COVENTRY came agonisingly close to an Elite League point as they went down 42-50 at Belle Vue on Bank Holiday Monday.
The Buildbase Bees’ first trip to the National Speedway Stadium produced a meeting high on excitement with racing of a high level throughout, but ultimately an early 14-point deficit proved too much to overcome.
The Aces were 19-5 up after four races thanks to a combination of fast starts and a remarkable ride by Steve Worrall to pass both Bees guest Ashley Morris and James Sarjeant after being handicapped 15-metres for tape touching.
Given that both Krzysztof Kasprzak and Chris Harris had been on the receiving end of early 5-1s, Bees’ position looked grave, but they began to gain a foothold over the next two races.
The spectacular Jason Garrity picked up four points on a tactical ride in Heat 5, headed by Max Fricke, and a 4-2 followed in Heat 6 with Kasprzak out-front and Harris third after a frantic scrap with Scott Nicholls.
Belle Vue re-asserted control with a 5-1 and 4-2 in the next two races – the latter seeing Garrity and the Worrall brothers engaged in a dramatic three-way battle – and that left them 33-17 up after eight heats.
At that point, Bees mounted their comeback, firstly with Sarjeant making a fast start in Heat 9 and being joined up-front by Morris for a 5-1 over Joe Jacobs and a slowing Fricke.
Garrity then superbly went from fourth to second, passing both Craig Cook and Nicholls, in Heat 10 to join Kasprzak for a 5-1 which narrowed the gap to eight points.
Danny King won Heat 11 as Fricke and Matej Zagar combined to swamp Harris off the fourth bend as the Aces stemmed the tide, and they edged two further points ahead with a 4-2 in the second reserves’ race.
That became more significant after Bees slammed in a big 5-1 from Heat 13 as Harris led from the front and Kasprzak overhauled Zagar and Cook on successive laps, leaving the score at 43-37 with two heats to go.
The Aces secured victory on the day in Heat 14 with Nicholls holding off a strong challenge from King, whilst Morris unluckily hit trouble at the end of the first lap which allowed Richie Worrall through.
That left Bees needing an advantage from the last race for a league point, but Zagar took the lead for the home side whilst Kasprzak and Harris battled with Nicholls, and although Kasprzak established himself in second spot he just ran out of time to make the pass on Zagar.
Harris said: “It was a hard day for me, but as a team the boys fought back well from being 16 points down at one stage.
“I bought a fairly strong engine from having been here before guesting for Swindon, but I felt like I was lacking some speed. No excuses, though, they were quick out of the start, and the track is a fantastic shape for racing.
“When we were so many points down we had a couple of talks and fired the boys up, Sarj (James Sarjeant) had some good races and it was nice to see Kacper score a few after the week he’s had.
“Jason was probably our man of the match, he had some fantastic rides against some good riders.â€
ELITE LEAGUE BELLE VUE 50: Matej Zagar 11+1, Steve Worrall 9+1, Max Fricke 7+1, Scott Nicholls 7+1, Richie Worrall 7, Craig Cook 6+1, Joe Jacobs 3 COVENTRY 42: Krzysztof Kasprzak 11+1, Jason Garrity 8+1, Danny King 7, James Sarjeant 6, Chris Harris 5+1, Kacper Woryna 3+1, Ashley Morris 2+1 Elite League points: Belle Vue 3 Coventry 0
