Joonas Kylmakorpi produced a stunning display of speedway as Arena Essex beat Newcastle 52-38 on Friday night at the Purfleet Raceway

The Flying Finn started by lowering his own track record by 0.2 seconds to win the first heat in 58.0 seconds.

Then he had the crowd gasping with heroics in his final two rides.

With the Hammers holding an eight-point lead after 12 heats, Kylmakorpi had the crowd gasping in amazement as he followed Lanham over the line for a 5-1 after a dramatic effort.

He looked out of it after he almost crashed on the first turn, but battled back and produced an audacious manoeuvre to squeeze past the two Diamonds riders on the second lap.

Two races later he produced a similar trick to leave rival Stuart Robson stunned on the final turn.

With Kylmakorpi absent on World Cup duty with Finland, Arena went down to a narrow 47-42 defeat at Newport on Sunday in the Premier League.

David Ruud stepped in for a rare appearance scoring nine points from his five rides as the Hammers lead by 6 points with three heats remaining until a powerful surge from the Welsh side saw them take three maximums to snatch the two league points.

Published Monday, August 4, 2003

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