THE positive signs stacked up for the Buildbase Bees at Perry Barr with an away win which was every bit as commanding as the scoreline suggests.
With thirteen out of fifteen heat wins, this was domination from the start of the event, and but for some mid-meeting resistance from Danny King and Ben Barker, Bees could have been looking at an even bigger win.
The final margin, though, was more than satisfactory, and in many ways even more pleasing was the successful return from injury of Kenni Larsen, who took a race to get back into the swing of things and then demonstrated real speed and passing ability against the Birmingham top men.
With Henning Bager also enjoying another fine night at reserve, and big guns Scott Nicholls and Edward Kennett winning multiple races, a four-man show was enough, notwithstanding the efforts of guest riders Lee Complin and Jan Graversen.
It would be wrong to read too much into this result, especially given the fact that Birmingham were missing Bjarne Pedersen and key reserve Josh Auty – but that was surely balanced out on the night by the Bees’ absence of Chris Harris along with Aaron Summers and Adam Roynon who scored 16+1 and 9+1 in the Prremier League Cup on the same night!
Expectations were set for a close meeting but Heat 1 showed that Bees were in the mood as Kennett neatly pounced on Barker leaving a slight gap off the fourth bend to take the lead, with Complin holding Martin Smolinski back for third place.
A second 4-2 followed in Heat 2 and it was almost a repeat performance with Bager out-gated by Chris Mills but finding his way through before the end of the first lap, whilst Graversen completed the 4-2 by seeing off the challenge of Ritchie Hawkins.
Heat 3 was stopped after an incident going into the first bend with Barker, Kennett and King all reaching the corner together and the latter two being sent sprawling into the fence. With all four riders back for the re-run, Kennett this time got the better of Barker around the outside off turn two, and although Larsen was at the back it was clear that he had speed in hand as he quickly gained ground on the Brummies duo.
Bees were looking good early on but a 5-1 in Heat 4 was still something of an upset as Nicholls raced away from gate three and was joined at the front by Bager, who rode perfectly to stop any challenge from Sebastian Ulamek and put Bees eight-up.
Larsen exacted revenge over Barker and King with a flying start from the outside to take a shared Heat 5, and although Smolinski out-trapped Nicholls in the next the Coventry man made his way past midway through the race after initially appearing to be blocked on turn three when Smolinski locked up.
Another 5-1 over Ulamek with Kennett and Larsen swamping the Pole either side off turn two put Bees into total control, 27-15 up after seven races, and led to the Brummies using a tactical ride in Heat 8 – but again it was the fast starting of Bager which thwarted the home side, with double-points Smolinski finding himself trapped behind team-mate Mills at various stages of the race before the two just finished in the correct order in second and third.
At that stage it was eight races and eight Coventry wins but finally the Brummies did get on the board with Barker and King making gates one and three work to sandwich Nicholls on the way into turn one, and although Nicholls got close to Barker on a couple of occasions he could find no way through as Birmingham celebrated a 5-1.
King followed up by also winning Heat 10 having received close attention from Larsen, but it was the scrap at the back which held most of the attention as Kennett and Smolinski swapped places on almost every bend before the Bees man made sure of the point on the last lap.
And that was essentially the end of the Brummies’ comeback as Bees quickly regained the ascendancy, starting off with a terrific Heat 11 in which Nicholls played with every possible line as he looked for a way past Ulamek, and finally switched back off turn two on the third lap to surge inside the Pole. Larsen had clearly been watching that because his move on King in the next race was just as classy after another fast start from the home captain, both races being shared to keep Bees six points up.
Bager took the final rider-replacement outing in Heat 13 and once again frustrated Ulamek with Nicholls winning by a distance in a Coventry 4-2 which left the Brummies needing two 5-1s to draw – but in fact the big finish came from the Bees.
Kennett was away from the inside to take control of Heat 14 and again it was that man Bager who supplied the extra bonus, this time completing the notable feat of keeping a hard-charging Barker behind him for second place and an excellent paid-thirteen total.
And it got better still for the Bees in the last race with Nicholls again going clear with Larsen providing the excitement in a fierce duel with Barker, which this time saw him make it around the outside going down the home straight into turn one. Paid-14 on his first meeting back from injury – not bad for starters.
So perhaps the only regret for the victorious Coventry side was that there were no Elite League points on offer from the meeting, otherwise it would have been a big four-point opening to their away campaign. That said, a win of this magnitude can only serve to increase confidence in the camp, and there are two more Midland League fixtures remaining to complete the preparations.
BIRMINGHAM 38 Bjarne Pedersen Rider Replacement Martin Smolinski 0 2 4^ 0 2 = 8 Danny King 1* 1* 3 3 2 0 = 10+2 Ben Barker 2 2 2 2* 1 1 = 10+1 Sebastian Ulamek 1 1* 1 2 0 = 5+1 Chris Mills 2 0 1* 1* 0 = 4+2 Ritchie Hawkins 0 0 1* = 1+1
