COVENTRY gave their Elite League campaign a major boost with a sensational 49-41 win at King’s Lynn on Wednesday.
The Buildbase Bees collected all four points from their trip to the Adrian Flux Arena with an outstanding display for their first victory on the road in almost a year.
And if they can back that result up when they visit bottom club Leicester on Monday, they will be firmly into play-off contention.
British Under-21 Champion Josh Bates made a terrific return to the team with his best performance for the club, piling up paid-13 at reserve, and his colleague Kacper Woryna added paid-eight to give Bees good all-round strength.
With Krzystof Kasprzak, Danny King and Chris Harris all in the major points, Bees pulled off one of their best displays of the season, and a brilliant Heat 15 effort from Kasprzak and Harris ensured the maximum haul.
Kasprzak stated Bees’ intentions by holding off Grand Prix star Niels-Kristian Iversen in Heat 1 with Bates supplying third place, and Bates added an impressive reserves’ race win whilst Woryna re-passed Lewis Rose for another 4-2.
King and Harris then pounced on an error from Mads Korneliussen midway through Heat 3 to charge inside the Dane and give Bees a 13-5 lead – in total contrast to several of their recent starts to meetings.
The Stars struck back through Robert and Simon Lambert with a 5-1 in Heat 4, but King took the rider-replacement ride for the injured Jason Garrity to dominate Heat 5, and with Woryna again fending off Rose Bees had re-built their eight point advantage.
A strong response from King’s Lynn saw them level the scores across the next three races, and it could have been worse as Harris split Robert Lambert and Troy Batchelor in Heat 6 with very little room available, whilst King again got the better of Korneliussen for second place in the next – but it was the Lambert combination which got the home side level in Heat 8.
Bees got back on the winning trail with a fine outside swoop by Bates to see off Simon Lambert and Rose in Heat 9, and the next race was also shared with Kasprzak dominant from the inside.
At 30-30, skipper Harris produced an inspired Heat 11 ride to go past Iversen into the third bend, and then held off incessant pressure from the Stars’ No.1, with King’s third place putting Bees back ahead.
Reserves Bates and Woryna then got the job done in Heat 12 – twice, in fact, as they had gone either side of Simon Lambert into turn three before Rose came down which forced a race stoppage, only for the Bees to repeat the feat in the re-run off the second bend for a crucial 5-1.
It gave Coventry a six point lead to defend, so a 3-3 in Heat 13 was a satisfactory outcome although it took a fine ride by Iversen to round Kasprzak into the third bend and then hold off the Pole for a shared race.
The home side were left needing two 5-1s to win, but although Robert Lambert raced to a fourth straight win with a terrific first lap in Heat 14, Bates held a mature second place with King relegating Batchelor to the back, and the away victory was confirmed.
There was still an extra league point to go for, though, and Bees got it in an epic Heat 15 with all four riders in contention before Harris got the better of Robert Lambert for third place and Kasprzak pulled off the classiest of rides to switch back inside Iversen going down the home straight for the 4-2 the visitors required.
Bees boss Gary Havelock said: “We’ve been saying for a while we need to start picking up some away wins, because of the two meetings we’ve lost at home, and to do it like that and get four points is pretty special.
“We talked before the meeting about fighting for every point, and I think everyone who watched the meeting could see we were full of fight. The boys were fantastic, and I wouldn’t want to single anyone out after a performance like that.
“There’s no reason now why we can’t kick on from this, put a run together and get in those play-offs - and this is the only club I’d never won at as a team manager in the Elite League, so it was great to put that one to bed in fine style!â€
KING’S LYNN 41: Niels-Kristian Iversen 12, Robert Lambert 12, Simon Lambert 9+2, Mads Korneliussen 3+1, Troy Batchelor 3, Lewis Rose 2+1, Kai Huckenbeck 0. BUILDBASE BEES 49: Josh Bates 12+1,Krzysztof Kasprzak 11, Danny King 10+1, Chris Harris 9+2, Kacper Woryna 7+1, James Sarjeant 0, Jason Garrity R/R.
