The Coventry Bees travelled to Swindon to take on the Robins in front of the live Sky Sports TV cameras with a couple of firsts, one being the debut of polish rider Przemyslaw Pawlicki and the return to Abbey road for Bees team manager Alun Rossiter.
Heat 1 set the tone for the Bees tonight with Chris Harris taking a fine win over Swindon number 1 Leigh Adams for Harris' first heat one win of the season. Some hard but entertaining riding followed over the next few heats which were drawn before the Bees moved further into the lead with a super 5-1 maximum from Chris Harris and Ben Barker.
However the Robins were not to be out done and immediately hit back with a 5-1 of their own in heat 6, but back came the Bees again in heat 7 with yet another 5-1 - this time Pawlicki took the honours just ahead of Edward Kennett.
The Bees side were gating much better than of late and a a result were making the Robins work hard for every point, as a Bees 4-2 in heat 8 stretched the advantage out to 8 points.
A shared heat 9 was followed by a Robins maximum in heat 10 to halve the Bees lead but Ben Barker, probably having his best meeting of the season so far, led the way to a Bees 4-2 to immediately hit back and open up a 6 point cushion.
With 4 heats to go the Bees could not settle and a superb race between Chris Harris and Leigh Adams in heat 13 followed a race stoppage after the Robins rider Kornellisuen had fallen for the second time in the night and was excluded.
So entering the final 2 heats the Bees had maintained the 6 point advantage and a 3-3 in heat 14 sealed the victory and 3 points, which soon became 4 league points as a final heat 15 drawn heat ensured that the Bees picked up the extra bonus point for a 6 point + away victory.
The Bees scorers tonight were:-
1. Chris Harris 3, 3, 1, 2, 3 = 12
2. Ben Barker 1, 2*, 3, 3, 0 = 9+1
3. Edward Kennett 1*, 2*, 1, 3 = 7+2
4. Przemyslaw Pawlicki 2, 3, 0, 2 = 7
5. Rory Schlein 3, 1, 2, 1* = 7+1
6. Richard Sweetman 2, 0, 1, 0, 1* = 4+1
7. Filip Sitera 1*, 0, 1* = 2+2