King’s Lynn’s operations manager Dale Allitt has revealed how the club’s dramatic away win at Birmingham on Monday started with a serious travel headache.
Less than an hour before start-time at Perry Barr the Stars only had three of their seven riders in the pits, with the others caught up in a closure on the M6 between Rugby and Coventry.
A vehicle fire caused massive disruption in the area, and it was only guest riders Rohan Tungate and Adam Ellis along with reserve Anders Rowe who were able to undertake normal preparations at the stadium.
Allitt said: “We actually managed to avoid it because by the time we got to the problem, the diversion was already in place so we got taken off at junction one and brought back on at junction two.
“But the riders were a little ahead of us and they got stuck in it, so we were sweating on four riders as the meeting got closer.
“(Patryk) Wojdylo was driving the car with Niels (Iversen), Jan (Kvech) and Benjamin Basso in it, they were due to be at Perry Barr for 3.30pm, and they actually turned up at 6.35pm.
“Apparently it was a lorry that was on fire with straw that kept re-igniting, so it was a huge delay, and obviously it was very stressful for them and us because once you’re stuck in something like that, you can’t get back.
“Thankfully they did make it and it obviously didn’t affect us too much, but it’s not something we would want to happen too often!”
Lynn’s 47-43 victory, which was their first on the road in the league since August 2022, came courtesy of the team once again functioning as a unit, and their guest bookings came up trumps.
Tungate raced to a superb paid maximum whilst Ellis also contributed double figures, justifying the decision to book him rather than go with rider replacement after Nicolai Klindt was injured in Poland on Sunday.
Allitt said: “We always felt Rohan was a good booking for that meeting, he’d gone well there earlier the season and he was immense.
“The track wasn’t too bad but it was a bit sketchy in places, but I think he’s so light he was just able to deal with it easily.
“Adam also rode really well and it was good that he wasn’t hurt in the last-race crash with Tom Brennan, and that all made the stress from Sunday afternoon worthwhile when we had the news about Nicolai, and trying to sort another guest out.
“It was a great result for us and it shows that when everyone functions, we’ve got a good team.
“We can’t deny there could be a few problems ahead, because of having to use guests when there are busy nights elsewhere in the league, but the recent form has been very encouraging.”