COVENTRY Buildbase Bees completed a Bank Holiday double over Peterborough at Brandon – to add a bumper haul of seven points to their Elite League total.
The home victory on Monday evening added to their 56-37 demolition of the Panthers at the Showground earlier in the day, and the two results see the Bees rocket up to sixth place in the overall standings.
But the second match of the day proved to be a far tougher affair, with the Panthers clearly fired up after their heavy home loss, and for much of the proceedings the visitors looked likely to take at least a point, or even more.
Indeed, with five races to go the visitors led 31-29 and were asking Bees plenty of questions – but skipper Scott Nicholls had all the answers as he was involved in three 5-1s, first with Aaron Summers in Heat 11 and then with Krzysztof Kasprzak in Heats 13 and 15.
And the latter two made it a perfect scoreline of 20-4 from Nicholls and Kasprzak in their four heats when racing together throughout the day.
However, it was an all-round team effort which saw Bees gain the result, as they ran just three last places all evening, and one of those came when the otherwise unbeaten Kasprzak came to grief in Heat 10.
By contrast, the Panthers had plenty of race winners but too often failed to back them up with second or third places, and their No.1 Kenneth Bjerre endured a nightmare evening.
Linus Sundstrom and Ryan Fisher were far more impressive, and they took the Panthers into an early lead with a 5-1 in Heat 3 after leader Grzegorz Zengota had clipped the fence midway through the race.
Bees took charge with back-to-back 5-1s in Heats 5 and 6, the latter race seeing former Coventry man Kenni Larsen come to grief on turn three after a strong inside challenge from Olly Allen.
But any thoughts of a comfortable Bees win were dispelled when the Panthers responded with their own brace of 5-1s in Heats 9 and 10, reserve Dakota North being a shock winner of the former race, with Sundstrom snatching second place from Allen on the line in the tenth after Kasprzak’s fall.
However, Aaron Summers roared around the outside to join Nicholls for a key 5-1 in Heat 11 to put Bees back ahead, and Nicholls was again involved to races later as he and Kasprzak combined to squeeze Bjerre out going into the first bend, and another 5-1 resulted.
Although visiting riders won Heats 12 and 14, Bees rode sensibly to protect 3-3s in both races, and that left them needing an advantage from the final heat to secure maximum points.
They faced the unbeaten Sundstrom, as well as Fisher who had won three races, but Nicholls and Kasprzak were in no mood to allow the Panthers anything from the day, and they duly raced clear to wrap up a maximum haul for the Bees.
Manager Gary Havelock said: “I’m over the moon – looking at these meetings yesterday we probably felt four points from the day would be a decent achievement, so to get seven is fantastic, and it’s all down to the boys.
“All seven of them, at one stage or another, have come up trumps and it’s been a real team effort. Perhaps earlier in the season we might have folded being behind at home, but the boys are riding with a bit of confidence now, and it makes such a difference.â€
Havelock also spoke for the Bees’ promotion when thanking the Coventry fans for their terrific turnout at the Showground in the afternoon, and then back at Brandon in the evening.
He said: “That was fantastic at the Showground, and the boys went over afterwards to give them a special thank-you for the support. They’re riding now like they should have been all season, and if they had done we’d probably be around third in the table, but things are definitely looking up for us.â€
BUILDBASE BEES 50: Scott Nicholls 11+2, Krzysztof Kasprzak 10+2, Michal Szczepaniak 7+1, Aaron Summers 6+3, Grzegorz Zengota 6, Olly Allen 5+2, Stuart Robson 5+1.
PETERBOROUGH 40: Linus Sundstrom 11+2, Ryan Fisher 9, Kenni Larsen 6+1, Patrick Hougaard 6, Dakota North 4, Kenneth Bjerre 2, Nicolai Klindt 2.
BUILDBASE BEES 50 Krzysztof Kasprzak 3 3 X 2* 2* = 10+2 Olly Allen 1 2* 1* 1 = 5+2 Grzegorz Zengota 1 3 0 2 = 6 Stuart Robson 0 2* 1 2 = 5+1 Scott Nicholls 1* 2 2* 3 3 = 11+2 Aaron Summers 1* 1* 3 1* = 6+3 Michal Szczepaniak 2 2 2 1* = 7+1
