KING'S LYNN pulled off one of the most sensational results in their top-flight history with a 46-44 win over local rivals Ipswich at a jubilant Adrian Flux Arena on Monday.
The PSH Environmental Stars collected their third home win over the season over the powerhouse Witches, but this one was completely against expectations given the relative strength of the sides on paper.
And when the Witches led by eight points with six races to go, the meeting looked to be going to the formbook only for the Stars to turn the tables in spectacular style.
Heroes on the night were Czech star Jan Kvech, still battling his shoulder injury, with an incredible paid-19 haul from the No.5 berth, whilst skipper Nicolai Klindt also took the full quota of rides at reserve and racked up paid-16.
Richard Lawson contributed two crucial wins and despite a rare off-night, Chris Harris came up trumps when it mattered with a key ride in Heat 12 to bring Lynn level.
The early stages were close fought even though the Stars were without two of their top five, covering Niels-Kristian Iversen with rider replacement, and with Simon Lambert stepping in for Ben Cook.
Kvech lowered the colours of Jason Doyle in Heat 1 but the Witches were ahead two races later through Emil Sayfutdinov and Adam Ellis at the expense of Harris and Lambert.
Kvech and Klindt raced to a 5-1 in Heat 4 over Tom Brennan to briefly raise Lynn's hopes, but the visitors responded with successive maximums of their own in Heats 5 and 6 with a forceful ride by Brennan in the latter seeing him get the better of first Klindt and then Lawson.
Stars briefly held a 5-1 of their own in Heat 7 but they had to be content with a 4-2 as Sayfutdinov split Klindt and Kvech, and after Lawson took control of a shared Heat 8, Brennan and Dan Thompson inflicted what appeared a massive blow with an Ipswich 5-1 in Heat 9 to put the league leaders 31-23 up.
Back came the Stars though with Lawson and Kvech taking maximum points over Ellis and Sayfutdinov in Heat 10, Kvech taking a tactical substitute ride, and he then defeated Doyle again in a shared Heat 11.
Lynn had a welcome break in their favour when Sayfutdinov hit mechanical trouble in Heat 12 as Klindt and Harris raced to a 5-1 over Dan Thompson to level the scores, and suddenly the impossible looked on.
Kvech kept on winning as he took Heat 13 which initially saw Lynn on a 5-1 only for Brennan to pass Lawson on the second lap, but vitally Doyle was at the back as the Stars edged ahead.
The pressure was on Klindt to deliver in Heat 14 and he duly did so against Thompson and Ellis to take Lynn into the last-heat decider ahead.
And Kvech brought the house down by defeating Doyle and Brennan in that decider as the Stars edged a truly classic and remarkable contest.
Lyon said: "It's incredible and I'm still struggling to get my head around it really, because of the team we had to put out being patched up and Ipswich coming at full-strength relatively speaking.
"But what a fantastic performance, and it will go down in the annals of history for King's Lynn as one of the most backs-to-the-wall performance we've ever had.
"As a team, I was really proud of the boys tonight. There's always a local rivalry with Ipswich, and it's always been like that, so to get three victories over them at home is a nice feeling for the fans and the club.
"As Ipswich are out-and-out favourites for the league it's nice to turn them over three times!"
The two sides meet again at Foxhall on Thursday, this time in the KO Cup where the Stars defend a six point lead in their bid to reach the Final.
Lewis Kerr will guest for Cook in that meeting, whilst the club will take a decision on the fitness of Iversen later in the week.
KING'S LYNN 46: Jan Kvech 18+1, Nicolai Klindt 15+1, Richard Lawson 9, Chris Harris 3+1, Simon Lambert 1, Jody Scott 0, Niels-Kristian Iversen r/r. IPSWICH 44: Dan Thompson 10+1, Tom Brennan 9+2, Jason Doyle 9, Danny King 5+2, Emil Sayfutdinov 5, Adam Ellis 4+1, Jason Edwards 2+2.
