BELLE Vue opened their Elite League campaign with a dramatic last heat victory over Lakeside at Kirkmanshulme Lane.

They never led until the final race of the night which began with the sides level on 42 all.

But their double world champion Jason Crump stormed to his fourth win of the night with Danish team-mate Charlie Gjedde taking second place.

It ended a dramatic night's racing which turned on a big crash in heat 11 which cost Lakeside two of their top riders.

Andreas Jonsson hit his colleague Leigh Lanham and they piled into the safety fence.

Belle Vue's Michal Rejkowski came down in the aftermath of the crash and there was a 30 minute delay while Lanham was removed from the track in an ambulance.

He finally limped to the dressing room but neither he nor Jonsson, who had a suspected broken finger, took any further part in the meeting.

The Aces were four points adrift at that point but Crump and captain Joe Screen scored maximum points in heat 13 to bring the match all square with two races to go.

The points were shared again in heat 14 to set up the dramatic finale.

Crump set the pace in the final race with Gjedde holding off a series of determined challenges from Jonnas Davidsson to clinch the two match points.

It was an unlikely victory as the Aces had been eight points adrift after five races but Crump and Billy Forsberg fired them back into contention with maximum points from the next race.

Ace's team manager Chris Morton said: "This was a brilliant performance considering the position we were in at one point of the match.

"It's true we had some breaks but although Lanham was forced out of the meeting by injury, he wasn't due another ride anyway.

"We were handicapped with Steve Boxall being out injured and that gave Lakeside a very strong edge in the reserve berths.

"But, on the plus side, Lukasz Jankowski turned in another improved performance and I was very impressed with the effort of Robert Ksiezac who came in for Boxall and did really well against one of the best teams in the league."

BELLE VUE: J Crump (33233) 14, C Gjedde (30232) 10, J Screen (3322) 10, L Jankowski (0131) 5, B Forsberg (0220) 4, R Ksiezac (10002) 3, N Rejkowski (001) 1.

LAKESIDE: L Tomicek (321310) 10, A Shields (22320) 9, J Davidsson (11131) 7, L Lanham (123) 6, A Jonsson (23) 5, J Kylmakorpi (1101) 3, R Kling (2010) 3.