Peterborough Panthers star hopes a super heat win was the kick up the backside the team needed

Palm Toft and Chris Harris took part in British Speedway’s first-ever tie-break after they drew 45-45 with the Tigers in a Premiership thriller at the East of England Arena.

In the past that would have given the Panthers one league point and the Tigers two – but an extra race is now called for with three league points awarded to the winners.

And, while Palm Toft launched from the start to win the decider, Harris made his way past Tobiasz Musielak in spectacular style to give the home side a much-needed victory at the sixth time of asking.

Palm Toft quipped: “I was just holding on to the bike and going as fast as I could!“It’s about time we won at home. It’s been disappointing to be fair. I’ve had some good results here, but some of the other boys have been struggling a bit.

“Hopefully they’ve got that sorted now and we can keep winning at home.

“Everybody is still working hard. As we all know, if you don’t get any points you don’t get paid, simple as that, so everybody wants to score points and they want to win for the fans.“It’s hard work sometimes and sometimes you’re chasing your own tail with things and it just doesn’t work out, but sometimes it does!”Palm Toft turned his own meeting around after failing to score in the first race of the night, but at least on this occasion a revitalised Ulrich Ostergaard was on hand to take the victory.

Palm Toft, the Panthers number one, then added 10+1 from his remaining outings in the regular meeting, and despite missing out in Heat 15 he was an automatic pick for the Super Heat alongside Harris.He said: “That was disappointing to get a zero in the first ride. You don’t want to go out and lose Heat 1.

“But it is what it is, you’ve just got to re-group and get things going. It was a poor start, but it worked out in the end.

“Hopefully the win will give everyone a kick up the backside and we can get going now – I really hope so.”