A NEW-LOOK Peterborough avenged their Good Friday defeat to rivals King's Lynn with a crushing defeat of the Stars at the Showground on Friday.
Boosted by the arrival of three new faces, although all are old friends, the Readypower Panthers put in one of their best performances of the season.
Despite an opening race 2-4 reverse the home side quickly raced ahead with heat advantages in the next three races, including two eye-catching wins from man of the match Patrick Hougaard.
A string of 3-3's ensued until Heat 8 where Hougaard, back to full fitness after the knock he took at Belle Vue last month, teamed-up with the returning Norbert Kosciuch for a 5-1 that pushed Peterborough 10 points ahead and firmly in control.
The writing was on the wall for the visitors when another returnee, Krzysztof Buczkowski, partnered Ryan Fisher to another 5-1 in Heat 9 when Rory Schlein was on a tactical ride.
Richie Worrall showed a glimpse of his huge potential when he held off Kenneth Bjerre and Kosciuch in the following race after a titanic battle, and then the majestic Niels-Kristian Iversen scored six points in Heat 11 to reduce the deficit to nine.
Again though the Panthers hit back and it was that man Hougaard again, this time team-riding with Ryan Fisher to win the meeting for his side with three heats to spare.
Peterborough's third debutant - Joonas Kylmakorpi - made a stunning start in Heat 13 meaning he missed all the action behind him, where Bjerre used every bit of his Showground knowledge to hold off Danish colleague Iversen in a marvellous race.
Buczkowski completed his night's work with a win in Heat 14 and then the only question was whether Hougaard could protect his maximum against GP star Iversen.
Hougaard made a textbook start and Iversen was hot on his tail, the Lynn man looked to have passed his countryman before Hougaard squeezed through the smallest of gaps on the backstraight on lap three. With just two bends remaining it looked as if the Panthers reserve had done enough but his opponent somehow scrubbed off his speed before bend three to nip underneath and hold on for a brilliant win.
It was a brilliant night for the Panthers and specifically for Hougaard, who was delighted to contribute towards the victory. He said: "The most important thing was that we won the meeting and that's what we needed as a team, we've struggled quite hard this year but hopefully now we can carry on where we've left tonight.
"I made some brilliant starts and I passed a few guys as well, I thought that I'd done enough in the last race but Niels was just a bit quicker than me. It was a good night though, definitely, and I'm really happy."
READYPOWER PANTHERS 54: Patrick Hougaard 14, Krzysztof Buczkowski 11, Joonas Kylmakorpi 10+1, Kenneth Bjerre 9+1, Ryan Fisher 6+3, Norbert Kosciuch 3+2, Dakota North 1.