Peterborough’s hopes of a vital away point were extinguished when on-fire Kenneth Bjerre’s bike burst into flames.
The Panthers needed a share of the points from the last heat at Belle Vue to keep the losing margin to six points that would have given them some reward for a battling display.
Bjerre, who won the Swedish Grand Prix on Saturday, had to switch to his spare machine after discovering a broken engine bolt while on his way to the line for the crucial heat 15.
He went out on his second bike and he and partner Troy Batchelor were on a 4-2 when the Dane suddenly stopped with his bike ablaze.
He said: “I can’t ever remember that happening to me before. Because the engine was cold a backfire caused the carburettor to catch fire.”
The race was stopped while team mechanic Ray Blackwell doused the flames and in the re-run the unlucky Batchelor,who had been leading, was beaten by the Belle Vue pairing of number one Hans Andersen and James Wright who gave the home side a 51-41 win.
Lewis Bridger bounced back from a disappointing run of form to claim three paid-wins, but Peterborough’s weakness at reserve was again a determining factor, despite the best efforts of guest Craig Cook. The two-point return from the reserve partnership of Cook and Linus Eklöf was out-scored heavily by the home pairing, who weighed in with 11 points.
BELLE VUE 51 (Hans Andersen 15 (3-3-3-3-3), James Wright 10:3 (2:1-2:1-3-1-2:1), Patrick Hougaard 8 (FD-3-3-2), Tobias Kroner 0 (R-0-0), Peter Karlsson 7 (2-1-3-1), William Lawson 5 (3-0-0-2), Leigh Lanham 6:3 (2:1-1:1-1-1-1:1).