Joonas Kylmakorpi: We had the advantage over Swindon Robins

With the Wolverhampton Wolves having only rode two meetings so far this season after their victory at the Abbey Stadium on Thursday, many are surprised at their unbeaten away run start to the season, and none more so than heat leader Joonas Kylmakorpi.

 

“We’ve had two away wins so far and it’s got to have been a long time since Wolverhampton have had such a good start to the season.” Kylmakorpi began.

 

“The team feels solid and we have 7 good guys riding for us.

 

“Everyone puts 100 percent effort into the racing and we are just so happy with tonight’s result," he added.

 

It was a narrow victory for the Midlands club winning by just four points on the night, and, when it comes down to what made a difference between the sides, Kylmakorpi feels confidence in the teams played a big role.

 

“I think tonight one of the big differences was that we had a lot of confidence coming into tonight’s race,” Kylmakorpi explained.

 

“We won our first meeting away to Coventry and Swindon lost to Leicester on Wednesday so I think we came into the race the more confident team.

 

“We started really well on the night and we had a good solid lead after the first eight heats.” He said.

 

With eight heats gone the Wolverhampton Wolves led comfortably by 14 points and a score of 17 – 31. However several inspired performances by the Swindon Robins meant all was to race for going into heat 14. But Kylmakorpi explains that his team didn’t feel nervous about letting slip of their lead.

 

“No we weren’t nervous at all,” Kylmakorpi said.

 

“We had a good lead and we kind of calculated how it was going to go in the last four heats.

 

“It was looking good and we were confident of leaving with the win, which we did," he added.

 

A tough track to ride on the night which saw six grading’s being needed throughout the course of the meeting meant that both sets of riders found it difficult to find much momentum. But Kylmakorpi agreed that any home advantage the Robins may have had was taken away due to the conditions.

 

“You know, it’s easier to come to a bad track as an away rider,” Responded Kylmakorpi.

 

“We don’t know what to expect as an away rider when you come to a track.

 

“But when you turn up as a home rider and the track is different to what it should be, then it’s kind of a struggle to find the right set up.

 

“We definitely had the track advantage on the night and I just hope they can sort it out for the fans as it’s not enjoyable for them to see people following one another around the track with little overtaking," he added.