NOT far short of the perfect start to the season for the Buildbase Bees with some excellent performances throughout the order and a convincing win over local rivals Birmingham.
The Brummies arrived fired-up from their defeat of Wolverhampton the previous evening, although missing some key personnel from that result, and they were into damage limitation mode from a very early stage of the meeting.
Coventry’s heat-leader trio speaks for itself but the most encouraging factor from this result was the contributions made by all of the lower-order riders, enabling Bees to cover for the absence of Kenni Larsen who is still awaiting clearance to race following his wrist injury.
The rider-replacement facility actually only scored three points, but with six race wins shared between Aaron Summers, Adam Roynon and Henning Bager there was little that Bees could complain about.
They had one maximum man in Scott Nicholls who went through the card from five rides, whilst Edward Kennett’s hopes of joining him ended with a crash in Heat 12.
By that stage the Brummies, who had been in danger of suffering a big defeat, had their skipper Danny King in competitive form, and he and Bjarne Pedersen kept the scoreline respectable in the closing stages.
But early-on it was all one way traffic with Summers shooting clear from the start in Heat 1 – and although captain Chris Harris missed out off gate four, he moved inside both Pedersen and Martin Smolinski into turn three, briefly going second before Smolinski hit back. Harris, though, completed the pass on lap two with Smolinski dropping to the back when he got out of shape on the fourth bend, and it was the start of a difficult Brandon return for the German who appeared to still be struggling from a knock picked up at Perry Barr on Thursday.
Bees marched on with Roynon making a flying start in Heat 2 and quickly being joined at the front by Bager for a commanding 5-1 – and when Summers did it again off gate two in Heat 3 and Kennett rounded King on turns three and four, it looked like a hat-trick was on the cards until Summers, who had scored 17 for Redcar the previous evening, suffered a broken footrest which took him out of the race.
The Bees blitz continued in Heat 4 with Bager making a fast start to lead, and quickly being followed by Nicholls who saw off the challenge of Sebastian Ulamek and sat behind his partner for another 5-1 – and although Roynon’s chase of Smolinski for third place in Heat 5 was just in vain, Kennett was race-leading again at the front to add another three points to the total.
Summers, with footrest restored, trapped again in Heat 6 with Harris completing that pairing’s second 5-1, and at 26-10 the Bees were in complete control.
Heat 7 produced some hectic first lap action with King leading Nicholls into the first bend only for Roynon to switch back inside everyone up the back straight, and Nicholls also to get ahead of King. Roynon, though, got a little too close to Nicholls and straightened up, which sent him towards the turn four fence which he clipped and subsequently fell, although he was able to clear the track with no damage done and Nicholls went on to win.
It was eight heat winners out of eight as Summers dominated Heat 8, Chris Mills picking up a decent second place for the Brummies, and there was no great surprise when the strong Kennett/Nicholls pairing took another 5-1 over Ulamek in Heat 9.
King donned the black-and-white helmet colour for Heat 10 and it turned out to be a well-timed move from Graham Drury, as King became the first Brummies rider to get into the first bend first, making it with a fast start from gate four to leave Harris trailing in his wake and score a big six points.
Following the interval, Pedersen also produced a good gate in Heat 11 but Nicholls had read it and switched back smartly to lead up the back straight, limiting the Brummies to a 4-4 from their second tactical ride as Roynon had the beating of Mills for third place.
The Heat 12 battle between King and Kennett produced some of the best action of the night as the Bees man tried everything to get through – but the rear wheel just stepped out too much on the final bend, sending Kennett into a spin and an awkward landing, but fortunately after taking a brief moment on-track, he was able to walk away.
Nicholls wrapped up his full house in Heat 13 as Pedersen split him from colleague Harris, but Bees were already through the 50-point barrier and added another 4-2 in Heat 14 as Roynon finished the meeting as he had started with another win, Bager making up ground from a poor start and passing Magnus Karlsson before just missing out on Mills on the last lap.
The consolation for the Brummies came in Heat 15, with Nicholls rested for the Bees and Harris trying what turned out to be an unsuccessful set-up, King and Pedersen just squeezed out Summers going into turn one and raced clear for a 5-1 to bring some respectability to the scoreline.
But whilst nobody at Brandon will be getting carried away with the result at this stage, especially given the absences of Ben Barker and Josh Auty, as well as Larsen for the Bees, this Coventry performance was a thoroughly convincing one and augurs well for their form around Brandon this season.
BUILDBASE BEES 56 Chris Harris 2* 2* 2 1 0 = 7+2 Aaron Summers 3 R 3 3 1* 1 = 11+1 Edward Kennett 3 3 3 F = 9 Kenni Larsen Rider Replacement Scott Nicholls 2* 3 2* 3 3 = 13+2 Adam Roynon 3 0 F 1 3 = 7 Henning Bager 2* 3 1 2 1 = 9+1
BIRMINGHAM 39 Bjarne Pedersen 1 2 4^ 2 2* = 11+1 Martin Smolinski 0 1* 0 = 1+1 Danny King 2 2 6^ 3 3 = 16 Magnus Karlsson 1* 1* 0 0 = 2+2 Sebastian Ulamek 1 1 1 0 = 3 Simon Lambert 1 0 0 = 1 Chris Mills 0 R 2 0 1 2 = 5
