Davey Watt made his Lakeside Hammers debut against Belle Vue (Rob Newell/TGS)

Watt: I’ve always liked this track

Lakeside Hammers newcomer Davey Watt declared himself more than happy after a successful Elite League debut against Belle Vue.

Australian Watt was paid for 13 points in the convincing 61-32 victory at Purfleet, with Swedish duo Peter Karlsson and Kim Nilsson also hitting double figures.

And Watt is hoping the strong start proves a good indicator to Hammers hopes for the season in general.

He said: “It has been good. I’ve always liked the track here and I have had a bit of time on it at the start of the year practising, so I am already quite comfortable on it.

“We’re in a good team and everyone is talking to each other and getting on really well and that bodes well for the season ahead.

”It’s pretty much a new team, there are not a lot of guys here that have been regular Lakeside riders so they have had a big revamp.

“We are all pretty fresh but we have all really gelled well together. It’s really quite comforting that the team has gelled so quickly.”

Watt followed teammate Rob Mear home in his first ride for the first of six Hammers maximums.

He then beat Rory Schlein and former Hammer Adam Shields to the chequered flag in his next two outings, before partnering Nilsson to another 5-1 in heat 12.

Sent out to race in heat 15 with Karlsson, Watt had to settle for the third-place point behind Charlie Gjedde and said: “Heat 15 was a bit of a pain, I messed up out of the start and in the first corner, but these things happen and if I can work a little harder I can solve those problems and win more races.

“They (Belle Vue) were tracking some different riders from the start of the meeting and maybe they weren’t full strength, and maybe they are not the strongest team in the league.

“Nonetheless it was still a good test for everybody in our team to have some competitive racing on the track and that’ll push us for when we have an even tougher team come here later in the year.”

Hammers face a Good Friday double-header against rivals Eastbourne, with the first part taking place at Purfleet on 1pm.