COVENTRY put their first win of 2015 on the board with a 52-40 victory over Leicester at Brandon on Friday.
The East Midlands Bowl tie overall was always likely to be beyond the Buildbase Bees after their heavy defeat up the M69 last weekend, and the Lions duly took it by a 24-point aggregate margin, but this display was far more in keeping with what is expected from Coventry this season.
Reserve duo James Sarjeant and Jason Garrity threatened to steal the show with a powerful combined display to score 18 (paid 21) between them from eight rides.
Those performances helped Bees maintain control of the meeting after a flying start, but there was a spectacular conclusion with two terrific races late on as Hans Andersen and Chris Harris worked their way to the front.
Track conditions were excellent, especially for the first competitive action of the season, but the first incident came as early as Heat 1 when opposing No.1s Andersen and Doyle tangled on the third bend, Doyle coming to grief as he attempted an inside pass.
The Australian was disqualified but the greater damage was to his team-mate as Mikkel Michelsen suffered a foot injury as he clipped Doyle’s bike when attempting to avoid his team-mate, and he was unable to take any further part.
Bees took advantage with a 5-1 from Andersen and Stuart Robson in the re-run, and Sarjeant and Garrity backed that up immediately leaving Josh Auty chasing hard for the second time in two races.
Leicester began to collect race wins with Grzegorz Walasek opening an impressive night’s work in Heat 3 – but Bees extended the lead to ten points when Garrity teamed up with Robson for maximum points in Heat 5.
Walasek frustrated Harris and Andersen when they met in Heat 7, the Pole giving a fast-gating display, but the Lions were making little overall headway and Sarjeant used the widest of outside lines on turn two to take him around his opponents and win Heat 8.
The visitors used the tactical ride facility in Heat 10, but Doyle was limited to four points for second place as skipper Harris made a flying start from gate three to head him into the first bend.
Andersen was briefly third in Heat 11 before re-passing Bjarne Pedersen at the end of the first lap – but it was his ride in Heat 13 which was a true highlight, as he stalked his fellow Dane throughout the race, almost moved inside him off the second bend and then swept around the boards coming out of the final turn to take the flag.
That wrapped up victory on the night but there appeared no stopping Walasek, who reeled off his fourth straight win in Heat 14 as Danny King quickly got the better of Szymon Wozniak.
And Walasek hit the front again in the final race – but this time Andersen moved straight to the outside on turns three and four to get ahead, and he was followed across the finishing line by team-mate Harris who had also found extra drive from the same area of track to pass Walasek on the run to the flag.
Andersen said: “It’s nice to have a track which you have confidence in, and where you can dare to go into the corners flat out, and you know what the bike is going to do.
“It was only my third time on the bike this season and I felt pretty good. Terry (Chrabaszcz) hasn’t had a lot of time to do the track, but even the starts were so good and all credit to him because the job he’s done is amazing.
“It’s good to get a win after last Sunday, and I think our team looks pretty solid. It’s a difficult time for Jakub (Jamrog) at the moment, he needs to adapt to the tracks, and it’s so early in the season.â€
With the home-and-away East Midlands Bowl fixtures now completed, Bees move on to the start of the main business of the campaign, with the visit of Wolverhampton next Friday in their opening Elite League fixture.
BUILDBASE BEES 52: Hans Andersen 12+1, James Sarjeant 10, Chris Harris 9+3, Jason Garrity 8+3, Danny King 7, Stuart Robson 5+1, Jakub Jamrog 1. LEICESTER 40: Grzegorz Walasek 13, Josh Auty 9+1, Jason Doyle 7, Szymon Wozniak 6, Bjarne Pedersen 4, Simon Lambert 1, Mikkel Michelsen 0.
BUILDBASE BEES 52 Hans Andersen 3 1* 2 3 3 = 12+1 Stuart Robson 2* 3 0 R = 5+1 Danny King 2 2 1 2 = 7 Jakub Jamrog R 0 1 0 = 1 Chris Harris 1* 2 3 1 2* = 9+2 Jason Garrity 2* 2* 3 1* = 8+3 James Sarjeant 3 2 3 2 = 10
