Esbjerg Vikings triumphed on Wednesday evening at the Vojens Speedway Center, and also took bonus points after a furious detour.
By Ib Søby
On a beautiful speedway evening with plenty of great heats, SES - Sønderjylland Elite Speedway had to suffer its 3rd defeat of the season, and the conditions for securing a home track in this year's Superfinal now look a little more promising.
Next week, the - eagerly awaited - decisive match against Holsted Tigers is played at the Moldow Arena, and it requires a sure victory. But the fact is that Holsted – after Wednesday – still has two matches to make good on.
It was already an assumption that tonight's match against Esbjerg would be an even affair, and the first four heats all ended 3-3. Since then it wavered back and forth, but in heat eight the strong Esbjerg duo Niels Kr. Iversen and Mathias Nielsen a double victory which brought the West Jutland to the front.
And there they stayed.
For SES, it was also important that Benjamin Basso, after a crash, hit the shoulder that he has been struggling with for a week.
After heat 14, the score was 44-40 to Esbjerg, which was exactly the same as SES had won with at Granly Arena in June, and therefore a rare detour was needed for bonus points.
That heat was run in the Speedway of Nations format with 4-3-2-0, where it is important to avoid last place.
But again Iversen ag Nielsen showed high class and won 7-2, so that Tom Pårup Madsen's troops could leave Vojens with the jackpot, and 3 points for the overall position.
SES – Sønderjylland Elite Speedway 40 + 2
Mads Hansen 13 + 2
Matej Zagar 10
Nicolai Klindt 4
Benjamin Basso 8
Jesper Knudsen 5
Esbjerg Vikings 44 + 7
Mathias Nielsen 14 + 3
Niels Kr. Iversen 12 + 4
Grzegorz Zengota 9
Emil Breum 8
Sam Jensen 1