King’s Lynn Stars shrug off changes to pick up battling away victory

Patched-up King's Lynn recovered from an early deficit to notch a hard-earned away win at Birmingham last night.

The Stars came on strong in the second half of the meeting at Perry Barr with youngsters Robert Lambert and Lewis Kerr very much to the fore as they grabbed a third victory on the road this season.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the number of guests in the team, the Stars made a slow start and found themselves six points down after four races.

In-form reserve Kerr was their sole race winner in that period, but they had conceded maximum points in heat one when stand-in duo Davey Watt and Max Fricke were outpaced. The Stars looked set to drop 10 down in heat five when Rory Schlein hit the fence on turn four, and the race was stopped with the home side in a 5-1 position – but in the re-run Lambert rode a stormer around the outside to hit the front.

Watt and Scott Nicholls then continued the comeback with a strong 5-1 over Brummies skipper Danny King.

The Stars worked hard to restrict their hosts but Lewis Rose's attempts to pass Simon Lambert on the final bend of the ninth ended with a trip into the fence, allowing the home side to extend their lead to four points. That could have been doubled in the next race but Schlein and Nicholls both battled away to pass Daniel Nermark and salvage a 3-3 behind race winner Adam Skornicki.

Skornicki fell heavily on the second lap of heat 13 – when the Stars were on a 5-1 – and the Pole was taken away for examination on a leg injury. And following the re-start, the visitors hit top gear with Watt and Nicholls team-riding Barker out for a 5-1 and then Lambert and Kerr riding superbly for maximum points in the penultimate heat.

With victory ensured, they were denied maximum points from the meeting when King took the flag in the last, but with so many changes this still goes down as an excellent result.

Birmingham: Adam Skornicki 8 (4), Daniel Nermark 8+1 (4), Danny King 10 (5), Nico Covatti 1 (4), Ben Barker 5+1 (4), Paul Starke 9 (5), Simon Lambert 1 (3).

King's Lynn: Davey Watt 11+1 (5), Max Fricke 3+1 (4), Rory Schlein 5+1 (4), Robert Lambert 8+1 (4), Scott Nicholls 8+2 (5), Lewis Kerr 10+2 (5), Lewis Rose 3 (3).