Speedway and Motorsport

But by restricting the Brummies to an eight point margin of victory, the Rebels leave themselves in prime position to claim the aggregate bonus point when the two teams meet at the Oak Tree Arena on 6 July.

On a track where gating was to be of paramount importance given the slick and ‘one line’ nature of the track, Somerset skipper Magnus Zetterstrom got the team off to an excellent start in winning Heat 1 ahead of Birmingham’s Ulrich Ostergaard, but with Stephan Katt finding it difficult to come to terms with the Perry Barr track, the opening heat was shared.

In recent weeks, the reserve position has come up trumps for the Rebels, but the difference between the teams was in the returns posted by the respective reserve riders, Birmingham outscoring their Somerset counterparts 20 points to 7 in that department.

In saying this, however, after a poor first race, Simon Walker battled back during the rest of the meeting to score valuable points for the Rebels, none more so than in heat 14 when he rode a forceful final bend to snatch a point away from Birmingham’s Ben Powell, a move that was not well received by the Australian who made his feelings known to Walker as the riders returned to the pits.

Walker’s achievements were all the more commendable when it transpired after the meeting that he was suffering from a hand injury sustained as a result of team mate Ritchie Hawkins falling in heat 6.

Coming off the first bend, Hawkins picked up drive which caused the bike to rear up, throwing the Somerset number 5 to the track, the bike hitting the safety fence. Riding right behind his partner, Walker was lucky not to hit Hawkins but bizarrely was hit himself by a piece of wood thrown up by the impact of Hawkins’ bike hitting the kick-boards!

Although the home side held the upper hand throughout the match, it was testament to the confidence in the Rebel camp this year that they continued to pick up valuable points to never allow Birmingham to build on their slender advantage, there never being more than 8 points between the teams at any time during the match.

Leading from the from, Magnus Zetterstrom dropped just one point to the opposition, that coming in the final heat when he just failed to get the better of Brummies skipper Jason Lyons as the riders came off the first turn.

So whilst the Rebels tasted defeat for the first time on the road this year in the Premier League, they can look back on it still being a good solid performance and with a little bit more luck, they may have extended their run of away victories to five.

However, such is the measure of the team this season that they will probably look back on this as two possible points dropped in their quest for a top four Premier League play-off slot.