Massive crowd at Lakeside.

The Lakeside Hammers head back into action at the Arena Essex Raceway on Friday buoyed on by the biggest night in their history played out in front of the Sky Sports cameras on Monday night.

The counting of the arriving crowd stopped at over 7000 before Heat 1 but with the M25 affected by incoming traffic and the Thurrock Services roundabout blocked with Supporters queuing into the stadium fans continued arriving up until heat 5 meaning the true attendance will never be known.

The whole of the watching speedway world drew breath as they realised that Essex now has a club ready to challenge the long time top liners such as Coventry and Poole and the Hammers showed on track that they are up to the task with a tremendous team performance.

Whilst converting all those first time supporters into regulars will take time the new promotion have proved to everyone, including themselves, that there is a huge market in the area for Elite League Speedway and this summer looks to be one of sheer excitement for fans of the two wheeled sport at the Raceway.

It's back to the grindstone on Friday as League champions Peterborough visit and with injury problems the Hammers will do well to claim two more League points in a match that is sure to go down to the wire.

The Hammers team manager Jon Cook commented on Friday's likely line-up by stating:- "It seems that Joonas Kylmakorpi may have to sit out another couple of weeks to fully heal a crack in the ball joint in his shoulder although Joonas has told me that he will ride through the pain barrier if necessary. Henning Bager is still targeting the first week in May for his comeback although his doctor advises longer so again we will have to wait and let time take its course.

"We should be under no illusion that this means we are in for a tough few weeks. The fighting spirit we showed Monday will need to be repeated against the Panthers if we are to keep our unbeaten home record intact."

It is likely that the Hammers will go into Friday's match utilising the "Rider Replacement" facility for Kylmakorpi as Pole Sebastian Ulamek from Swindon, their original target to come in as a guest, broke a bone in his thumb in a track crash back in his homeland last weekend.

The Hammers No.8, Chris Neath, will continue to cover for Bager. The Panthers are due to be at full strength and will be led by Danish Grand Prix star Hans Andersen.