It was an afternoon to forget for the King's Lynn 'Roger Warnes Transport' Stars, but Rob Lyon's side bounced back with a commanding 51-39 win over Lakeside on Good Friday night.
Earlier in the day, the Stars were beat by 20 points as the Hammers showed their dominance around their home track. The Arena Essex Raceway is a notoriously hard place to go for visiting teams and the Stars found that out.
The evening fixture was a completely different story. Back on comfortable shale, the Stars started as they meant to go on. Niels-Kristian Iversen and Kai Huckenbeck instantly opened up a two point lead after the opening heat.
A blip in the reserves race saw Lewis Kerr and Robert Mear bring the scores level, but Lynn restored their lead in the third race of the night. Robert Lambert passed Lewis Bridger to take his first win of the day, Rory Schlein then fended of Piotr Swiderski for the final point.
Reserve Carl Wilkinson and Huckenbeck then linked up well in heat five to score a big 5-1 and give the Stars a six point lead. Just before the turn of the meeting, Captain Schlein was excluded from heat six, which left Korneliussen only to do damage limitation in the rerun as he split Andreas Jonsson and Lewis Bridger.
The second half of the meeting was a lot more dominant for Lynn. Iversen and Lambert scored a max in heat 7, and Lambert was involved in sending the Stars 12 points clear when he crossed the line ahead of team mate Schlein in heat 10.
After the interval, Lakeside attempted to claw back points with a tactical ride from Bridger, but the Stars pair of Iversen and Huckenbeck were too strong as they raced to a 5-1.
The Hammers did manage to reduce the Stars lead in heats 12 and 15 but Lynn were too strong on home shale. Victory means the Stars are now off the mark with 3 league points.
Next up for the Stars is Belle Vue, who visit the Adrian Flux Arena on March 31.
LAKESIDE 56: Kim Nilsson 13, Richard Lawson 12+1, Piotr Swiderski 9+2, Robert Mear 9+1, Andreas Jonsson 6+1, Lewis Bridger 5+1, Lewis Kerr 2+1 KING’S LYNN 36: Niels-Kristian Iversen 14, Mads Korneliussen 10, Lewis Rose 4+1, Kai Huckenbeck 3, Carl Wilkinson 2+2, Robert Lambert 2, Rory Sclein 1+1 Elite League points: Lakeside 3 King’s Lynn 0
KING’S LYNN 51: Niels-Kristian Iversen 13, Robert Lambert 9+2, Mads Korneliussen 9+1, Kai Huckenbeck 8+2, Lewis Rose 5+1, Carl Wilkinson 5, Rory Schlein 3+1 LAKESIDE 39: Andreas Jonsson 12, Richard Lawson 8+1, Lewis Kerr 6, Lewis Bridger 4, Robert Mear 3+1, Kim Nilsson 3, Piotr Swiderski 3 Elite League points: King’s Lynn 3 Lakeside 0
