Swindon Robins v Poole Pirates

18/04/19

The No.1 Carpet Cleaning Poole Pirates had to bank their luck as they snatched a draw from a meeting that they had looked set to win around the half way stage.

On the new, smaller circuit at Swindon Brady Kurtz added a second track record to his name this week, lowering Jason Doyle's opening ride as the circuit was baptised. In heat 7 Kurtz sped round in 62.33 shaving 0.08 off Doyle's heat one time as Poole extended their lead to four points at 23-19.

Four heats earlier Kurtz was a bit fortunate that the referee observed Tobias Musielak crossing the inside line with both wheels before holding out Kurtz on the run to the line. The offence rendered the Pole disqualified thus gifting Poole a second maximum heat advantage in as many rides after Covatti and Busk Jakobsen had seen off the Robins' reserves.

That eight point lead was halved when Musielak and Ellis combined well in heat 5,and a Doyle inspired 4-2 with the battling Lampart passing Covatti in heat 6 dented Poole's lead by a further fifty per cent.

With Worrall backing up in third as Kurtz was setting that new target time Poole upped the pressure following that advantage up with aheat 8  5-1 after Dawid Lampart had felt aggrieved that his decision to lay down his machine as Grajczonek locked up slightly cost him his place in the rerun. Single Shanes had nothing to give as Grajczonek and Busk Jakobsen cruised home, extending Poole's lead to 8.

A Covatti win maintained that margin after 9 heats but a Lampart third over Worrall as Doyle led Kurtz gave the home side some hope.

Whilst Twitter fans were voting for their preference for a heat 14 appearance, Batchelor was ousting fellow Aussies Grajczonek and Holder (heat 11) before Swindon reduced the deficit in successive heats, Doyle and Ellis being split by Kurtz in 12  and Batchelor and Musielak too strong for Holder and Worrall which, after 13 heats served to level the scores going into the Twitter elected heat.

Doyle and Musielak were chosen by the Swindon poll, Kurtz and Covatti the two most popular selected names by the 414 Poole pollsters. Nerves got slightly the better of Musielak as he moved early and earned himself a warning, things remaining very tense going into the first turn of the re-run. Covatti was left nowhere to go and powered heavily into the air barrier, the verdict being that the incident had been caused by Doyle on the inside and so the Robins' number one had to sit out the second re-run. Kurtz did well to round Musielak to give Poole a slender lead going into the final heat which Ellis wrapped up. But behind him the battle was furious as Batchelor did all he could to stave off Grajczonek but the Poole skipper measured things to perfection and just got up at the line to steal the second place to save Poole from defeat, and the scores all square after the 15 heats of good first night racing.

SWINDON 45 
J.Doyle 3,3,3,3,XD=12 
D.Lampart FD,1,FD,1=2 
T.Batchelor 3,2,3,3,1=12 
A.Ellis 1,2',1',1,3=8+2 
T.Musielak XD,3,2,2',2=9+1 
Z.Wajtknecht 1,0,0=1 
J.Shanes 0,1,R=1 

POOLE 45 
J.Holder 2,0,1',1=4+1 
J.Grajczonek 1',1,3,2,2=9+1 
N.Klindt 2,2,0,0,0=4 
R.Worrall 2',1,0,0=3+1 
B.Kurtz 3,3,2,2,3=13 
N.Covatti 3,0,3,1=7 
N.Busk Jakobsen 2',1',2'=5+3 

Ht 1:  J.Doyle,  J.Holder,  J.Grajczonek,  D.Lampart  (Fell d/q) 3-3  3-3 |62.31] 
Ht 2:  N.Covatti,  N.Busk Jakobsen,  Z.Wajtknecht,  J.Shanes 1-5  4-8 [64.92] 
Ht 3:  B.Kurtz,  R.Worrall,  A.Ellis,  T.Musielak (D/Q) 1-5  5-13 [63.52] 
Ht 4:  T.Batchelor,  N.Klindt,  N.Busk Jakobsen,  Z.Wajtknecht 3-3  8-16 [64.44] 
Ht 5:  T.Musielak,  A.Ellis,  J.Grajczonek,  J.Holder 5-1  13-17 [63.02] 
Ht 6:  J.Doyle,  N.Klindt,  D.Lampart,  N.Covatti 4-2  17-19 [62.43] 
Ht 7:  B.Kurtz,  T.Batchelor,  R.Worrall,  Z.Wajtknecht 2-4  19-23 [62.23] 
Ht 8:  J.Grajczonek,  N.Busk Jakobsen,  J.Shanes,  D.Lampart  (Fell d/q) 1-5 20-28 [64.51] 
Ht 9:  N.Covatti,  T.Musielak,  A.Ellis,  N.Klindt 3-3  23-31 [63.57] 
Ht 10:  J.Doyle,  B.Kurtz,  D.Lampart,  R.Worrall 4-2  27-33 [63.67] 
Ht 11:  T.Batchelor,  J.Grajczonek,  J.Holder,  J.Shanes  (Rtd) 3-3  30-36 [63.8] 
Ht 12:  J.Doyle,  B.Kurtz,  A.Ellis,  N.Klindt 4-2  34-38 [63.02] 
Ht 13:  T.Batchelor,  T.Musielak,  J.Holder,  R.Worrall 5-1  39-39 [63.74] 
Ht 14: B.Kurz, T.Musielak, N.Covatti, J.Doyle (D/Q) 2-4 41-43 [64.14] 
Ht 15:  A.Ellis,  J.Grajczonek,  T.Batchelor,  N.Klindt 4-2  45-45 [64.02]64.02 
Gates: SWINDON won toss and chose gates 2&4 | Swindon win toss for gates in heat 14 and took 1&3 | POOLE took gates 1&3 in heat 15 
Referee Dave Robinson 
Rider of the Night: Brady Kurtz 
Group points: Swindon 1 Poole 2