WEYMOUTH WILDCATS 49 PLYMOUTH DEVILS 41

PHIL Bartlett hailed the impact of new recruit Adam McKinna after the Weymouth Weyline Wildcats overturned the Plymouth Devils.

McKinna, who has signed from the Newcastle Diamonds as a temporary replacement for the stricken Terry Day, notched 7+1 on his debut as the Cats edged an absorbing meeting.

Ever-reliable James Cockle (12) top scored for the hosts at the Wessex Raceway, while Tom Brown (9) and reserve rider Richard Andrews (7+1) both impressed.

However, chairman and caretaker-manager Bartlett, who oversaw Weymouth’s second National League victory of the campaign, reserved special praise for McKinna.

He told Echosport: “We’ve been struggling to cover for rider-replacement but Adam has picked the boys up because they have another man in the team.

“You always want to have a full complement of riders and Adam was the key man. He made the difference by scoring well.

“He is just returning from a broken neck and Newcastle were happy to loan him out to us to get some rides under his belt before he moves back into the Premier League.”

Commenting on the victory over the Wildcats’ fierce rivals, Bartlett added: “We have a good record at home to Plymouth and it’s always nice to get one over on them.

“They changed their team to try to beat us but it didn’t work. This is a step in the right direction for us, but we are still nowhere near where we should be.”

Byron Bekker, who endured an otherwise forgettable evening, scor-ched round the outside from gate four to win heat one as the Cats opened with a maximum.

Luke Chessell nearly repeated the trick in the next, only to fall at the final turn and cost Weymouth back-to-back 5-1s, as Andrews took the chequered flag.

A sequence of four successive 3-3s illustrated the competitiveness of the action before Plymouth levelled matters at 18-18 thanks to a victory for skipper Mark Simmonds.

Cockle hunted down the Devils’ Seemond Stephens and then overtook him on the line in a thrilling heat seven, which restored the Wildcats’ fragile lead.

McKinna then claimed his first race for his adopted side but was subsequently disqualified from heat 10 for an incident that dismounted three riders from their machines.

Stephens claimed the re-run in a photo finish from Bekker, much to the disappointment of Weymouth supporters, to restore parity once more.

But just when the Cats needed something magical, Cockle pulled a rabbit out of the hat by outstripping Nikki Glanz on the back straight to grab a crucial first place in race 11.

Brown and the resilient Chessell combined to stretch the home side’s advantage to six points, but this was slashed to two by a fourth victory for Simmonds.

A final-heat decider had looked on the cards when Stephens headed the penultimate heat, but he lost mom-entum and allowed the Cats to pinch a 5-1 and with it overall victory.

Cockle added gloss as Weymouth signed off with a 4-2, which handed them three vital points in their bid to climb off the foot of the National League table.