DAN Greenwood raced to another brilliant 15-point maximum as Coventry Storm snatched a dramatic 45-44 win at Rye House on Saturday.
Greenwood was the Heat 15 hero for the City Gearboxes Storm, who fought back from seven points down with just four races to go and secured their second away win of the season.
It means the Storm have an impressive total of nine National League points already on the board in 2015 with all four of their matches so far having taken place away from Brandon.
The meeting was closely fought throughout, but the Raiders appeared to have taken control with a 5-1 in Heat 10 and a 4-2 in the following race to go 36-29 up.
Prior to that, three race wins for Greenwood were backed up by one for Darryl Ritchings in Heat 3 as he held Kyle Hughes at bay, and reserves Conor Dwyer and Callum Walker also picked up several important points.
There was drama in Heat 5 as both Sam Woods and Martin Knuckey fell and failed to finish even though Knuckey initially re-mounted before returning to the pits in error with a lap still to be completed.
The Storm comeback began in Heat 12 as Ritchings again got the better of Hughes with Walker picking up the vital third place.
Then Greenwood, who had earlier beaten the Raiders’ top man Rob Branford in the sixth race, did so again in Heat 13 as he pounced on a mistake from the opposing No.1 to re-pass him - and Storm skipper Luke Crang was third with Luke Chessell falling.
That reduced the gap to three points and a massive 5-1 to the Storm followed in Heat 14 from Dwyer and Rob Shuttleworth over Woods and Danyon Hume, which edged the visitors in front for the first time.
They required a 3-3 from the last race for victory, with Greenwood and Ritchings going out against Branford and Chessell, and Greenwood again proved up to the task as he established an early lead before fending off the combined challenge of the Raiders riders.
Greenwood said: “It’s a good feeling. I wasn’t expecting a maximum tonight because they’ve got three good heat-leaders, especially around here, and for the team to get the win and for me to get a max is really good.
“Before I went out for Heat 15 I knew a 3-3 was what we needed, I made the gate, got in front of Rob and after the battle we’d had in the previous one I wanted to put one over on him.
“Luckily I did that because Darryl was at the back, it was a tough race but I got the win and thankfully we got enough points to win the match.â€
With two away wins on the board, the Storm are firmly in the National League title race at this early stage, and they return to action against Mildenhall at Brandon on Friday.
RYE HOUSE 44: Rob Branford 14+1, Kyle Hughes 11+1, Luke Chessell 11+1, Danyon Hume 4 Alfie Bowtell 2+1, Sam Woods 2, Luke Priest R/R. COVENTRY 45: Dan Greenwood 15, Darryl Ritchings 8, Luke Crang 7, Rob Shuttleworth 6+1, Conor Dwyer 6+1, Callum Walker 3+1, Martin Knuckey 0. National League points: Rye House 0 Coventry 3
