Speedway: Silver Machine are edged out in thriller

A thrilling night's racing ended with the Silver Machine just missing out on their third away win of the season at the East of England Showground last night.

Peterborough did not take the lead until heat nine, but then hung on for a narrow win.

Oxford took the early advantage with a 4-2 in the third heat, although it could have been a 5-1.

Ales Dryml showed his liking for the racy Peterborough circuit with a fine outside pass of Rafal Dobrucki on the second lap.

After two shared heats, Oxford should have gone further ahead as Seb Ulamek and Niels- Kristian Iversen did a fantastic pincer movement to move ahead of Henning Bager.

However, Bager plugged away on Iversen and pushed him wide enough to get underneath the Dane.

Then when Dryml followed him through, Iversen pulled up, although it was unclear what the problem was with his machine.

The Panthers levelled up the scores in the sixth after David Norris lost an engine bolt on the start line and was subsequently excluded.

Peterbrough went ahead in the ninth heat as Ales Dryml made his best gate of the evening to head off Norris.

Race of the night came in heat eleven when no fewer than three riders led at some point. Lee Richardson was the eventual winner.

But he had to do it the hard way, as Iversen led first, while Ulamek also had his nose in front before Richardson dived underneath the Oxford pair on the third turn.

Ulamek was then also headed by Panthers reserve Adrian Rymel and it took Ulamek another lap to squeeze back underneath the track specialist for that all important third place.

It did mean however that the home side held a slender two-point lead at the interval stage.

Heats 12 and 13 produced more sensational action and more passing than this poor reporter could possibly keep track of!

The important thing was that it produced two more shared heats and left the advantage at a slender two points.

Heat 14 saw Robbie Kessler bought in as a reserve replacement for the home side.

That move backfired, as he suffered engine gremlins on the first turn, but that allowed Ales Dryml to lead the heat and set up a tense last heat decider.

The Panthers gated first, and although Norris made a valiant effort to grab second place, it was never going to be enough to get Oxford the win.

Peterborough: A Dryml 12+1, G Havelock 8+1, H Bager 8, L Richardson 13+1, R Kessler 4+2, A Rymel 2+1, L Dryml RR,

Oxford: R Fisher 9+2, D Norris 9, T McGowan 8+2, S Ulamek 7+1, N-K Iversen 5, R Dobrucki 5, J Davidsson 0.

Oxford move on to Ipswich tonight when they must pick up another away win to keep their play-off hopes on track.

Ipswich (probable) : H Andersen, D Bird, J Jensen, C Louis, S Nicholls, D King, K Jansson

Oxford: S Ulamek, N-K Iversen, T McGowan, R Dobrucki, D Norris, J Davidsson, R Fisher