COVENTRY’S hopes of securing their first points on the road this season were dashed in the closing stages of Saturday’s trip to Arlington.
The Buildbase Bees remained right with, and at times ahead of, their hosts for the majority of the evening on the South Coast only for the Eagles to come on strong in the final three races of a meeting in which the arrangements for track grading proved to be a big talking point.
Until that late stage, the Coventry top two had been dominant with Krzysztof Kasprzak reeling off wins in his first three rides courtesy of some skilful track craft, and Scott Nicholls dropping just one point in his opening four outings.
With strong support coming from Grzegorz Zengota, Bees were very much in the meeting and Kasprzak was twice involved in 5-1s, once with Aaron Summers and once with Zengota, which had the home side on the back foot.
Bees led after an eventful Heat 8 in which Nicholls got the better of Eagles guest Lewis Bridger, whilst Michal Szczepaniak held Lukas Dryml at bay for third place.
Eastbourne turned things around with a 5-1 in Heat 10 from Bridger and Bjarne Pedersen, but Bees were still very much in contention with their big guns in such strong form, especially when they managed to share the next two races with Zengota and Aaron Summers pegging Denis Gizatullin at the back of Heat 12.
A Bees 5-1 in Heat 13 when Kasprzak and Nicholls were paired would have given them a great chance of snatching an away win, but the race went completely the other way as Pedersen took charge from the gate and captain Cameron Woodward managed to hold second place despite Nicholls and Kasprzak doing their best to mount a challenge.
That virtually wrapped up meeting victory for the Eagles, the finishing touch to which was applied in Heat 14 with a 5-1 from Simon Gustafsson and Dryml, and that left Bees needing a maximum of their own in Heat 15 to salvage a league point.
But Pedersen again hit the front to ease any Eastbourne tension, and the shared heat would not have been enough for the Bees although Woodward eventually edged out his rival skipper Nicholls for third place – to leave Coventry again close, but not quite close enough, on their travels.
Manager Gary Havelock said: “It’s really hard to take, we were right in the meeting, and there was certainly a bit of home track knowledge with Bob (Dugard) out on the tractor after every heat.
“The track was a bit patchy early on and their boys didn’t like it, so they had an extended interval which they shouldn’t really have had because the rain was threatening, and they just cleared all the dirt off and we came up short at the end, which is disappointing.
“I talked to the referee three or four times and he agreed with me, he said he’d told them, he’d told the Clerk of the Course and that he’d report it to the Control Board, but what can you do?
“There were some positives, it was the best I’ve seen Krzysztof ride all season – he was sharp again and his confidence was back, and Scott is nearly there as well. I really feel we deserved at least a point out of it.â€
EASTBOURNE 51: Cameron Woodward 13+1, Bjarne Pedersen 11+1, Simon Gustafsson 11+1, Lukas Dryml 7+2, Lewis Bridger 7+1, Denis Gizatullin 2+1, Timo Lahti r/r.
COVENTRY 39: Scott Nicholls 12, Krzysztof Kasprzak 11, Grzegorz Zengota 9+1, Michal Szczepaniak 4+1, Aaron Summers 3+2, Stuart Robson 0, Olly Allen r/r.
