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Elite League A fixture : Friday 4th July @ 8pm
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An early scare from a lively Belle Vue outfit forced the Hammers to up the ante in the racing department in this competitive Elite League fixture.
The Manchester men took four of the first five race winners and led by two points in the early running, a marked contrast to the fixture against Coventry just five days earlier.
Most of the Aces' success can be attributed to Jason Crump, who racked up a total of twenty out of his side's thirty-nine points. Crump, a winner at the British Grand Prix at Cardiff last weekend, was in majestic form from the gate and only dropped a single point.
Aces guest Lewis Bridger caused an early upset when he came from the back to pass Joonas Kylmakorpi on the final lap of heat four, whilst valuable points were lost when Adam Shields packed up when second behind Crump in heat seven.
A big 5-1 from Leigh Lanham and Lubos Tomicek in heat eight provided a platform for the Hammers to mount a charge over the second half of the meeting, which eventually saw them run out fairly comfortable winners.
Of all of the remaining heats, most notable for the home side was heat thirteen when Andreas Jonsson gated and held off the challenge of Crump over four laps to huge cheers from the home faithful. This was duly followed by Joonas Kylmakorpi stalking Billy Forsberg for four laps in the penultimate race before snatching second place on the line for a Hammers 5-1.
Crump rounded off the meeting with victory over Jonsson in the final race, but the Hammers keep their home record intact for another week in their push for play-off qualification.
Related Link: Solid team effort sees Hammers through against Aces : Match Statistics
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