Around the Premier League Tracks 2008
.
.
Wednesday, 19 March
.
.
Tonight’s match was at King’s Lynn where the Stars raced against Mildenhall in a Premier Trophy match.


Premier Trophy: King’s Lynn 66, Mildenhall 24.


King’s Lynn were at full strength while Mildenhall were without Robbie Kessler who suffered concussion in a crash at Peterborough last week. They used Rider Replacement instead.

Having got their Elite League challenge matches against Ipswich and Peterborough out of their systems it was time for the two teams to open their Premier Trophy campaigns. There was little joy for Mildenhall from this match, however, as they were blown away from the start and were effectively out of it after the opening four heats in which they managed just six points.

The Fen Tigers might have produced the first race winner but Kai Laukkanen, who made the gate, found Tomas Topinka too hot to handle and was passed on the third lap. This race produced a 4-2, the first of four consecutive heat wins for the Stars. Although James Cockle raced to the front in the reserves race he slipped to the back then fell as the home side banged in a 5-1. Jan Gravesen split the home pair in heat 3, which was awarded after R/R Shane Colvin fell, for a second 4-2 then another 5-1 for the Stars took the score to 18-6.

Mildenhall briefly put the brakes on the Stars’ runaway express by sharing heat 5 when Laukkanen and Baseby followed Doolan home but another 5-1 in heat 6 from Topinka and Tacey continued the rout. In heat 7 Jan Gravesen took a TR but, when he caused Rusty Harrison to fall, he was excluded from the rerun rendering the TR worthless. The rerun resulted in another 5-1 putting the Stars 20 points to the good and the Stars’ fifth 5-1 in the match took the score to 36-12.

The maximum heat wins just kept on coming. There were three more in the next four heats with only heat 11 providing some respite for the visitors. Kai Laukkanen passed Rusty Harrison in that heat to head home John Oliver and Harrison for a 3-3 but by heat 12 the score had gone to 54-18 with the Fens Tigers looking highly unlikely to top the 30 point mark.

Kai Laukkanen passed Rusty Harrison in heat 13 and pushed Tomas Topinka before having to settle for second place as King’s Lynn took another 4-2. The Stars’ ninth 5-1 arrived in heat 14 but Mildenhall had the satisfaction of watching Kai Laukkanen ending the maximum hopes of both Tomas Topinka and Kevin Doolan when he passed Tomas Topinka on the second lap to win heat 15 for a shared race.

Scorers: For King’s Lynn – Kevin Doolan 14 (5), Tomas Topinka 13+1 (5), Simon Lambert 10+2 (4) (paid maximum), John Oliver 8+3 (4), Shaun Tacey 8+2 (4), Rusty Harrison 7+2 (4), Kozza Smith 6+1 (4).

For Mildenhall – Kai Laukkanen 12 (5), Jan Gravesen 4 (5), Casper Wortmann 4 (5), Mark Baseby 2+1 (7), James Cockle 2 (6), Shane Colvin 0 (2).