KING’S Lynn made it a perfect seven home wins in succession by seeing off local rivals Peterborough 53-37 at the Adrian Flux Arena.
It wasn’t entirely plain sailing for the Poultec Stars as the bottom club put up quite a fight and only trailed by six points with three races remaining, but the hosts then finished strongly.
The struggling Panthers pulled back an early deficit with a shock 5-1 over Craig Cook, in Heat 4, but the Stars then appeared to be taking control of the meeting.
Back-to-back maximums enabled the home side to go eight points up, with the strong Erik Riss/Thomas Jorgensen combination getting the better of Rohan Tungate in Heat 5, whilst Michael Palm Toft and guest Chris Harris headed Scott Nicholls in the next.
The visitors suffered a further blow when British Champion Charles Wright touched the tapes in Heat 7, and the gap was up to 14 shortly after when skipper Lewis Kerr combined with the impressive Palm Toft for another 5-1.
Panthers skipper Hans Andersen was withdrawn with a wrist injury but his side covered for his absence well in Heat 10 as Wright and Nicholls ended Palm Toft’s run with a maximum of their own.
That cut the gap to ten and a heavy fall for Riss on the first bend of Heat 12 gave the Panthers further hope, with Nicholls and Wright adding another 5-1 in the re-run.
But a nervous finale was averted when Harris won Heat 13 with Cook collecting third place, before Jorgensen and Kerr wrapped things up with a 5-1 in the penultimate race – and another maximum in the last heat set the seal.
Boss Peter Schroeck said: “I’m very pleased with that, I couldn’t really fault the boys and we’ve done the business again.
“The boys all wanted it really badly and although there were one or two hiccups we turned it around and made it quite a comfortable victory.
“Erik’s crash was a tough one, he hit the ground really hard and I think he’s feeling it now, but he’ll be fine. He didn’t go in Heat 15 because his best bike was totally damaged, but Bomber did a great job for us and he deserved to have Heat 15.
“Peterborough were a little unlucky with Hans, he’s been a class act for many years and for whatever reason he’s still not fully fit and on King’s Lynn’s behalf we wish him all the best, and that probably worked against them.”
Although the Stars remain outside the top four for now, the play-off race was ramped up by Wolverhampton’s win at Belle Vue – meaning the Aces are dragged right back into the thick of the battle.
The Manchester side visit Norfolk on Thursday in what is a massive must-win contest, with the return in the North-West on Bank Holiday Monday also now assuming major significance.
KING’S LYNN 53: Craig Cook 11, Michael Palm Toft 10, Erik Riss 9, Chris Harris 8+2, Lewis Kerr 7+2, Thomas Jorgensen 6+1, Simon Lambert 2. PETERBOROUGH 37: Scott Nicholls 13+2, Charles Wright 8+1, Jason Garrity 7+3, Rohan Tungate 5, Aaron Summers 4, Ty Proctor 0, Hans Andersen 0.
