West Cumbrian Richard Lawson helped the Poole Pirates moved back to second place in the Championship last night.
A 55-34 win over Redcar in their final league match of the regular campaign saw them finish on 39 points, two ahead of Glasgow.
The Tigers still have away matches remaining at Redcar and Plymouth in the battle for the other automatic play-off semi-final place along with leaders Leicester.
The meeting went ahead after extensive work by track staff following a 6pm downpour, and Poole suffered the loss of No.1 Steve Worrall who aggravated a shoulder injury in a second-ride fall.
Lawson, Danny King and Ben Cook all racked up scores of 12+2 to see the Pirates to a comfortable win, whilst Lewis Kerr top-scored for the Bears with 12. Former Workington rider Charles Wright scored eight and a bonus.
Lawson said: “The starts were important, so fortunately we were on top of that and the track rode very well. Obviously they did a lot of work on it considering how much rain came down
“We were unlucky to lose Stevie, but with the extra ride I was able to use his tyre and if you can get a fresh edge halfway through the meeting then it gives you a little bit of an advantage.
“I would just like to say fair play to Steve’s mechanic for mucking in and helping the rest of us out once Steve had to sit most of the meeting out. We will now have to wait and see if we have done enough.”
