NOBODY could possibly pretend this meeting was the sport’s greatest spectacle, but one thing it did prove was the commitment which exists in the Coventry team.
So often in speedway history, an away team will flourish when a home side is met with unusual conditions, but there was never any real chance of that on this occasion as the Buildbase Bees collected their first three-point Elite League haul of the season.
With the track having been frequently waterlogged in the last three weeks, and further downpours on Thursday, the decision to proceed was taken on Friday with the weather forecast pointing to, thankfully, a mainly dry day. However, the rain risk was still there and it did arrive at what can be the worst possible time, as an unpleasant drizzle blew over the circuit for an hour or so pre-meeting, finally stopping around half an hour before start-time.
With sawdust applied to the bends and the starting gate, the meeting went ahead after the riders had been allowed a brief practise session, but it was obvious to all and sundry that the race to the first bend was going to be all important.
Maybe that was in the minds of the Heat 1 competitors because as Aaron Summers made his trademark fast start from the inside to hold a clear lead into turn one, Edward Kennett found himself sandwiched between Rory Schlein and Ales Dryml well before the bend, and the result was an awkward-looking tangle between Kennett and Dryml, who was making his seasonal debut for the Aces. Kennett briefly appeared to be in great pain, but happily was able to walk away and compete in the re-run – although he had to follow Schlein home in that race, the Australian just making it to the bend in front with Summers unusually missing out and trailing in at the back.
Heat 2 was a hard race to call on paper, and had the Aces taken big points from it they may have had some inspiration to push on – but it was all Coventry with Henning Bager and Adam Roynon dominating proceedings, and what was more worrying still for the visiting fans was the sight of another clear Bees 5-1 in Heat 3 from Kenni Larsen and Chris Harris over the back-from-injury Patrick Hougaard, with Adam Shields pulling off after the first bend.
Charlie Gjedde was adjudged to have jumped the start in Heat 4 and the race was re-called, and at the second time of asking Bager again flew away with Scott Nicholls recovering from a brief loss of control on turn two to comfortably follow his partner home.
That saw Bees into a 17-7 lead and gave the Aces the opportunity to nominate Schlein for double-points in Heat 5, but a faster-gating Harris got to the bend in front from gate two and won in the fastest time of the night by a distance, with Larsen – having missed out at the start – going inside Dryml to take third place at the start of the second lap.
What Belle Vue resistance there was came in the next two races, firstly with a good win from Gjedde in Heat 6 as he comfortably held Kennett and Summers at bay after a strong second bend, and then when Hougaard rode a clever line on turn two in Heat 7 to make it past Nicholls, who was pegging the inside after making the best start. Hougaard was partnered in the race by Josh Grajczonek who picked up third place as Roynon missed out, but with the withdrawal of Shields having not been for speedway-injury reasons, the visitors would be unable to track a second competitor in his final two outings.
Summers got his first win of the night on the board in Heat 8 with Dryml slipping inside Bager off turn two to prevent a Coventry 5-1, but there was no stopping Larsen and Harris in Heat 9 – even though Larsen made a mistake mid-race and fortunately had enough space to recover control on the outside of turn two, with Harris covering him ahead of Gjedde.
The second tactical ride came into play in Heat 10 but Hougaard was unable to deliver the goods on this occasion as Kennett and Summers made it look as straightforward as it could be given the conditions, and effectively secured all three points as Bees went 40-22 ahead.
But still it got worse for the Aces in an eventful start to Heat 11 with Nicholls and Roynon rather too close to each other on the first two bends and Schlein also out of shape, with Roynon squeezing around him and into second place. As Schlein looked to challenge back into bend three, he straightened and was unable to turn in time to prevent a fairly low-speed fall, and he cleared the track in order to allow the race to continue with Bees banking another 5-1.
The incidents continued to tot up with Bager the next to hit trouble with a heavy-looking fall on the first bend of Heat 12 as he turned himself almost inside-out – and then in the match race which ensued between Harris and Grajczonek, the Bees skipper very nearly came to grief himself before recovering to win in a time of 64 seconds which indicated that things were far from easy.
Referee Dave Robinson then inspected the circuit but deemed that it was still in raceable condition, and there was no doubting the determination of Nicholls to blast around Gjedde on the first lap of Heat 13 and team up with Kennett for another 5-1 as Schlein missed out at the back.
Belle Vue did gain some consolation for their miserable night in Heat 14 when Hougaard and Grajczonek got to the first bend ahead of Larsen, who lost too much ground early in the race to be able to fully reel the ground back in – and with the gap down to 23-points, the scoreline could actually have had a degree of respectability about it had Heat 15 reached a natural conclusion following the first lap.
Hougaard, who did show some good signs in his first match back, again hit the front and was joined by Schlein, all of which looked set to wreck Harris’s maximum hopes – but Schlein was under pressure from Nicholls, and having almost fallen on turn four he did so on the second bend of lap two, and that caused a re-run to deny Hougaard an easy win. Second time around, the Dane again got in front but Nicholls was much closer and made an excellent passing move on the inside of turn three, and with Hougaard out of shape he came down and required treatment before leaving the circuit.
That left Nicholls and Harris to complete the formality of a 5-0 to take Bees to 59 points for the night, and whilst it tells little about their overall prospects for the season, the bad weather meetings are always potential banana skins, and Bees easily avoided that at the start of a busy run of racing.
BELLE VUE 31 Rory Schlein 3 4^ F 0 X = 7 Ales Dryml 1 0 2 1 = 4 Adam Shields R N N = 0 Patrick Hougaard 1 3 1^ 3 X = 8 Charlie Gjedde 1 3 1 1 = 6 Linus Eklof 1 R R = 1 Josh Grajczonek 0 0 1 0 2 2* = 5+1
