LIONS IN SEVENTH HEAVEN

LEICESTER extended their winning run to a club record seven in succession in the top-flight by overcoming King’s Lynn 54-36 at home.

Max Fricke shattered the track record in Heat 1, taking well over half a second off his previous best, and he reeled off four race wins before being edged out by Nicolai Klindt in Heat 15.

The Stars kept things tight for the first seven races but then conceded three 5-1s in four heats, not helped by Simon Lambert’s disqualification in Heat 8 after a clash with Drew Kemp.

Fricke scored 14 for the Lions with Richard Lawson adding 11+2 and Chris Harris 9+1, whilst Klindt racked up 13+1 for the visitors.

Leicester boss Stewart Dickson said: “We got there in the end. King’s Lynn put up a good fight, and the scoreline maybe flatters us slightly that we won by 18 points.

“There didn’t look to be that much in it, and we weren’t gating tonight – or King’s Lynn were simply out-gating us for the first few races!

“They came and met us head-on, but we got into the groove and the victory on paper looks a bit more comfortable than what it actually was.”

Stars manager David Hoggart said: “I think the team did better than a lot of people would give them credit for, and if we were going down then we were going down fighting tonight.

“We gave Leicester a bit of a scare in the first seven or eight races without any shadow of a doubt, and it wasn’t easy for them at that point.

“Obviously Simon got excluded in Heat 8 which was a bit of hard riding and I think a more experienced rider might have stayed on.”

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Photo credit: RICHARD BOETTCHER