LIONS WIN AS BRUMMIES SIGN OFF

LEICESTER moved up to second place in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership with a 53-37 win over Birmingham as the Brummies signed out of senior racing.

The meeting was much closer than Monday’s Perry Barr finale with the Lions only extending their advantage with 5-1s in the last two races.

With one regular league match remaining at Oxford next Thursday, the Lions are now guaranteed to finish ahead of Belle Vue, and they also have a one-point advantage over Sheffield whose home clash with Ipswich was postponed.

Ryan Douglas top-scored for the Lions with 13, skipper Max Fricke added 12+2 and reserve Drew Kemp impressed with three race wins on his way to nine points.

The Brummies’ top two of Matej Zagar (10+2) and Tobiasz Musielak (10) both delivered strong performances to keep their side in the hunt.

Kemp said: “I feel like tonight showed my capabilities of what I can do. I’ve had a few problems with clutches and engines but tonight I tried to simplify everything, do something different and it seemed to work.

“When me and Joe (Thompson) are scoring it takes the pressure off the top boys, it makes everyone’s life ten times easier and the whole morale is a lot better.

“If we can keep that up now, the whole team is pulling their fingers out effectively, so going into the play-offs we can hopefully come away with a couple of wins.”

Birmingham CEO Nigel Tolley said: “They all put in maximum effort, and they love this track – and it does show up the weaknesses in the Perry Barr track as well.

“We haven’t got the strength in the team, we are almost there but not quite. A bit more strength in the team and we would have beaten them.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is Tobi has been in absolute agony since his crash last Saturday, with a good chance that he’s got at least a couple of cracked ribs, and I think that showed up in his last ride when he lost strength and gradually went backwards.”

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Photo credit: STEVE DIXON