MILDENHALL SPEEDWAY A COMBINATION of mechanical gremlins and an incredibly sharp Somerset Rebels team saw Mildenhall suffer their first home defeat of the season. The Fen Tigers got off to a brilliant start in heat one when Shaun Tacey beat Rebels captain

MILDENHALL SPEEDWAY

A COMBINATION of mechanical gremlins and an incredibly sharp Somerset Rebels team saw Mildenhall suffer their first home defeat of the season.

The Fen Tigers got off to a brilliant start in heat one when Shaun Tacey beat Rebels captain Magnus Zetterstrom to give Mildenhall an unexpected heat advantage against the current Premier League Riders champions.

Heat two got off to the worst possible start as guest Paul Cooper suffered an engine failure at the tapes and Mark Thompson completely missed the start.

It took Thompson until the fourth lap to find a way past Danny Warwick, but Tomas Suchanek comfortably took the chequered flag.

After heat five Mildenhall were 17-13 down, but Tom P Madsen and Tacey came up with the goods against the Rebels pairing of former Fen Tiger Richie Hawkins and reserve Suchanek to score a 5-1 heat advantage and level the scores at 18-18.

After three more close heats, the visitors started to pull away as Emil Kramer and Jordan Frampton left Madsen and Tacey no room to gain clear advantage, and heats 12 and 13 clinched the victory for Somerset as they gained nine points from two races.

Heat 14 saw skipper Jason King handed the black and white helmet to race for double points and the captain didn't disappoint, holding off the challenge from Frampton for four laps to take six points from the heat and bring the scores closer together.

Even though the meeting was won, heat 15 wasn't a race with nothing at stake as Kramer needed another heat win to secure his 15-point maximum and Zetterstrom isn't a rider renowned for taking it easy.

An exciting race saw Madsen pull clear of the Rebels pairing, and King held off both Rebels riders in a race that went right the way to the line.

But Mildenhall's comeback was too late and the gap could only be reduced to three points in favour of the Rebels, ending with a final score of 48-45.

n Mildenhall face what could be their toughest test of the season, with a Knockout Cup match at home against the much-fancied Rye House Rockets on Sunday (April 29) at 4:30pm.