COVENTRY star Scott Nicholls suffered a suspected broken collarbone in a horror Heat 13 crash as the Buildbase Bees slipped to a shock home defeat by Birmingham.
The Brummies were far sharper from the starts for most of the evening with former Bees man Sebastian Ulamek enjoying the best night of his season so far, and they fully deserved their victory.
With Nicholls crashing out, skipper Chris Harris was left on his own at the top of a largely disappointing home scorechart, although reserve Adam Roynon could take credit for a battling performance.
Bees took an early lead when Harris charged from fourth to second to team up with Kenni Larsen in a stunning Heat 3, but Ulamek served notice of his potential with two early wins, and when Nicholls was on the wrong end of a 5-1 to Danny King and Ben Barker in Heat 7, the Brummies sensed an opportunity.
Ulamek inflicted the only defeat of the meeting on Harris in Heat 9 to keep the visitors ahead, and they hammered home their advantage with another King/Barker maximum in the next.
Nicholls won Heat 11 with Roynon taking an excellent third over Pedersen to give Bees some hope, but they urgently needed a race advantage from Heat 13 and it all went wrong as Nicholls tried to move alongside race-leader Pedersen at the start of the third lap.
Contact was made between Nicholls’ front wheel and Pedersen’s footrest, and with his wheel broken Nicholls was sent down at high speed, his machine ploughing into the fence, with Pedersen also coming to grief further round the corner.
That Nicholls walked away albeit with the suspected collarbone damage was a miracle in itself, whilst Pedersen dusted himself down to team up with Ulamek for a 5-1 in the re-run which all-but clinched the meeting, another ex-Bee Josh Auty making sure in the penultimate race.
Harris said: “It’s very disappointing to lose at home to anyone, and obviously in a local derby it’s a real kick in the teeth.
“To lose Scott is a big blow, although to see him get up and walk away was a relief given the speed of the crash. It was a racing accident, but when you see Scott in pain like that you know it’s a big crash.
“I was pleased with my own performance, the bike was working well and I felt good on it and it was just a shame I got beaten by Seb in that one race.â€
BUILDBASE BEES 40: Chris Harris 13+1, Adam Roynon 6+1, Scott Nicholls 6, Leigh Lanham 5+1, Edward Kennett 4+1, Kenni Larsen 4+1, Henning Bager 2.
BIRMINGHAM 50: Sebastian Ulamek 13+1, Josh Auty 10+1, Bjarne Pedersen 9+1, Danny King 7+1, Ben Barker 7+1, Martin Smolinski 4+2, Tomasz Piszcz 0.
BUILDBASE BEES 40 Edward Kennett 1* 2 R 1 R = 4+1 Leigh Lanham T 1* 3 1 = 5+1 Chris Harris 2* 3 2 3 3 = 13+1 Kenni Larsen 3 0 1* 0 = 4+1 Scott Nicholls 2 1 3 X = 6 Adam Roynon 2 1* 0 1 0 2 = 6+1 Henning Bager 2 0 0 = 2
BIRMINGHAM 50 Bjarne Pedersen 3 2 0 3 1* = 9+1 Martin Smolinski 0 1* 1* 2 = 4+2 Danny King 0 3 2* 2 = 7+1 Ben Barker 1 2* 3 1 = 7+1 Sebastian Ulamek 3 3 3 2* 2 = 13+1 Tomasz Piszcz 0 R 0 = 0 Josh Auty 3 1 2 1* 3 = 10+1
