BEES pair Chris Harris and Danny King starred for Great Britain on Monday at the Adrian Flux Arena as they secured a place in the World Cup race-off, writes Observer Speedway reporter Robin Allen.
King who was the first Bees representative to take to the track in heat three, but despite making a positive start the Brit could not get close to Australian rider Chris Holder out in front.
However, in the following race Bees skipper Harris showed his class with a superb start and held off the challenge of Nick Morris to win to the delight of the home crowd.
With three Grand Prix riders in their side it was Australia that began to take a hold on the meeting, holding a five-point lead over their British hosts after seven races.
‘Bomber’ Harris was living up to his nickname with his bike set up perfectly for the King’s Lynn track as he led Britain to another stylish win in the next race.
In heat 11, King cut the Aussie lead to two points after coming second behind United States captain and reining World Champion Greg Hancock while Troy Batchelor was third.
But Australia’s lead over Great Britain went back up to four points in the following three heats; meaning Alun Rossiter’s team knew the only way they could catch the leaders was by getting heat wins.
And in heat 15 it was King who made an excellent gate holding Morris off well to get the victory and cut the lead back to two points with five heats remaining.
Harris had a mammoth task ahead of him in the following heat with no less than two World Champions up against him.
But that did not phase the Bees skipper as he neat Aussie skipper Holder to win comfortably and put the hosts one point behind Australia going into the nominated heats.
Despite the efforts of Robert Lambert and King in the next two heats, Australia were on the brink of booking their place in the final if they could win in heat 19.
However, man of the moment Harris refused to give up without a fight as he made a superb start ahead of Jason Doyle, but the Aussie had too much power for the Brit to take the win and secure Australia their place in the final.
Great Britain now head to Vojens in Denmark for the World Cup Race-off against Poland, Russia and United States.
“I’ve got no complaints,” said Alun Rossiter. “We were beaten by the better side.
“We gave it our best shot but we fell just short at the last line. It was a great all round effort and hopefully now we’ve got something to build on.
“We’re not going there just to make the numbers up, we’re going there to win. It was a positive night, everything was good and I couldn’t have asked for anymore.”