Sundstrom on fire but Rockets lose to Stars

RYE House Rockets put in a battling display but fell to a 52-41 Premier Trophy defeat at King’s Lynn Stars in their first full away meet on Wednesday night.

The Norfolk Arena has not generally been a happy hunting ground for the East Herts outfit, but they can hold their heads high this time around despite the result.

Although only able to secure four race wins from the 15 heats, another strong performance from Linus Sundstrom (13), aided by sterling support from Jordan Frampton (10) kept the Rockets in contention for a match point until the closing stages.

In fact it was Rye who got off to the stronger start, with Chris Neath coasting home in heat 1 and Tomas Topinka taking a lap to overhaul Stefan Ekberg – who was riding the circuit for the first time since his injury there in October 2008 – for second spot.

The Stars were level within two heats, but it wasn’t until Topinka detained Sundstrom on the first two bends of heat 6, allowing Linus Eklof an unchallenged run around the outside for a 5-1, that they gained any real breathing space, at 21-15. The real blow came two races later, however, when Casper Wortmann worked his way past both Kyle Hughes and Ekberg over the final two laps to join Eklof on another 5-1, to take the score to 29-19.

Sundstrom was swiftly nominated for a Tactical ride, and duly won heat 9, but with Shields at the back the Rockets’ advantage was restricted to a 6-3.

A 4-2 from Frampton and Hughes in heat 12 gave Rye fresh hope at 41-34, but a maximum from the strong Doolan-Topinka pairing in heat 13 took the Stars clear again and they subsequently clinched all three match points with a 4-2 in the next race.

The Rockets at least had the satisfaction of finishing with a bang, with Frampton holding off Doolan until the second lap and the Aussie unable to find a way past race winner Sundstrom as the Swede inflicted his only defeat of the match.