A pre-meeting pep talk inspired Peterborough to their biggest win of the season – and a major boost to their Elite League title bid.
The Readypower Panthers crushed visitors and opened up a four-point gap between the two teams who were straddling the play-off cut-off point before the meeting.
Rory Schlein revealed: “We all had a get-together in the dressing room before the meeting – every rider and all the management team.
“It was stressed how important it was to get off to a good start against the Robins.
“We’ve started too slowly in some of our recent matches and we all talked about the importance of hitting them early.
“We spoke about what we could do to make sure we were making good starts from the off – and it worked to the letter.”
The Panthers blew away the visitors from an opening race maximum from Kenneth Bjerre and Krzysztof Buczkowski with Elite League record points scorer Leigh Adams relegated to third place.
And Norbi Kosciuch – with his first British win – and Mathieu Tresarrieu followed up with a reserves’ race 5-1.
Only mechanical problems for Kosciuch, when he was second to partner and Stanair Man of the Match Troy Batchelor, prevented the Panthers reeling off five successive maximums but even so they led by 20 points after only seven races and there was no way back for the Wiltshire side.
Kosciuch, who ended with his highest score since joining Peterborough towards the end of last month, said: “I am beginning to get used to the track and I was much happier. But I know I can do a lot better.”
Team boss Trevor Swales added: “That’s probably the first time this season that everyone has done their job – we had scorers from one to seven.”
Aussie Batchelor deservedly cracked open the Stanair bubbly and had two wins over Adams but dropped his only point to his fellow countryman in Heat 13.
He said: “That’s probably the best I’ve ridden at Peterborough all season – I felt really good and it was a terrific team performance.”
With Belle Vue grabbing a point from their defeat at Lakeside, Peterborough are now only three points behind the Hammers with a match in hand.
And they are three points in front of the Aces, who have ridden four more matches.
