Lynn Stars 68 Isle of Wight 23

THREE of the Money Centre Stars went through the card in this easy win over a poor Isle of Wight outfit on Wednesday, at the Norfolk Arena.

Kevin Doolan, Tomas Topinka and young Simon Lambert all boosted their personal averages and were rarely extended on the track.

And it was also a good pay night for reserves John Oliver and the flu-hit Kozza Smith, who had some terrific battles with their fellow Australian Richard Sweetman, the only Islander who seemed prepared to take the fight to Lynn.

But on a night when the Stars were using rider replacement for the injured Shaun Tacey, they were further hit when Rusty Harrison was treated by the track medics and then went to hospital for a check-up on a possible blood clot.

Team manager Rob Lyon explained: “On reflection perhaps Rusty shouldn’t have ridden. He’s had a back problem for a while and tonight that problem seemed to go down his leg, so there was a concern about blood clots which is why he went to hospital.

“Considering we also had Kozza Smith down with a bad bout of flu this was a remarkable scoreline. It was an excellent race track, very smooth, but apart from Sweetman the Isle of Wight didn’t offer anything.”

This win pushed the Stars back into second place above Somerset on race points, with just next week’s home match with Reading and then the trip to Mildenhall to come before the end-of-season play-offs.

Lynn: Kevin Doolan 14+1 (5 rides), rider replacement for Shaun Tacey, Tomas Topinka 13+2 (5 rides), Simon Lambert 13+2 (5 rides), Rusty Harrison 3+1 (3 rides), John Oliver 15+3 (7 rides), Kozza Smith 10+1 (5 rides).

Isle of Wight: Jason Bunyan 5 (5 rides), James Holder 0 (3 rides), Krystof Stojanowski 3 (4 rides), Paul Fry 1 (4 rides), Glen Phillips 2 (4 rides), Andrew Bargh 0 (3 rides), Richard Sweetman 12 (7 rides).

l It was later confirmed that Harrison had been detained overnight at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital because of a suspected blood clot and he was due to have a scan yesterday afternoon.

The 27-year-old Australian had looked out of sorts in his three rides against Isle of Wight before pulling out of the meeting.

Harrison has already been ruled out for the season, as has Shaun Tacey (broken collarbone) and club officials are reviewing their options for the vital matches ahead.