COVENTRY’S impressive home run came to an end at the hands of local rivals Birmingham who collected a 49-40 win at Brandon on Friday.
The Brummies went top of the Elite League table with all four points from the meeting whilst the Buildbase Bees were left to reflect on a costly assortment of mechanical problems in an incident-filled contest.
Incredibly, thirteen of the fourteen riders on show either won a race or were paid for a win but the key was the Brummies’ minimising of last-places, as they only ran two on-track all night.
There were other occasions when they did not score – notably Heat 2 as Nico Covatti was a late arrival at the stadium and did not make it to the start-line, whilst an unusual Heat 5 saw Jason Doyle fall on the outside of turn four just as Martin Smolinski threw a chain on the inside and also came down, and both Brummies were disqualified.
But even the gift 5-0 wasn’t straightforward for the Bees as Grzegorz Zengota suffered engine failure at the end of the third lap and had to push around the entire circuit for his two points.
That gave Bees a 17-12 lead after a nip-and-tuck opening in which Adam Roynon had notched his first top-flight race win since his injury comeback, teaming up with Aaron Summers for a 5-1 in Heat 2 – but skipper Scott Nicholls broke down coming off the second bend of Heat 4 as the Brummies levelled.
The visitors turned around the five-point deficit with a 4-2 in Heat 6 and 5-1 in Heat 7, and gained a crucial decision in Heat 9 when Zengota was somewhat harshly disqualified as Josh Auty appeared to turn into his path whilst trying to protect his position from the outside.
A dramatic Heat 10 saw Coventry guest Bjarne Pedersen just hold the lead over Danny King, but there was also a race for the finish-line for third place and Ben Barker was awarded the verdict over Michal Szczepaniak.
Bees did appear to have a stroke of fortune in Heat 11 when the referee ruled all-four back after Nicholls clashed with Smolinski and came down on turn two, but whilst the captain won the re-run, Summers suffered his second bike failure of the meeting.
A 5-1 in Heat 12 put the Brummies nine-clear although Bees did respond in the next race with Nicholls taking his second win and Pedersen overtaking Harris for second place when the former Coventry man went wide on turn four.
But Covatti rode a sensational first lap to get the better of Summers and Stuart Robson in Heat 14, teaming up with Barker for a 5-1, and the Brummies secured their maximum-points win in the last race even though Nicholls did well to go between King and Harris off turn two to get to the front.
Roynon said: “It’s a big disappointment for the team, I managed to finally get some form but we struggled as a team.
“We had too many mechanical problems, we even had a 5-0 at one stage which should have stood us in good stead – you normally win a match when you have a 5-0, but it just didn’t happen for us and we need to put it right.
“I’ve got to take confidence from the meeting, take the positives and build from there with two tough away matches next week, and hopefully I can re-produce the goods.â€
BUILDBASE BEES 40: Scott Nicholls 10, Bjarne Pedersen 9+1, Stuart Robson 6, Adam Roynon 6, Grzegorz Zengota 3+2, Aaron Summers 3+1, Michal Szczepaniak 3.
BIRMINGHAM 49: Danny King 12+1, Chris Harris 10, Nico Covatti 8+3, Ben Barker 6+2, Martin Smolinski 6+1, Josh Auty 4+1, Jason Doyle 3.
BUILDBASE BEES 40 Bjarne Pedersen 2 2 3 2* 0 = 9+1 Michal Szczepaniak 0 0 3 0 = 3 Grzegorz Zengota 1* 2* X 0 = 3+2 Stuart Robson 2 3 1 R = 6 Scott Nicholls R 1 3 3 3 = 10 Aaron Summers 2* R R 1 = 3+1 Adam Roynon 3 2 0 1 = 6
BIRMINGHAM 49 Jason Doyle 1 X 2 0 = 3 Martin Smolinski 3 X 2 1* = 6+1 Danny King 3 3 2 3 1* = 12+1 Ben Barker 0 2* 1* 3 = 6+2 Chris Harris 3 1 3 1 2 = 10 Nico Covatti M 3 1* 2* 2* = 8+3 Josh Auty 1 1 2* = 4+1
