Hammers open in style
The Hammers kicked off their 2012 Elite League campaign with a comfortable 31-points victory over Belle Vue Aces.
The new-look Essex side showed their mettle in producing a solid, determined performance across all seven of their charges to set what will hopefully become their standard around their own circuit this coming season.
All eyes were on their new heat leader duo of Davey Watt and Peter Karlsson, who – along with Lee Richardson – didn’t disappoint in producing a combined paid twenty seven points haul.
It was pretty much all one way traffic after the first couple of heats with the initiative provided by Kim Nilsson’s third-to-first effort to pass both Aces in the second race. It was very plain sailing thereafter, with only Aces’ Rory Schlein providing much in the way of backbone to fend off what would otherwise have been an even heavier defeat.
To be fair to the visiting Mancunians, they did suffer the misfortune of losing Patrick Hougaard to a suspected broken collarbone after a seemingly innocuous fall in heat seven – and after he’d been nominated for a tactical ride too. It was left to Schlein to make amends with his own “double pointer” in heat eleven but it was a case of too little, too late as far as the Elite League points were concerned.
With the meeting result decided, it was very much a case of watching to see who could go through the card as far as the maximum stakes were concerned. Karlsson, who had missed out to Schlein in the very first heat, remained otherwise unbeaten but even he had to concede the evening’s top honours, which went to way of Kim Nilsson. The young Swedish reserve collected a four ride paid maximum to start the season in fine style.
Watt missed out on his own debut full score when he and Karlsson were split by Charlie Gjedde in the last after Schlein had fallen – but nonetheless, it was a much encouraging start to the season for the Lakeside boys.
Home promoter Jon Cook was understandably delighted with the opening proceedings, explaining: “We were all very nervous before the start of the meeting and we didn’t want to let our fans down, particularly after the huge crowd we had last week for our open evening.
“We’ve worked very hard tonight and this is a fantastic way to start the season. We very are all very much looking forward to our next meeting to build on what we have achieved tonight.”
Lakeside Hammers = 61
1. Peter Karlsson - 2, 2',3, 3, 3 = 13+1 2. Kauko Nieminen - 1',3, 3, 2' = 9+2 3. Davey Watt - 2',3, 3, 2',1 = 11+2 4. Robert Mear - 3, 1, 1, 1' = 6+1 5. Lee Richardson - 2',3, 2, 0 = 7+1 6. Justin Sedgmen - 0, 1, 1',2 = 4+1 7. Kim Nilsson - 3, 3, 2',3 = 11+1
Belle Vue Aces = 32
1. Rory Schlein - 3, 2, 6^, 2, 0 = 13 2. Chris Schramm - 0, 0, 1, 0 = 1 3. Patrick Hougaard - 1, X = 1 4. Charlie Gjedde - 0, 2, X, 3, 2 = 7 5. Adam Shields - 1, 1, 2, 1' = 5+1 6. Hugh Skidmore - 1', 0, 0, 1 = 2+1 7. Linus Eklof - 2, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0 = 3
Heat Results
Heat 01: Schlein, Karlsson, Nieminen, Schramm (fell rem) (3-3) 58.4 Heat 02: Nilsson, Eklof, Skidmore, Sedgmen (3-3) (6-6) 59.6 Heat 03: Mear, Watt, Hougaard, Gjedde (5-1) (11-7) 59.4 Heat 04: Nilsson, Richardson, Shields, Eklof (5-1) (16-8) 58.6 Heat 05: Watt, Schlein, Mear, Schramm (4-2) (20-10) 58.2 Heat 06: Nieminen, Karlsson, Shields, Skidmore (5-1) (25-11) 59.4 Heat 07: Richardson, Gjedde, Sedgmen (4-2) (29-13) 58.7 Heat 08: Nieminein, Nilsson, Schramm, Eklof (5-1) (34-14) 60.0 Heat 09: Watt, Shields, Mear, Skidmore (4-2) (38-16) 58.8 Heat 10: Karlsson, Nieminen, Eklof, Gjedde (fell exc) (5-1) (43-17) 59.1 Heat 11: Schlein (tactical ride), Richardson, Sedgmen, Schramm (3-6) (46-23) 59.6 Heat 12: Nilsson, Watt, Skidmore, Eklof (5-1) (51-24) 60.2 Heat 13: Karlsson, Schlein, Shields, Richardson. (3-3) (54-27) 58.9 Heat 14: Gjedde, Sedgmen, Mear, Eklof (3-3) (57-30) 60.0 Heat 15: Karlsson, Gjedde, Watt, Schlein (4-2) (61-32) 59.5
Picture: Peter Karlsson and Kauko Nieminen during the Silver Hammer competition – Lakeside Hammers Open Evening at the Arena Essex Raceway, Pufleet – 23/03/12 ( Rob Newell/TGSPHOTO)