COVENTRY reserve Adam Roynon enjoyed the night of his career so far to inspire a dramatic Buildbase Bees fightback against King’s Lynn.
Whilst most of the nation’s sporting eyes have been on Euro 2012, Roynon produced his own stunning hat-trick in Heats 10, 11 and 12 to defeat all of the Stars’ big guns and turn a likely defeat into a chance for victory.
Skipper Chris Harris and guest Sebastian Ulamek applied the finishing touch in a peculiar Heat 15, and it was again a night in which Bees could be somewhat relieved to take two Elite League points at home, with their chance to make up ground with points on the road set to come in a busy schedule through July and August.
Despite torrential downpours in the local area during the afternoon, Brandon escaped without even so much as drizzle, but Bees appeared in big trouble when they conceded 5-1s in each of the first two races.
The recovery was swift, highlighted by a 5-1 from Harris and Aaron Summers over Lynn guest Rory Schlein in Heat 5, and Edward Kennett’s outside pass on Daniel Nermark in the next race brought the scores level.
But the visitors had a high-scoring reserve of their own in Kevin Wolbert, and the German’s wins in Heats 7 and 8 were backed up by team-mates enough to put the visitors six points to the good.
When Nermark held off Harris in Heat 9, the Stars looked to have enough to claim their second away win of the season, but that was before Roynon had his say.
Point-less from his first two rides, he first teamed up with Kennett on a tight back straight to get the better of Simon Stead with Wolbert for once missing out – and then after a first-bend spill in the first running of Heat 11 which left him with a cut finger, Roynon added Schlein and Nermark to his list of scalps with a huge race win especially as Ulamek was pegged at the back.
And with Roynon out again in Heat 12, he made it three out of three with another fast start from the outside, Harris riding with him all the way to fend off Stead and Wolbert and put Bees ahead for the first time.
The meeting wasn’t all over though, as Kennett suffered ignition trouble in Heat 13 with Ulamek thankfully making the start to win, whilst Wolbert held off a strong Roynon challenge to win the penultimate race and leave the Stars still in with a chance.
They needed a 5-1 from Heat 15 to snatch victory, but it all went wrong on turn two as Nermark straightened up and impeded Schlein – and for a moment it looked like both visiting riders would stop, thus handing Bees a 5-0 to take all three points from the meeting.
Schlein realised the position and regained power, but by this stage he was half a lap behind Ulamek and Harris, and Bees had their victory confirmed at the end of a tricky evening.
Roynon said: “It was a dreadful start to the meeting and I swapped bikes because it just wasn’t working. It was a great choice, I made starts and it was fast so the change was very welcome.
“Gate four was working well for me, I was a bit disappointed I wasn’t off it in my last one! But I enjoyed it, it was good to finally get some wins against some of the big boys, and I’m pretty pleased about it.
“To get the win over King’s Lynn is good especially after they nearly won at Poole on Wednesday. I know they had guests in but it’s still a good result for us.â€
BUILDBASE BEES 48: Chris Harris 11+3, Sebastian Ulamek 11, Adam Roynon 10+1, Edward Kennett 7, Aaron Summers 6+2, Henning Bager 3, Kenni Larsen R/R.
KING’S LYNN 42: Kevin Wolbert 13+1, Rory Schlein 10+2, Daniel Nermark 10+1, Simon Stead 7+1, Mateusz Szczepaniak 2+1, Ricky Wells 0, Mads Korneliussen R/R.
