CHRIS Harris admits a lack of consistency is hampering Coventry Bees’ play-off bid as they slipped to a 42-48 defeat to Belle Vue at Brandon last Friday, writes Observer Speedway reporter Robin Allen
In a meeting littered with re-starts and controversy, it seemed the Bees would rue missed opportunities after failing to take advantage of key moments against the Aces.
Kacper Woryna made his first return to Brandon after securing second place for Rybnik in the Polish Under-21 Pairs the previous weekend. And it seemed the success in his homeland had continued for the Bees, as the youngster collected his highest score for the club with an impressive 11+1.
Sadly, that good form did not transfer to his teammates with Krzysztof Kasprzak and Harris failing to score from their opening outings which highlighted Bees’ frailties this season with a lack of consistency in point scoring.
“It was one of those nights for us which is disappointing,” said Harris “We were all up and down, and I had a terrible night.
“If you’re not scoring points for the team you’re not earning money, and I suppose it rubs off on the rest of the team when the captain is having a bad night. KK had bike problems as well, Danny had an okay night and it’s just frustrating all-round.
“But it was nice to see Kacper going well especially before his crash, up until then he was flying, and winning races does help the lower order to build their confidence up.”
The scores were close leading up to heat six when Belle Vue were victims of a tough call when Craig Cook slowed believing it to be an unsatisfactory start. But to his surprise the race continued with Danny King flying round the outside of Matej Zagar to bring Bees level after they had twice fallen behind in the early stages.
The next heat produced arguably the race of the season on Coventry shale with Kasprzak and Harris taking on Scott Nicholls and Max Fricke with the first two-and-a-Half laps providing multiple position changes before Harris re-passed Nicholls to team up with Kasprzak for a 5-1.
And then in heat nine Ben Barker and Woryna looked set for a 5-1 until Barker broke down on the back straight which blocked his teammate, and allowed Fricke to nip through securing at 4-2 for the Aces.
The Polish duo of Kasprzak and Woryna looked set for a 5-1 over former Coventry captain Nicholls, until the Belle Vue man dived up the inside of Woryna at the start of lap three, with the pair making contact on turn two as both fell.
Nicholls was excluded by referee Chris Gay but with Cook well at the back at the time, there was general surprise when a re-start was ordered – and on this occasion the Belle Vue man managed to split the home riders to limit Bees to a 4-2.
Despite Bees levelling the scores in Heat 12, the Aces secured victory with back-to-back heat advantages in the following two heats which put them top of the Elite League table.
