KING’S Lynn closed the gap on Ipswich in the race for the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-offs with a hard-fought 48-42 win over the Witches at the Adrian Flux Arena.

It wasn’t the perfect night for the PSH Environmental Stars as ideally they would have won by more than 13 points in order to take the aggregate point, but the victory on the night in front of a bumper crowd was all-important.

Lynn are now two points behind Ipswich having raced one match more – but that picture could change again on Thursday when the Stars visit bottom club Northampton.

They did have hopes of taking maximum points on their own circuit as they went 10-2 up in the first two races, only for Ipswich to dig in with a succession of heat wins.

In fact the visitors notched a total of nine victories compared to the Stars’ six, which explains easily enough why they remained within range to take the honours on aggregate.

It was a whirlwind start for Lynn as they hit their rivals with two immediate 5-1s, first with Max Fricke and Ben Cook making fast getaways from gates one and three to get the better of Anders Rowe and Richard Lawson.

Reserves Jordan Jenkins and Jody Scott followed suit in the next, closing off the early challenge of Kevin Juhl Pedersen and the Stars were into an early eight point lead.
Tom Brennan gave Ipswich their first race win in Heat 3 after a competitive first two turns saw his team-mate Danny King fall on the second bend, and there was a setback for Lynn in the next when Chris Harris, who had reclaimed third place from Jason Edwards after a slow start, fell at the end of lap three as the Witches collected a 4-2.

Another followed in Heat 5 with Jan Kvech having to be strong on the back straight to fend off Richard Lawson, and a run of Witches race wins continued in Heat 6 with Tobiasz Musielak getting the better of Fricke into the first bend.

Ipswich then held a match-levelling 5-1 on the opening lap of Heat 7 before Harris shot around Brennan on turn four to at least split the visiting riders, and Lynn were further frustrated by their former rider Rowe in Heat 8 who rode a strong opening lap to hold Cook at bay.

The meeting really caught light in Heat 9 with a superb ride by Kvech who made a last-bend challenge around the outside of Musielak and pipped his rival by 0.027s with Rushen third for a 4-2.

Stars briefly had a 5-1 going in Heat 10 when Fricke burst between King and Brennan on turn two to join Cook, only for King to hit back and re-pass the Lynn No.1 on the fourth bend.

And the six-point margin was maintained in a shared Heat 11 with Harris gating from the inside and seeing off the threat of Lawson before racing clear.

Ipswich then made their tactical move by introducing Rowe into Heat 12 as a tactical substitute, and although he was edged out by Kvech going into the first bend, King got the best of things and won the race in a 4-2 for the visitors.

Musielak returned to winning ways in Heat 13, closing down Fricke into the first bend and then holding off Harris who almost hit the fence on turn four as he tried to pass, and the Witches at that stage still had a chance of snatching a win on the night.

The Stars’ young guns were having none of that though, as Scott outmuscled Brennan into the first bend whilst Rushen rode a superb line to hit the front, and the home crowd were delighted with the 5-1 which resulted.

That sealed the win on the night although the Stars needed Ipswich to fail to provide a finisher from Heat 15 to give them the chance of the aggregate point, but that was never likely as the impressive King dominated the race whilst Fricke passed Musielak on lap one for second place.

Stars manager Rob Lyon said: “It’s a little bitter-sweet I suppose, but the important thing was we needed to win the match, that was the first thing, and getting the aggregate point was the second target.

“With the way we started I felt it was certainly within reach, but fair play to Ipswich, they rallied fairly well and did enough to get the aggregate.

“It was disappointing that we weren’t able to command heat wins, but we knew at some point Ipswich would get it together and Danny King and Tobiasz Musielak in particular were very good. They were really the difference for the aggregate point.

“But a win is a win. It’s hard to say how it leaves us, but really it depends on how we perform in our last three matches and how the other results go.

“There was a really good crowd tonight, it shows there’s definitely the interest there, and that’s encouraging. We got the win which was the main thing, and we’ll see where it takes us.”

Next up is the huge trip to Northampton on Thursday where a win would be worth three points for the Stars.


ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R2
KING’S LYNN 48: Max Fricke 9+1, Ben Cook 9+1, Jan Kvech 8+1, Jody Scott 7+3, Chris Harris 6+1, Cooper Rushen 6, Jordan Jenkins 3.
IPSWICH 42: Tobiasz Musielak 12, Danny King 11, Anders Rowe 9+1, Tom Brennan 5, Richard Lawson 3, Kevin Juhl Pedersen 1, Jason Edwards 1.
Ipswich win the aggregate point

Watch the action from the Heat 9 (courtesy of RE-RUN PRODUCTIONS)