Lakeside Hammers head to Manchester today aiming to make it a double over Belle Vue.

The Hammers defeated the northerners 48-41 at Arena Essex Raceway on Friday night to make it two wins in 24 hours.

Lakeside saw off Swindon 47-43 on Thursday night in Wiltshire after three weeks without a fixture.

And Hammers’ co-promoter Jon Cook was quick to praise new team manager Neil Vatcher for his part in the successes.

“He has started to really find his feet with the team and his calls from the use of rider replacement at number two against Swindon were spot on,” Cook said.

“He and the boys have a great rapport and his arrival at the club has been a big positive.”

Lee Richardson led the Hammers’ points-scoring at Swindon with 15 as he reeled off five heat wins out of six races.

The visitors were never headed after a Richardson and Kauko Nieminen one-two in heat one put them in front.

Friday night’s meeting saw the Hammers and Aces level on nine points each after three shared heats.

Lakeside took a two-point lead in heat four courtesy of a 4-2 from Piotr Swiderski and Robert Mear, but Belle Vue levelled with a 4-2 of their own.

Swiderski and guest rider Ricky Wells combined for a 4-2 in heat seven and Richardson scored a win in heat eight which saw Mear and the Aces’ Ricky Kling both excluded for unfair riding and removing an advert from the fence respectively.

A shared heat followed before a Richardson and Swiderski 5-1 and then a Swinderski and Mear 4-2 made it 37-28 to Lakeside.

Wells grabbed a point in heat 12 but Swiderski and Mear had a 4-2 in heat 13 to make it 42-35.

The final two heats were shared to give Hammers a 48-41 win.