Kim is Hammers hero

The Lakeside Hammers raced to a rain-curtailed 40-38 victory over Poole Pirates, led by a stunning paid fourteen haul by debutant Kim Nilsson.

Nilsson made a debut to remember, dropping just a single point to visiting maximum man Darcy Ward in heat four to produce an otherwise unblemished first appearance in the colours of the crossed Hammers.

The meeting itself was thrown into doubt part way through when a rain shower appeared during heat six, but the superb efforts of the track staff saw the track pieced back into shape and the meeting quickly resumed and progressed through to the end of heat thirteen.

Poole arrived tracking emerging superstars Chris Holder and Darcy Ward and both were excellent, although Ward held the upper hand in the points stakes with his unbeaten score and produced a couple of forceful from-the-back wins over Piotr Swiderski and Lee Richardson respectively.

A new hero appears to have been unearthed in Nilsson, though, who popped out of the start to win heat two and then produced effective first turns to match in heats eight over compatriot Dennis Andersson and ten over Davey Watt and Jason Doyle. Such was his impression that he was rewarded with an extra ride in the latter and defeated Watt again in heat ten to keep the Hammers six points in front.

The expected 5-1 reverse from the dynamic Holder/Ward pairing in heat thirteen left the home side two points to the good with two heats remaining – but the rain took a further turn for the worse and the meeting was curtailed with the result standing after an ill-fated first running of heat fourteen saw Renat Gafurov excluded for a first turn fall.

The resulting victory for the Hammers saw the Essex men claim two Elite League points to follow the four collected at Birmingham the previous evening.

Lakeside Hammers 40

1. Lee Richardson   - 1*,3, 2, 1, 1 = 8+1
2. Kauko Nieminen   - 2, 2, 0, 1    = 5
3. Peter Ljung      - 0, 1, 2, 0    = 3
4. Rider Replacement
5. Piotr Swiderski  - 2, 3, 1*,2, 0 = 8+1
6. Robert Mear      - 2*,0, 1*      = 3+2
7. Kim Nilsson      - 3, 1*,3, 3, 3 = 13+1
Poole Pirates 38
1. Chris Holder     - 3, 2, 3, 3    = 11
2. Dennis Andersson - 0, F, 2, 0    = 2
3. Davey Watt       - 3, 2, 0, 1*   = 6+1
4. Jason Doyle      - 1, 1*,2       = 4+1
5. Darcy Ward       - 3, 3, 3, 2*   = 11+1
6. Renat Gafurov    - 1, 1, F, 2, X = 4
7. Jerran Hart (G)  - F, 0, 0       = 0
Heat Results
Heat 01: Holder, Nieminen, Richardson, Andersson (3-3) (3-3) 57.5
Heat 02: Nilsson, Mear, Gafurov, Hart (fell) (5-1) (8-4) 58.6
Heat 03: Watt, Nieminen, Doyle, Ljung (2-4) (10-8) 58.0
Heat 04: Ward, Swiderski, Nilsson, Hart (3-3) (13-11) 57.8
Heat 05: Richardson, Holder, Ljung, Andersson (fell) (4-2) (17-13) 57.7
Heat 06: Ward, Richardson, Gafurov, Nieminen (2-4) (19-17) 59.9
Heat 07: Swiderski, Watt, Doyle, Mear (3-3) (22-20) 60.4
Heat 08: Nilsson, Andersson, Nieminen, Hart (4-2) (26-22) 59.3
Heat 09: Ward, Ljung, Swiderski, Gafurov (fell) (3-3) (29-25) 59.8
Heat 10: Nilsson, Doyle, Richardson, Watt (4-2) (33-27) 59.5
Heat 11: Holder, Swiderski, Mear, Andersson (3-3) (36-30) 58.8
Heat 12: Nilsson, Gafurov, Watt, Ljung (3-3) (39-33) 59.9
Heat 13: Holder, Ward, Richardson, Swiderski (1-5) (40-38) 59.7

Picture: Heat 9: Kim Nilsson (blue), Davey Watt (white) and Lee Richardson – Lakeside Hammers vs Poole Pirates – Elite League Speedway at Arena Essex Raceway – 22/07/11 – (Gavin Ellis/TGSPHOTO)