Wolves speedway win at Birmingham

Birmingham 44 Wolves 46

The clocks go forward in 10 days' time - but Wolves turned them back two years in Birmingham.

The 2009 Elite League title triumph was built on the three-pronged spearhead of Fredrik Lindgren's brilliance, Peter Karlsson's canny experience and Tai Woffinden's youthful zest.

Karlsson's return after a year on loan at Belle Vue has reunited the three - and the result was a win in the season opener last night.

Lindgren's five-ride full house was delivered with an assurance remarkable even by his standards. It looked preordained from the very first race, when he was third from the start but eased his way past Brummies' Krzysztof Kasprzak and Ales Dryml inside a lap.

Kasprzak headed him again in heat 13 but the Swede was generating blinding speed on a well-prepared Perry Barr surface and was not to be denied.

Karlsson, too, was producing vintage stuff, gliding past James Wright first time out before stiffening those 41-year-old sinews for a dramatic battle with, and subsequent pass of Daniel Nermark.

The Wolves captain only dropped two points all night, in the 13th race, and even there he levered his way past Nermark as Wolves closed in on the win.

The two Swedes combined to snatch victory on the night with a dominant 5-1 in the final heat, which was reminiscent of so many similar successes two years ago.

But arguably the most encouraging sight for a healthy contingent of Wolves fans in the big crowd that welcomed top-flight racing back to Birmingham after 28 years was that of Woffinden in full flight.

It wasn't so much the three victories he reeled off - welcome though they were - as their manner.

The sharp first turn elbows battle he won with the luckless Kasprzak in heat 10 showed his eagerness for the fray but the wide swoops in the dirt spoke of a young man learning to enjoy his racing again after a sombre 2010.

Down the order, dire predictions from the doubters about Wolves' American reserves already look misplaced.

Ricky Wells took an emphatic win in heat two, attacking hard off the second bend to surprise Claus Vissing, while Tyson Burmeister almost made the dream start of scoring in his first top-level race.

Burmeister held third for a couple of laps before James Wright got through, but got on the scoreboard with a fine second place in his final ride and should be satisfied with his night's work.

Ludvig Lindgren's fortunes changed with a bike switch while Ty Proctor was unfortunate in the 12th, losing position while trying to give Burmeister room in which to work.

Birmingham have a solid line-up - the home side didn't run a last place until heat 11 - but could record only three heat victories out of 15 and their lack of top end clout always looked likely to be exposed in the closing races.

They suffered misfortune in the penultimate heat when Vissing's fall - a broken wrist is suspected - helped the visitors to a heat advantage which left them needing the maximum return in the last for victory. Cue Lindgren and Karlsson.

By Tim Hamblin