Arena Essex scraped home by the narrowest of margins against East-bourne at the Purfleet Raceway last night.

The victory was gained after a last heat decider with Mark Loram taking the honours to give the Hammersa 47-46 victory.

Loram took full advantage of the inside gate to put paid to 2003 World Champion Nicki Pedersen's chances of completing a five-ride paid maximum.

This rich cocktail of absorbing speedway produced a generous splash of action packed races, a dash of surprise results and a measure of controversy for the fans to digest.

Heat five provided the first of the stirring action when Kelvin Tatum and Dean Barker's advantage was gradually whittled away by David Norris before Barker bowed to the pressure by falling on the third lap with the race awarded.

Then Pedersen and Loram fought out a classic with the Dane successfully denying his rival's efforts to find an opening as the Hammers looked to extend their four-point lead.

That appeared likely when Paul Hurry and Josh Larsen trapped clear in heat 7 but Larsen shed a primary chain although he was immediately back on track in the next to take a rider replacement ride for the illness victim Greg Walasek.

Published Thursday August 12, 2004

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