COVENTRY No.1 Connor Mountain suffered frustration in Sunday’s National League Riders’ Championship at Leicester.
Mountain had to settle for third place overall despite reeling off four perfect wins in his opening four outings.
But Ben Morley and Alfie Bowtell were just a point behind, and former champion Morley put himself onto a 14-point total by winning Heat 19.
Mountain was then on the outside in a tough Heat 20 and as Bowtell raced clear, the Bees rider was left at the back early on.
Despite passing Max Clegg and strongly challenging for second place against Mark Baseby, his late charge was just in vain, and he was left on 13 points.
Morley then got the better of Bowtell in a fiercely contested run-off which was resolved when Bowtell hit the fence coming off turn two just as he appeared to have overtaken his Isle of Wight team-mate.
Coventry’s other representative Jon Armstrong scored six points, not helped by a painful knock in his first ride when he was brought down by Baseby.
Bees return to action next weekend in their vital play-off semi-final against Eastbourne, travelling to Arlington on Saturday (October 5) before hosting the return at Leicester on Sunday (4pm).
SCORES: Ben Morley 14 (after run-off), Alfie Bowtell 14, Connor Mountain 13, Jack Thomas 10, Tom Perry 8, Max Clegg 8, Mark Baseby 8, Georgie Wood 8, Ryan Kinsley 7, Nathan Stoneman 6, Jon Armstrong 6, Tom Woolley 5, Kyle Bickley 4, Henry Atkins 4, Dan Gilkes (res) 3, Sheldon Davies 1, Drew Kemp 0, Ben Woodhull (res) 0.
