COVENTRY kept up their winning home run by overcoming champions Wolverhampton for the first time this season - and making sure of all three points.
The visitors did have problems in their middle-order due to rider absences, but the Buildbase Bees were solid from one to seven, with all of the team contributing at least one paid win, and paid-seven being the lowest total.
With Wolves saving their tactical rides for late in the meeting, a comeback from 16-points down by the Monmore men was always a possibility, but Bees always had enough in hand and were also able to afford another last-ditch pass by Freddie Lindgren in Heat 15 - almost a year to the day since his fourth-to-second effort to salvage a draw last season.
Lindgren was in dominant form in the second half of the meeting, but he was left in third place in Heat 1 despite making a good start, as he appeared to be taken too wide by team-mate Ty Proctor, which also affected Krzysztof Kasprzak's run from the outside. That left Proctor well clear up front, with Lewis Bridger holding off Lindgren to at least prevent the visitors from opening up with a 5-1.
The Coventry reserves immediately levelled proceedings as Richard Sweetman trapped well from gate three, whilst Ludvig Lindgren just managed to squeeze around Josh Auty up the back straight for a good second place.
Heat 3 provided plenty of action with Edward Kennett clamping off rider-replacement Proctor going into the first bend, but the two riders from the outside both roared ahead, with Ben Barker taking the advantage. He had to hold off a strong challenge from Tai Woffinden, and just as Woffinden switched back well into lap four to take the lead, Proctor fell heavily on turn four. However, Woffinden had clearly completed the pass by the time the red lights came on, and with only half a lap to go the race was awarded as a 3-3.
Bees did make the breakthrough in Heat 4, taking advantage of the absence of Adam Skornicki with Chris Harris flying away from gate four and Sweetman quickly getting the better of guest Grzegorz Zengota, who subsequently went too wide on the fourth bend and allowed team-mate Ludvig Lindgren through.
Brother Freddie looked certain to win Heat 5 but made an uncharacteristic error midway through the race which allowed Kennett to motor through on the inside, and that protected a 3-3 with Barker headed for third place by the recovering Proctor.
Heat 6 provided good action with Kasprzak taking the lead from gate two ahead of a fierce battle for second place between Bridger and Zengota, with Bridger seemingly taking the place going into the second lap only for Zengota to find the drive exiting turn two to impressively make it back ahead.
But it was the next race which took the Buildbase Bees clear, and what a race it was with Woffinden and Auty strongly contesting second place in the early stages before Woffinden seemingly took the place, well behind clear leader Harris. Auty, though, continued to wind up the outside line and after almost moving alongside the GP rider going into the last lap, he kept on going around turns one and two and superbly went ahead up the back straight for a magnificent paid win.
Sweetman missed the start for the first time in Heat 8, but there was no severe damage done with Bridger winning by a distance, and Bees got back to heat advantages in the next as Barker and Kennett went either side of a faster-starting Zengota, who subsequently fell at the end of the third lap to cause the second awarded race of the night.
Kasprzak grabbed his second win in Heat 10 ahead of another battle between Bridger and Zengota, who didn't finish the meeting with the points his efforts deserved, the Pole doing well to fend off Bridger's strong inside attacks throughout the race.
Wolves boss Peter Adams had kept his tactical rides back for the closing stages, and Freddie Lindgren duly banked six points from Heat 11, although not quite in the way he would have expected as the inspired Auty shot around the outside to lead into turn three. Lindgren, with pressure immediately on from the chasing Harris, made a quick decision to get back around Auty on turn two of the second lap, and the Swede quickly built a lead before the Bees had changed positions, Harris beaten for the first time as Wolves took a 6-3.
A similar advantage in Heat 12 would have given the visitors serious hopes of taking a point from the meeting, but in fact it was Coventry riders who won both of the battles in that race, Barker up-front getting his revenge over the double-points Woffinden, and Sweetman with an important third place as he drove inside Ludvig Lindgren into turn three.
The 4-4 left Bees 45-32 ahead and with the win on the night secured, but Freddie Lindgren picked up another three points in Heat 13 as he rode all the right lines to hold of the thrusting Harris. With Zengota at the back, Wolves were left needing two 5-1s to take a point and leave the Buildbase Bees with two.
Those hopes evaporated in Heat 14 despite a very tough start which left Kennett, off the outside gate, in no man's land on turn two and with a big job on to catch Ludvig Lindgren. Woffinden led and this time held off Auty, whilst Kennett was not quite able to get up with Lindgren in time, but Auty's second place was enough for the Bees assuming they could provide a finisher in the last race.
That Heat 15 turned out to be one of the best of the night with two races for the price of one as Harris this time gated on Freddie Lindgren, who put him under mounting pressure, whilst Kasprzak was doing everything possible to pass Woffinden. The change, however, took place up-front and out of the very last bend with Harris taking an inside line and Lindgren charging around the outside - completely the reverse to when he snatched second place from Kennett in that race last season - and it was the Wolves man, again, who took it on the line.
But the nine-point margin wasn't enough for the visitors to wreck Coventry's night, with the three-point haul taking the Buildbase Bees ahead of Eastbourne in the table, and also with Swindon and Belle Vue very much in range at this stage of the season.
