PETERBOROUGH roared to a third away victory of the SGB Championship season – courtesy of one of their best 2017 showings.
The ‘T Balfe Construction’ Panthers swooped for a 50-40 triumph at play-off bound Glasgow to extend their winning streak to three meetings.
Number one Jack Holder spearheaded the Peterborough march to glory north of the border by reeling off four heat victories following a retirement in the opener.
It was a spectacular return from the Australian talent, who had never previously managed to win a race at the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium – and one which will no doubt make him one of the favourite for second-tier riders’ championship glory at the same venue next weekend.
And the same applies to team-mate Chris Harris, who enjoyed a double-figures return with a 10+1 haul which featured a 5-1 in the finale along with Holder.
Peterborough were aided by an impressive tally from reserve Simon Lambert less than 24 hours after he helped Glasgow seal their play-off spot as a guest for them against Redcar at the same venue.
There were also key contributions from middle-order men Paul Starke and Ulrich Ostergaard.
Starke took the chequered flag as they combined for a 5-1 in heat seven that fired Panthers into a lead they held for the remainder of the meeting.
And skipper Ostergaard raced to victory in a shared penultimate race to clinch victory before Holder and Harris applied the icing to the cake.
“I was very confident we would get a result at Glasgow with a full team – and that’s exactly how it turned out,” said team boss Carl Johnson.
“It’s an excellent result which is right up there with the best we’ve enjoyed this season.
“We led for a lot of the meeting and we could probably have won by a few more points in all honesty.
“The track was really deep early on and both teams were struggling to ride it, but it improved as things went on.
“We were quick out of the starts which is always important at a place which is pretty narrow and doesn’t offer a lot of racing lines.
“We’ve now picked up three wins in a row and hopefully that run can continue for a lot longer.”
The success in Scotland provided the perfect preparation for Panthers’ big KO Cup quarter-final second leg at Scunthorpe on Friday.
They boast an 18-point advantage on aggregate following the first leg back in June, but that won’t be on Johnson’s mind as they bid to seal a semi-final date against either Glasgow or Newcastle.
“We’ll have a full team again for the KO Cup clash and we’re going to Scunthorpe to pick up another victory,” added Johnson. “The aggregate situation won’t come into our thinking.
“We had a big collapse in the final few heats of our league defeat there last month and we’re determined to put that right.
“We had our top two men – Jack and Chris – missing that day and I’m confident we’ll show what we’re about with our complete one-to-seven.
SCORES
GLASGOW: Richard Lawson 11, Richie Worrall 10+1, Aaron Summers 8, David Howe (guest) 7+2, Mitchell Davey (guest) 4+1, Ryan MacDonald 0 (guest), Rider replacement for Dan Bewley.
PETERBOROUGH: Jack Holder 12, Chris Harris 10+1, Simon Lambert 8+2, Ulrich Ostergaard 7+1, Paul Starke 7, Bradley Wilson-Dean 4, Tom Bacon 2.