COVENTRY’S opening fixture of the 2013 season was marred by a serious Heat 14 crash which left Adam Roynon in hospital.
Roynon spun and fell on turn three when in third position, and the closely-following Josh Auty, already committed to the same line, had no chance of avoiding him, with his machine making contact with Roynon as he fell.
The blameless Auty emerged unscathed but Roynon required lengthy medical attention on-track with police in attendance, and he was taken to hospital with severe concussion. The update in the early hours of Saturday morning was that Adam is in a comfortable condition having had a brain scan – further information will follow in due course.
The meeting itself had produced much entertaining action, with an unlikely hero emerging for the Brummies in the form of ex-Coventry man Martin Smolinski – an expert in the discipline of Ice Speedway, which clearly proved to be of great benefit as conditions became colder.
Smolinski piled up a remarkable paid-20 score, including several wins over Coventry’s top men as the visitors took control from the midway stage of proceedings, despite quiet nights for the other former Bees in their ranks.
For Coventry, there were promising signs on debut from Grzegorz Zengota, whilst Mateusz Szczepaniak combined with skipper Scott Nicholls for an excellent 5-1 in Heat 4.
Nicholls produced one of the moves of the night to round opposing captain Danny King to win Heat 7, and he also came out on top in each of his three clashes with Chris Harris, including one frantic battle for third place in Heat 11 – all behind the inspired Smolinski.
Bees had edged 22-20 up after Heat 7 but a Birmingham 5-1 from King and Nico Covatti in Heat 8 ahead of a spectacular hat-trick of race wins for Smolinski put the visitors into a winning position.
That was set to be confirmed in any case by another Smolinski success in Heat 14, but the Roynon crash cast a shadow over the meeting.
Manager Gary Havelock said: “It was an awful-looking crash, unfortunately Josh was trying to go round Adam at the time he fell and he just couldn’t miss him. Now we’re just hoping Adam is going to be okay but it really put a dampener on things.
“The first meeting was always going to be difficult. The Birmingham boys have had a couple of meetings, they rode on Thursday night and so were a little sharper – but at the end of the day, take their super reserve (Smolinski) out of the equation and we would probably have won.
“If a reserve scores paid-20 he’d be the match-winner any day on any track in the world, so what can you say?â€
A full update on Roynon’s condition will be issued as soon as further information is available.
BUILDBASE BEES 41: Scott Nicholls 12+1, Krzysztof Kasprzak 7+1, Grzegorz Zengota 7, Michal Szczepaniak 5+1, Mateusz Szczepaniak 4+1, Aaron Summers 4, Adam Roynon 2.
BIRMINGHAM 49: Martin Smolinski 19+1, Danny King 13+1, Nico Covatti 6+1, Chris Harris 5+1, Josh Auty 4, Ben Barker 2+1, Jason Doyle R/R.
BUILDBASE BEES 41 Krzysztof Kasprzak 3 1 2 1* = 7+1 Aaron Summers 0 3 1 0 = 4 Grzegorz Zengota 0 3 2 2 0 = 7 Adam Roynon 2 R R X = 2 Scott Nicholls 2* 3 2 2 3 = 12+1 Michal Szczepaniak 1 1 1* 2 = 5+1 Mateusz Szczepaniak 0 3 0 1* = 4+1
BIRMINGHAM 49 Chris Harris 2 1* 0 0 2 = 5+1 Jason Doyle Rider Replacement Danny King 3 2 3 1 3 1* = 13+1 Josh Auty 1 2 0 1 = 4 Ben Barker 1* 0 0 1 = 2+1 Martin Smolinski 2* 2 3 3 3 3 3 = 19+1 Nico Covatti 3 1 2* 0 = 6+1
