Witches Leave It Late To Claim Win

The Witches recovered from a diabolical opening 5 heats to finally overhaul and defeat the Peterborough Panthers in a last heat decider at Foxhall in front of a large bank holiday crowd. A dramatic meeting saw the Witches 9-21 down after just 5 heats and with seemingly no hope of vistory.

Falls, engine failures and tapes exclusions were all part of the Witches opening heats and their fans must have wondered what else was going to go wrong for the team!

Having held his team meeting during the interval out on the stock car track in full view of the spectators, Witches team manager Peter Simmons then sat back to see if it would have the required effect. Danny King and Tobi Kroner promptly went out and scored the first Ipswich 5-1 of the meeting, Kroner passing Neils Kristian-Iversen to obtain his second place. Heat 12 then saw Kroner team ride Stachyra home for the next much-needed 5-1.

The deficit was now down to 3 points and the crowd's mood had completely turned around from their earlier despair.

With Hampel winning heat 13 and the King/Wilkinson pairing getting a 4-2 in heat 14 it was all set up for a last-heat decider with the score standing at Ipswich 43, Peterborough 44

A sense of anticipation hung in the air at the start of heat 15 and when Hampel and King roared into the second bend ahead of Bjerre and Korneliussen the crowd cheered their two heroes home for a 48-45 victory.

The whole stadium erupted, there was dancing in the pits, Jarek was off pulling wheelies and Danny got the bumps from his team mates. The Peterborough team, understandably, left the stadium in a less bouyant mood!

Ipswich 48

1. Jarek Hampel 3 ^6 2 3 2' = 16+1
2. Leigh Lanham 1 0 0 0 = 1
3. Tobi Kroner 1 2 2' 2' = 7+2
4. Danny King R R 3 3 3 = 9
5. Piotr Swiderski Fx 3 0 R = 3
6. Dawid Stachyra 1 0 3 3 3 N = 10
7. Carl Wilkinson 0 1 N N 1 = 2

Peterborough 45

1. Kenneth Bjerre 2 3 2 2 1 = 10
2. Henning Bager 0 1 1' 1' = 3+2
3. Mads Korneliussen 2' 1' 3 0 0 = 6+2
4. Karol Zabik R/R
5. Niels K Iversen 3 1' 1 1' = 6+2
6. Claus Vissing 3 3 2 2 0 1 Fx = 11
7. Kenneth Hansen 2' 2' 2 1 2 = 9+2

Ht 1 Hampel, Bjerre, Lanham, Bager 4-2
Ht 2 Vissing, Hansen, Stachyra, Wilkinson 1-5 5-7
Ht 3 Vissing, Korneliussen, Kroner, King Ret 1-5 6-12
Ht 4 Re-Run Iversen, Hansen, Wilkinson F/rem, Swiderski Fx 1-5 7-17
Ht 5 Bjerre, Kroner, Bager, King Ret 2-4 9-21
Ht 6 Re-Run Hampel (T/R), Vissing Iversen, Lanham  6-3, 15-24
Ht 7 Swiderski, Vissing, Korneliussen, Stachyra  3-3, 
Ht 8 Stachyra, Hansen, Bager, Lanham 3-3, 21-30
****INTERVAL****
Ht 9 King, Kroner, Iversen, Vissing F/rem 5-1, 26-31 61.1
Ht 10 Korneliessen, Hampel, Hansen, Lanham  2-4, 28-35 
Ht 11 Stachyra, Bjerre, Bager, Swiderski  3-3, 31-38
Ht 12 Stachyra, Kroner, Vissing, Korneliussen  5-1, 36-39 
Ht 13 Hampel, Bjerre, Iversen, Swiderski Ret  3-3, 39-42
Ht 14 Awarded King, Hansen, Wilkinson, Vissing Fx 4-2, 43-44
Ht 15 King, Hampel, Bjerre, Korneliussen  5-1, 48-45 

Quickest Time of the day 59.7 heat 1 - Jarek Hampel
Score hts 1-5 - 9-21
Score hts 6-10 - 19-14
Score hts 11-15 - 20-10

heat details courtesy of speedwayupdates.co.uk

04, May, 2009