No home comforts for troubled Peterborough Panthers as reigning champions race to a big win

The Aces once again showed their extreme liking for the East of England Arena as their winning sequence at the venue continued, as the Crendon Panthers counted the cost of a disastrous start to the meeting.

The visitors’ 20-point margin was entirely built inside the first seven races, and whilst from that stage on the home side had race wins and the occasional advantage, the damage was already done.

Panthers found themselves eight points down after Heat 4 with Niels-Kristian Iversen suffering mechanical trouble in that race and Michael Palm Toft on the wrong end of a 5-1 in Heat 1 at the start of a totally unexpected scoreless guest performance.

But the meeting was completely taken away from Panthers in Heats 5 to 7 in which the Aces recorded a hat-trick of 5-1 advantages, even if the first of those was somewhat controversial.

As Richie Worrall led the race, Benjamin Basso was in close combat with Belle Vue duo Dan Bewley and Norick Blodorn, with the latter lifting on the exit of bend two, leaving him out of shape, and then falling on the entrance of turn three as Basso went through, with the German’s machine also bringing the Panthers man down.

Whilst both riders fortunately walked away, Basso was remarkably disqualified, and the re-run saw Blodorn pull off a great move to get inside the faster-starting Worrall for another 5-1.

Trailing 11-31 after seven races, Panthers pulled themselves together with skipper Hans Andersen and Jordan Jenkins combining for a 5-1 in Heat 8, whilst Worrall fended off constant pressure from Jaimon Lidsey and Brady Kurtz to win Heat 9.

Andersen added a further win in Heat 10 and Iversen solved his earlier issues to twice defeat Bewley in Heats 11 and 13, but in between those races Tom Brennan passed Worrall in Heat 12 to team up with super reserve Lidsey for a 5-1.

Former Panthers rider Charles Wright also came from the back in Heat 14 before Lidsey made a flying start to win the last race ahead of Iversen and Kurtz, rebuilding the Aces’ 20-point margin.

Andersen said: “It’s very disappointing to not win home meetings, but Belle Vue have come here on a high and it’s never been a secret that they have riders who have a very big liking for this track.

“I don’t know what the problem was early on, because obviously if I knew we would have sorted it quicker, but it’s still only our second time on track this season and some of us haven’t ridden a lot.

“We’re still trying various things to get the right set-up, and people will say ‘yeah, but you’ve ridden this track before,’ but again it’s different.”

Panthers’ next three Premiership matches are all on the road, starting with the reverse fixture at Belle Vue next Monday (April 24).

PETERBOROUGH 35: Niels-Kristian Iversen 9, Hans Andersen 8, Jordan Jenkins 5+2, Richie Worrall 5, Ben Cook 4+2, Benjamin Basso 4, Michael Palm Toft 0.

BELLE VUE 55: Jaimon Lidsey 14, Charles Wright 10+1, Brady Kurtz 9+2, Dan Bewley 8+2, Tom Brennan 7+2, Norick Blodorn 6+1, Jake Mulford 1.