COVENTRY Buildbase Bees made it back-to-back home wins on another exciting night of Elite League action at Brandon – fighting back superbly from a dismal start.
Bees trailed a fast-gating Eastbourne side 8-16 after four races and they were still six points behind after seven, but the comeback was spectacular with the Eagles then being hit by a barrage of 5-1s.
In a meeting of contrasting fortunes, neither side ended with a rider in double-figures, but the Bees could take a big positive from the improvement from Krzysztof Kasprzak, who was paid for 12-points and twice made classy moves to come through from the back.
The rest of the team all had their moments, several coming to the fore in the second half of the meeting, with recent signings Olly Allen and Stuart Robson adding plenty of depth to the line-up.
Eastbourne produced winners in each of the first four heats and were eight points to the good with Bees slumbering at the starts, before Robson finally got the home side on the board with a win in Heat 5.
When Kasprzak impressively navigated his way past Lukas Dryml and Cameron Woodward to join Allen for a 5-1 in Heat 6 Bees appeared to have steadied the ship, but they found themselves six-adift again when skipper Scott Nicholls trailed Simon Gustafsson and Timo Lahti in the next.
At that stage, Gustafsson and Denis Gizatullin were both unbeaten, but Gizatullin’s run came to an end in Heat 8 as Michal Szczepaniak returned to his more usual Brandon form for a 5-1 with Allen again supplying the race win.
Grzegorz Zengota, rapidly becoming a crowd favourite, then superbly got the better of Dryml in Heat 9 with an inside pass on lap three, which brought Bees briefly level before the Eagles responded with a 4-2 in Heat 10 to edge back ahead.
But Coventry then came up with a run of results to which the Eagles had no answer, a remarkable burst of four successive 5-1s taking the points completely out of reach of their opponents.
Nicholls and Aaron Summers both began their personal turnarounds by flying either-side of former GP star Pedersen to take the maximum in Heat 11, with Szczepaniak and Zengota keeping the ball rolling in the next as Dryml came to grief whilst chasing.
Nicholls dominated Heat 13 from the first corner but all eyes were on Kasprzak who got the better of Cameron Woodward in the early stages and then reeled in Pedersen at rapid speed, turning sweetly inside the Dane on the back straight on lap three to secure another 5-1.
And the job was completed in the penultimate race with Summers again racing clear and Robson supplying the excitement this time with a brave move around Gizatullin at the end of the second lap.
Coventry’s points were in the bag with Timo Lahti’s impressive Heat 15 win for the Eagles immaterial in the grand scheme of things – and the result sees Bees make progress up the Elite League table into eighth place.
Nicholls said: “It was tough, I had a dreadful start and it certainly didn’t go according to plan, but full credit to Eastbourne because they started off on fire.
“But we pulled it back when we needed to, and we came away with a convincing win which is great. I think had that happened a week ago, our heads might have still been on the floor, but a lot of it bounces on from the meeting on Monday against Lakeside. I think that instilled a bit of confidence in everybody.
“It was nice to see KK battling hard and he deserved Heat 15. On his night he’s awesome to watch, he’s a fantastic rider, and we all know what he’s capable of.â€
BUILDBASE BEES 52: Krzysztof Kasprzak 9+3, Grzegorz Zengota 9+2, Olly Allen 8, Stuart Robson 7+2, Scott Nicholls 7+1, Michal Szczepaniak 6+1, Aaron Summers 6. EASTBOURNE 38: Timo Lahti 8+1, Simon Gustafsson 8, Denis Gizatullin 8, Bjarne Pedersen 7, Lukas Dryml 4+1, Cameron Woodward 3+1, Adam Shields 0.
