Former Islanders favourite Tom Brown, left, at the tapes with Nick Simmons. Picture by David Valentine.
SPEEDWAYWightlink Islanders 60, Weymouth Wildcats 32
IN FRONT of the season’s biggest crowd, the Wightlink Islander came to the fore in this National League basement battle on Tuesday night, putting on a performance to remember.
In an emphatic win, the Islanders started as they meant to go on, as skipper Nick Simmons and new signing Lee Smethills slammed home a 5-1 opening heat win.
And with wins in the next two heats, the Islanders began to run away with the meeting, before it had really started.
By the fifth heat, they were a massive 23-7 up and, although Wildcats rallied in the sixth heat, there was no major comeback as Islanders ran riot.
Never taking their foot off the gas, the Islanders were intent on gaining as many league points as possible to put distance between themselves and bottom-placed Weymouth, and the biggest excitement came in the 11th heat, when all four riders raced inches apart for the entire race.
Heat 12 was another classy race as Danny Warwick swooped around the outside of Tom Brown to record another home win, Hills third place saw the Islanders stretch the lead to a uncatchable 47-27 advantage.
The Islanders turned on the style for the final heats, with maximum points in two of the final three races.
The final score saw Islanders move seven points clear of Weymouth, and with the two sides going head to head again tonight (Friday) hopes are high of a repeat.
After the meeting, Simmons said: "This was a real team performance. Now we have Lee in the side, we can beat anyone, and he can get ten points a match riding like that. There was some hard riding and the score did us justice for the effort we put in."
The win came on the back of a disappointing 60-33 defeat away to Dudley last weekend.
After two heats the writing was on the wall for the Islanders as they found themselves 10-2 down and by heat ten, they were 44-19 down.
The next action at Smallbrook Stadium is on Tuesday, when Bournemouth Buccaneers pay the Islanders a visit. Tapes go up at 7.30pm.