REPORT: Francis Gusts impresses, as Spires recover from slow start at King’s Lynn

BETGOODWIN Oxford Spires have sixteen points to recover at Oxford Stadium on Thursday evening, after King’s Lynn Stars won the first leg of the Premiership Knockout Cup quarter-final clash in chilly Norfolk last night (Monday) by 53-37.

After eight races, the home side – who were much sharper from the starting tapes – looked to be on for a very large victory, flying into a 33-15 advantage.

But one of Spires’ two new signings – 22-year-old Latvian Francis Gusts – burst past Niels-Kristian Iversen and Nicolai Klindt on the opening lap of Heat 9 to join skipper Maciej Janowski for a 5-1.

Spires then looked much more competitive for the rest of the evening, with Janowski passing Ben Cook for third place on the final bend of Heat 13, as he joined race-winner Rohan Tungate for a 4-2.

Former Spires’ skipper Chris Harris produced a vintage display of overtaking at reserve for King’s Lynn, posting a six-ride paid maximum in the process. The nearest that any Spire came to defeating ‘Bomber’ was in Heats 12 and 14, when the impressive Gusts showed plenty of spirit and determination to hold back Harris for the majority of both races.

Team manager Peter Schroeck said: “It didn’t look so good early on, but we had a talk together and we then did much better for the rest of the meeting.

“The boys thought the King’s Lynn track was much grippier than it actually was, and it took us a while to get the set-ups right. We had some good races, while the performance of Francis was the highlight – he took a 5-1 with Maciej and then gave Chris Harris a real race a couple of times.

“We’d have loved to have it closer, but we certainly saw positives, in particular the performances of our incoming riders, Francis and Peter.

“It was the Bomber show tonight. He wanted to make a statement which is what we expected. When you take him away, it was pretty level between the two teams.

“Fair play to King’s Lynn, but we hope to return the favour during the season, starting with the second leg at the BetGoodwin Oxford Stadium on Thursday. We need to hit them early on in that – it’s not over on aggregate as yet.”

Tickets for the second leg at the BetGoodwin Oxford Stadium on Thursday (7.30pm) are on sale on the Oxford Speedway website at: https://oxfordspeedway.club/tickets/

King’s Lynn Stars 53: Ben Cook 4, Jan Kvech 10, Nicolai Klindt 5, Niels-Kristian Iversen 7+1, Richard Lawson 5, Chris Harris 17+1, Ashton Boughen 5.

BetGoodwin Oxford Spires 37: Rohan Tungate 7+2, Peter Kildemand 6, Charles Wright 5, Erik Riss 2+2, Maciej Janowski 10, Francis Gusts 7+1. Luke Killeen 0.

PHOTO: Francis Gusts scored paid eight on his debut for BetGoodwin Oxford Spires at King’s Lynn (pic: Les Aubrey)