Five-man Ipswich Witches put up a battling performance at Hull Vikings before going down 50-39.
Ipswich used the rider replacement facility for Tomasz Gollob who was absent because of food poisoning.
And in heat two, Jason Bunyan sustained a wrist injury when he fell. It is not known whether he has broken the joint, but he played no further part.
Chris Louis held the Witches together with 18 points - winning five of his seven races.
But Hull, who used former Witch David Norris as a guest rider in the place of injured Shane Parker, proved too strong in the end.
Scorers
Hull
Joe Screen 12+1, Garry Stead 7+1, David Norris 7+2, Ray Morton 9+3, Sam Ermolenko 7+1, Paul Thorp 8, Lee Dicken 0.
Ipswich
Chris Louis 18, Brett Woodifield 3+1, Toni Svab 4+1, Ben Howe 7+1, Savalas Clouting 7, Jason Bunyan 0.
Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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