The Lakeside Hammers moved up into second place in the Sky Sports Elite League following their win on Monday evening up in Manchester against the Belle Vue Aces. They would have headed the table but for Swindon also winning, away at Wolverhampton.
The Hammers dominated the match from the start and despite the a late comeback by the home side the Hammers recorded a six point victory. The win was sealed in the penultimate heat when Lubos Tomicek and Joonas Kylmakorpi roared to a maximum heat advantage over their opponents. That meant the Hammers led going into the final heat in an unassailable position being eight points up.
It was another good all-round team performance with each member of the side picking up valuable points. Once again Joonas Kylmakorpi, at reserve, proved to be the match winner scoring 12+2 from his six rides along with Leigh Lanham with 7+2 from four rides. Andreas Jonsson scored 12 points and was only beaten by the Aces No.1, Jason Crump.
The Hammers Team Boss, Jon Cook, commented on the win saying: “We were certain to have got the win the ‘A’ fixture up in Manchester until Leigh and AJ had their coming together, which meant that both had to withdraw so we knew that this ‘B’ match against the Aces was one we had to win to show everyone that we are a team to be reckoned with this season. In the end it turned out to be quite a comfortable victory with us sealing it before the final heat.
However, as Swindon also won it means that we move up to second place in the League as opposed to top. We have matches in hand over the top few teams so that puts us in a good position but there is still a long way to go.”
The Hammers Next Aim – To Send The Wolves PackingThe next Hammers Sky Sports Elite League Speedway match takes place this Friday, 6th June, at their Arena-Essex Raceway when they face the Wolverhampton Wolves.
The Wolves are a club that have won in the past at the Hammers home circuit so Jon Cook, the Lakeside Team Boss, has told the team that they all need to be fully focused for this important meeting as they cannot afford any slip-ups if they are to keep their 100% home league record intact.
The Hammers are expected to field their full line-up, with the return of Lubos Tomicek. The popular rider from the Czech Republic missed the last two home meetings due to illness and then a 2009 GP qualification meeting in Croatia. He was, however, the side up at Belle Vue and ensured victory for the Hammers with his heat 14 win.
Wolverhampton are led by Grand Prix riders Fredrik Lindgren from Sweden and Niels Kristian Iversen from Denmark. However, the Dane was injured in the recent GP in Sweden and may not yet have recovered sufficiently to take his place in Friday’s Wolves line-up. British international David Howe, Czech rider Ales Dryml, young Dane Nicolai Klindt, Dane Kenneth Hansen and former hammers rider Christian Heffenbrock complete their team.
The action, as usual, gets underway at the Arena-Essex\Raceway at 8pm, although for those supporters who are able to arrive earlier there will be a series of junior heats commencing at 6.45pm.
