GARY Havelock has urged his Coventry team to kick-on after a sensational 41-49 win over King’s Lynn at the Adrian Flux Arena on Wednesday night, writes Observer speedway reporter Robin Allen.
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.
“The boys were fantastic, and I wouldn’t want to single anyone out after a performance like that, said Havelock “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.
“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.
“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!”
The visitors opened the meeting with three straight heat advantages, and then British Champion King teamed up with Woryna in heat five securing another 5-1 which put them 11-19 up.
However the Stars hit back with three-straight heat advantages bringing the scores level after eight heats.
Bees’ captain Harris finally broke the deadlock with a superb win over fellow Grand-Prix star Niels-Kristian Iversen in heat 11 with King securing third place for a 4-2, putting the visitors two points up.
Despite the following taking three attempts to be completed, young Pole Woryna was undeterred making a terrific start off the outside gate leaving Stars’ Simon Lambert in his dust while his Coventry team-mate Bates made clever move on the inside to secure a 5-1.
It gave Havelock’s team 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.
