NEW boy Mathieu Tresarrieu put the va-va-vroom back into Peterborough’s play-off bid.
The French debutant became an instant hero with the Readypower Panthers’ fans as he turned a threatened defeat into a stunning 11-point win.
Ipswich were poised to pull off a shock victory when they led going into Heat 12 and with the home side down to five riders after under-the-weather Troy Batchelor was ruled out with a virus.
It left Tresarrieu, in his first meeting at the East of England Showground having to take injured skipper Niels-Kristian Iversen’s programmed ride in a tough Heat 13.
But the Bordeaux bombshell turned in probably the race of his career to beat five-times British Champion and Witches’ number one Scott Nicholls for a match-turning 5-1.
And then he came out in the next heart to partner crowd-pleaser Krzysztof Buczkowski to another maximum and a last race 4-2 ensured Peterborough took all three points.
Tresarrieu, who started with two last places, revealed: “I hadn’t been able to practice so didn’t know which bike to use.
“I obviously picked the wrong one to start with because after I changed bikes I did well. It was special for me to make that sort of start and to beat someone like Scott on my debut was terrific.”
Stand-in skipper Kenneth Bjerre led from the front yet again, and kept his name on another new track record.
He lowered his own fastest ever time to 58.8 seconds and has now got below the old 59 seconds track record three meetings in a row.
The Grand Prix leader dropped only one point to an opponent – beaten by Daniel King – to guide the Panthers to their sixth successive home win.
Poland star Buczkowski gave him superb backing with another big tally, 16, paid 17, as he maintained his run of double figure scores.
He did it in spectacular style, coming from last to first in his opening ride and then piling on the points when it really matter.
But the real star of the show was Tresarrieu who will go into Thursday’s Elite League clash with second in the table Lakeside full of confidence after dropping only one point in his last three races.
