MAN-of-the-moment Krzysztof Kasprzak performed the trapeze as he stormed to his first full Pirates maximum.The young Pole showed he could quite clearly have been a circus showman if he was not already a speedway ride with an astonishing balancing act that enabled him to win heat nine on May 11.

Poole RIAS had found a weakened Coventry - forced to use rider replacement for Andreas Jonsson, injured in Sweden on Tuesday - a tough nut to crack up until then.

Indeed, the Dorset club, with reserve Tobias Johansson making his debut, only led 26-22 as Kasprzak went up to the tapes alongside team-mate Antonio Lindback against Bees duo Scott Nicholls and Daniel Davidsson.

Nicholls had already won his opening two rides, beating Ryan Sullivan and Bjarne Pedersen into the bargain.

And six-man Coventry were still level 69-69 on aggregate in the battle for the bonus. So the outcome of heat nine vital for both sides.

Kasprzak was first out, followed closely by Lindback and Nicholls.

Pirates were on a 5-1, but then it all went horribly wrong for KK as his back wheel lost grip and his machine reared violently into the air as he came out of the second bend.

The young Pole somehow managed to keep control of his bike as Lindback got dangerously close to him.

In a move reminiscent of Tony Rickardsson's in the Grand Prix two years ago, Kasprzak quickly got his act together by bringing the bike down and charging up the back straight.

It looked as though he and Lindback would collide, but KK got away with it and they kept Nicholls at bay until the Brit blasted inside the Rio Rocket into second on the second bend of the third lap.

There was no catching Kasprzak, though, and the Poole 4-2 stretched their lead to 30-24 at an important stage.

Pirates won five of the final six races as the Bees tailed off badly and Pedersen wrapped up victory when he pipped Nicholls to the line for second in heat 13 behind winner Sullivan.

The Dane burst outside Nicholls on the final bend to re-pass him after the Brit had dived under Pedersen into second on the pits bend of the same lap.

Pirates head for Oxford on May 12 with the same team except for Edward Kennett, who replaces Ricky Ashworth.

Oxford, who lost 62-30 at Peterborough last night, line up with 1 Greg Hancock, 2 Travis McGowan, 3 Jesper B Jensen, 4 Niels Kristian-Iversen, 5 Stefan Andersson, 6 Tom Madsen, 7 Henka Gustafsson.

Heat Details- Pirates V Bees

Pirates 57: 1 Bjarne Pedersen (2*-2-3-2*) 9+2, 2 Matej Ferjan (3-1*-3-2*) 9+2, 3 Krzysztof Kasprzak (3-3-3-3-3) 15, 4 Antonio Lindback (2*-0-1-3) 6+1, 5 Ryan Sullivan (2-3-3-3-2*) 13+1, 6 Tobias Johansson (0-0-0) 0, 7 Ricky Ashworth (1-0-1*-1-2*) 5+2. Team manager: Neil Middleditch. Coventry 36: 1 Rider replacement for Andreas Jonsson (injured), 2 Chris Harris (0-1*-2-1*-0) 4+2, 3 Rory Schlein (1-2-1*-0-2-0) 6+1, 4 Morten Risager (1-0-2-1-2) 6, 5 Scott Nicholls (3-3-2-4-1-1) 14, 6 Daniel Davidsson (3-0-0-0) 3, 7 Martin Smolinski (2*-1-0-0) 3+1. Team manager: Colin Pratt and Peter Oakes. Referee: Chris Gay. Ht 1: Ferjan, Pedersen, Risager, Harris (fell remounted), 59.59 (5-1). Ht 2: Davidsson, Smolinski, Ashworth, Johansson, 59.81 (6-6). Ht 3: Kasprzak, Lindback, Schlein, Risager, 58.86 (11-7). Ht 4: Nicholls, Sullivan, Smolinski, Ashworth, 58.98 (13-11). Ht 5: Kasprzak, Schlein, Harris, Lindback, 58.75 (16-14). Ht 6: Nicholls, Pedersen, Ferjan, Davidsson, 58.56 (19-17). Ht 7: Sullivan, Risager, Schlein, Johansson, 59.39 (22-20). Ht 8: Ferjan, Harris, Ashworth, Smolinski, 59.56 (26-22). Ht 9: Kasprzak, Nicholls, Lindback, Davidsson, 59.59 (30-24). Ht 10: Pedersen, Ferjan, Risager, Schlein, 59.33 (35-25). Ht 11: Sullivan, Nicholls (tactical rider, double points), Harris, Johansson, 59.09 (38-30). Ht 12: Kasprzak, Schlein, Ashworth, Davidsson, 59.46 (42-32). Ht 13: Sullivan, Pedersen, Nicholls, Harris, 59.20 (47-33). Ht 14: Lindback, Ashworth, Risager (tactical rider, double points), Smolinski, 59.54 (52-35). Ht 15: Kasprzak, Sullivan, Nicholls, Schlein, 59.18 (57-36).