INCONSISTENT Peterborough were unable to halt the Swindon juggernaut at the Showground on Friday – as the reigning Elite League champions swept to a 50-40 victory.
Five of the seven Readypower Panthers won a race and each was paid for at least one win, but only Kenni Larsen was in the major points throughout the evening.
The home side’s top two riders both had disappointing meetings, with skipper Kenneth Bjerre unable to build on a Heat 1 5-1 alongside Ryan Fisher, whilst Linus Sundstrom endured a night to forget with his Heat 11 win being his only scoring outing, as he also suffered three crashes.
Panthers were given a great start by Bjerre and Fisher as former captain Hans Andersen was relegated to the back in the first race, and they maintained their four-point lead through the early stages of the meeting.
But there were early warning signs from Robins reserve Kacper Gomolski, a Peterborough rider in 2011, as he battled strongly with Fisher in Heat 6, and when Sundstrom fell whilst challenging Edward Kennett in the next the visitors were awarded a 5-1 which took them ahead.
Panthers hit back with a terrific effort from Larsen and Norbert Kosciuch to ease out Troy Batchelor in Heat 9, but the lead was short-lived with the potent pairing of Kennett and Peter Kildemand getting the better of Fisher and Bjerre in Heat 10.
Sundstrom’s win over Andersen in Heat 11 levelled the scores but the impressive Gomolski still had two rides to come, and he duly teamed up with Kildemand in Heat 12 for a big 5-1, whilst Andersen gained revenge over Bjerre in Heat 13 with Batchelor salvaging third place from Sundstrom on the last lap to make the match almost safe.
Kennett – unbeaten save for a Heat 8 fall on a track where he failed to score last August – clinched victory with a win in Heat 14, and Gomolski’s pass on Patrick Hougaard put the Robins in line to collect maximum points from the meeting, which was duly secured by Andersen in the last race.
Panthers boss Jan Staechmann said: “There’s no way of getting around the fact that it was a disappointment, and we have to re-group. There wasn’t any one over-riding factor, but I do think we need to be stronger from the gate and be better at defending our positions.
“You can look at the individual races until you’re blue in the face, the fact of the matter is that we lost by ten points at home, and so anything we come up with would just be excuses, which serves no purpose.
“We’ve had five meetings so far and four of them have been against some of the favourites for the championship, but we should be able to win races and we need to do better.”
READYPOWER PANTHERS 40: Kenni Larsen 11, Ryan Fisher 8, Norbert Kosciuch 5+3, Patrick Hougaard 5, Kenneth Bjerre 4+1, Dakota North 4+1, Linus Sundstrom 3.
SWINDON 50: Hans Andersen 12, Kacper Gomolski 11+1, Edward Kennett 10+2, Peter Kildemand 10, Troy Batchelor 6+1, David Bellego 1+1, Nick Morris r/r.