COVENTRY came back from ten points down for a narrow 46-45 win at Glasgow in Sunday’s Inter-League Challenge.
The Tigers looked set for a notable victory against a Buildbase Bees team tracking two Storm riders at reserve in place of Jason Garrity and Josh Bates, when the home side led 39-29 with four heats to go.
But some key moments went Coventry’s way in the closing stages, and skipper Chris Harris wrapped up victory at the end of another super individual display in Heat 15.
The home side built their advantage courtesy of five 4-2 advantages in the first ten heats – and whilst Bees provided winners in all the other races, they were unable to notch a heat advantage.
James Sarjeant fell in his first two rides back at his home track of last season, whilst Storm captain Martin Knuckey was unfortunate in Heat 9 as he came to grief whilst holding a 5-1 with Harris over Ben Barker.
Glasgow captain Aaron Summers had inflicted what turned out to be Harris’s only defeat in Heat 4, and when he got the better of Krzysztof Kasprzak in Heat 11 with the Pole taking a tactical ride, it looked like the Tigers had done enough.
But it all changed in the next two races, firstly when both Barker and Danny Ayres fell in Heat 12 to hand Coventry a 5-0 from Danny King and Knuckey, who had gone from a 15-metre handicap after breaking the tapes.
Harris and Kasprzak then combined for maximum points in Heat 13 to cut the gap to a single point, which turned in Bees’ favour in the next race as Sarjeant took the flag and Glasgow’s Nike Lunna suffered engine failure as he looked to pass on the last bend.
Although Kasprzak missed out at the start of Heat 15, Harris headed Richard Lawson and Richie Worrall to secure a win for Coventry from a match raced in tricky conditions throughout.
Manager Gary Havelock said: “When we got there it was very wet, they’d had a massive downpour, but after the first four or five heats the track improved a lot and there was some good racing.
“Glasgow did very well to get it on to be fair, and I think everyone enjoyed it – I went in the bar afterwards and a lot of the home fans were buzzing that they’d been winning for nearly the whole meeting.
“Even when we were ten down I was still confident that we could come back and win – we had a bit of luck, but we also had a bit of bad luck earlier. I’d told the riders before Heat 15 that we needed a 3-3, and Bomber gated and was gone.
“The two lads at the bottom of the team both rode really well for little reward, but they tried their hardest. It will have been great experience for them and they’ll really benefit the next time they go to the start-line in the National League.â€
GLASGOW 45: Richie Worrall 9+2, Richard Lawson 9, Aaron Summers 8, Ben Barker 6, Fernando Garcia 5+1, Danny Ayres 5, Nike Lunna 3+3. BUILDBASE BEES 46: Chris Harris 14, Danny King 11, Krzysztof Kasprzak 9+1, Kacper Woryna 4, James Sarjeant 3, Liam Carr 3, Martin Knuckey 2+1.
