GLASGOW Tigers were just one race advantage away from a valuable point in their first Premier League match of the season last night.

The Tigers led twice at Redcar but a run of four heat advantages to the Bears mid-match all but killed off the visitors' challenge.

The tie ended 51-42 ­despite the best efforts of 18-year-old Dimitri Berge, who continued to impress with another 12-point haul in his first competitive visit to the track.

Danish reserve Kasper Lykke, 20, performed well with nine points. Australian Rusty Harrison backed them up with eight. Experienced Tigers' riders Kevin Wolbert, Theo Pijper and Mark Lemon continued their stuttering season starts, scoring just 10 between them.

It was Berge who got the ball rolling for Glasgow, leading Wolbert to a 5-1 in the first race, but the match was levelled in heat three.

Pijper and Lykke bagged a 4-2 in heat six to take the Tigers ahead by a slim two points.

Redcar went 4-2, 5-1, 4-2 and 5-1 in the next four heats to race 10 ahead. Berge was to the fore in heat 11, beating Redcar star Aaron Summers while wearing the black-and-white helmet colour to double his points.

Harrison and Lykke took a 5-1 of their own, bringing the Scots back to within a point of their hosts but Redcar won the next three races to bag all three league points.

Had Tigers reversed the 4-2 conceded in the last heat - or any other - they would have taken a league point for losing an away fixture by six points or less.

Glasgow now face Peterborough on Sunday in their first home league fixture of 2014.

Meanwhile Pijper has been named in the line-up for a World Championship qualifier at Berwickin June.