SPEEDWAY: ELITE League bike action resumed at Purfleet and Lakeside Hammers started brilliantly with an emphatic 61-32 point victory over the Belle Vue Aces.

The new-look Hammers outfit logged a blistering 31-point victory which had Arena Essex promoter Jon Cook singing the praises of his riders.

He said: “We’ve worked very hard and this is a fantastic way to start the season.”

All eyes were on Hammers new heat leader duo of Davey Watt and Peter Karlsson, who – along with Lee Richardson – didn’t disappoint the big crowd at the track.

They pulled in a combined 27 point haul to virtually guarantee the Hammers victory.

It was pretty much all one way traffic after the first couple of heats with the initiative provided by Kim Nilsson’s third-to-first effort to pass both Aces in the second race.

Only the Aces’ Rory Schlein providing much in the way of backbone to fend off what would otherwise have been an even heavier defeat. The visiting Mancunians, had suffer the misfortune of losing Patrick Hougaard to a suspected broken collarbone after a seemingly innocuous fall in heat seven.

It was left to Schlein to make amends with his own “double pointer” in heat eleven.

But it was a case of too little, too late as far as the Elite League points were concerned.

With the meeting result decided, it was very much a case of watching to see who could go through the card as far as the maximum stakes were concerned.

Karlsson, who had missed out to Schlein in the very first heat, remained otherwise unbeaten but even he had to concede the evening’s top honours, which went to way of Kim Nilsson. The young Swedish reserve collected a four ride paid maximum to start the season in fine style. Watt missed out on his own debut full score when he and Karlsson were split by Charlie Gjedde.