all round performance with only the promoted Sarjeant finding the pace a little too hot and failing to score. The overworked Bates top scored with a paid thirteen return from seven rides.

Bees’ scorers: Bates 12(1), Kasprzak 11, King 10(1), Harris 9(2), Woryna 7(1), Sarjeant 0.

Leicester 46, Bees 44

Although Garrity returned for this match, Bees were without Josh Bates and brought in Carl Wilkinson as a replacement.

Bees made a good start from the gate in heat one but although Garrity finished third, the 4-2 gave them an early start.

Woryna won a shared heat two before a Bees 4-2 from Harris and King put them further ahead.

An exciting heat four saw Bees on the wrong end of a 4-2 and the lead back to just two.

Another good race saw Garrity hang on for a win although the points were only shared after Woryna fell.

Harris and Kasprzak made the start to the next but home skipper Nicolai Klindt used turn two to good advantage and pass both Bees. Harris regained the lead on the second lap to restore the four-point lead.

King won heat nine but it then started to go against Bees.

Garrity collided with Paul Starke on the first turn of heat one and took another tumble. He was excluded and even worse was ruled out of the meeting with more damage to his already troublesome arm.

Woryna managed to split the home pair in the rerun to leave the halfway score at 25-23 to Bees.

Aaron Summers and Ludvig Lindgren made the start to heat nine and recorded the first maximum heat win of the night to put the home team ahead for the first time.

Kasprzak won a shared heat ten and then despite being outgated, Harris and King came from the back to record Bees first maximum and regain the lead.

A shared heat twelve looked likely until Wilkinson hit the turn four fence to let in Starke and bring the scores back level.

It was Kasprzak and Harris who used turn two to good advantage to take the lead in heat thirteen but the now mechanical troubled Harris dropped back to third but Bees were still two ahead with two heats to go.

A Leicester 5-1 in the penultimate race virtually decided the outcome and left Bees needing a maximum from the final race to record their second away win in a week. It was not be, however, as although Kasprzak led from the tapes, Harris could make no impression and trailed in behind.

This was a disappointment as Leicester appeared to be there for the taking but Bees’ problems left them with just one league point to their credit.

Bees’ scorers: Kasprzak 13, Harris 10, King 7(1), Woryna 7, Garrity 4, Wilkinson 3, Sarjeant 0.

Storm 29, Birmingham 61

Storm paraded new signing Mitchell Davey, who was replacing Martin Knuckey but had Conor Dwyer and Jamie Halder missing through injury. Robert Parker came in for Halder and rider replacement was operated for Dwyer.

A controversial opening couple of heats did not auger well for Storm.

Dan Greenwood fell in heat one when challenging for second place. Birmingham took the first of many 5-1’s in the rerun.

Heat two was drawn out after Jack Smith, son of Former Bee Andy, was excluded for a technical infringement despite one of Storm’s riders appearing to go unpunished for the same offence. The visitor’s sole representative Jack Parkinson-Blackburn easily won the rerun.

There was more incident in heat three. Danyon Hume brought down Ryan Terry-Daley on the back straight with Davey having to clip the fence to avoid the carnage. Storm took the rerun to bring the scores level but from then on it was all Birmingham.

Two 5-1’s and three 4-2’s established an interval lead of 31-17 and by heat twelve the lead was 55-23.

Storm took a share of the last two heats but the final score of 61 -29 showed why the Brummies are unbeaten this season.

Storm scorers: Mitchell Davey 10(1), Liam Carr 7, Ryan Terry Daley 6, Callum Walker 3, Dan Greenwood 2, Robert Parker 1.

Czech Republic Grand Prix

It was a night of firsts for Chris Harris in this year’s Grand Prix series. In a thrilling event held at the Marketa Stadium he recorded his first race win, his first semi-final appearance and his first rostrum place.

He did not make the best of starts, a third in his first ride was followed by a fall in his next which saw Peter Kildemand excluded. A third in the rerun gave him just two points and a last before the interval left him at the bottom of the pile at the interval.

It was a different Bomber who came out in the second half. A second place after initially leading heat sixteen gave him confidence and two heats later he came out to take his first race win of the series.

This put him in the top eight and in the second semi-final.

This race was not without incident as he held second before Bartosz Zmarzlik took a tumble which saw reigning champion Tai Woffinden excluded. Zmarzlik was unhurt and Harris had to battle his way past the Pole to reach the final.

The final was more hard work as he overtook Niels Kristian Iversen on the last lap for a rostrum place.

The meeting was won by Jason Doyle from Greg Hancock and Harris.

Hancock leads the series with 56 points, closely followed by Woffinden (48), Chris Holder (44) and Doyle (42).

Preview

Bees face home and away matches this weekend against Swindon. The teams meet at Brandon tomorrow (Friday) with a 7.30pm. start before going to Blunsden on Monday for a televised fixture.

Alan Goodman