Josh Brooke (Great Blakenham) and Pierce Bacon (Ipswich) took the honours at a sunny Cookson Park at the opening round of the HSBC UK | Cycle Speedway Elite Grand Prix series.

Both of the East and South East riders started the season as they finished off the 2017 series, by taking crucial wins.

Brooke got off to the perfect start, winning his first two races with Polish international Dawid Bas also unbeaten at that stage.

Brooke took the advantage when the two met in heat 10 after Bas slipped his pedal at the start and could only come in third.

The Great Blakenham rider tasted defeat for the first time in heat 15, with Chris Timms in impressive form, as both riders moved to 15 points from four races.

National champion Myke Grimes (Coventry) stayed in contention on 13 points with back-to-back wins in his third and fourth races, but soon found himself racing for fourth place after Bas and Timms pulled clear on 18 points.

Brooke did enough in heat 20 to ensure a three-way run-off with Bas unfortunate to suffer a napped seat pillar on the exit of turn two, almost bringing Timms off the course. Bas was excluded from the re-run, but Brooke pulled clear on the third lap to take the win.

In the elite junior competition, Michael Preston won his first two races, defeating Pierce Bacon in heat four.

Lewis Brinkhoff was also unbeaten after two rides, with Bacon recovering in his third race to put all three riders into the joint lead - the trio soon joined in overall contention by Fraser Garnett.

Bacon pulled clear by a point after taking heat 14 giving him the edge in the final race and a stunning move after the first bend saw him pull away from Brinkhoff and take the win - with Garnett pipping Brinkhoff to second in a race-off.