GARRY May is not expecting any problems between fiery Sam Hurst and Luke Priest when they go head-to-head again at Poole Stadium tonight.

The Bournemouth and Newport riders crashed and were then involved in an ugly on-track skirmish at Hayley Stadium on Sunday when both were fined £300 by referee Dave Watters.

Buccaneers rider Priest claimed Hurst, 19, threw a punch at him, but the Hornets man said he had only pushed Priest.

There could still be ill feeling simmering between the duo only four days after the controversial fracas prompted by Priest’s badly timed charge into the back of Hurst’s bike on the third bend of heat three.

But Bournemouth joint team manager May said: “It was just heat of the moment stuff.

“Luke did take him (Hurst) off and rightly got excluded, but the other guy shouldn’t have done what he did.

“If he hadn’t been thrown out of the meeting we would have asked for him to be thrown out.”

Hurst and Priest, 23, have also vowed not to take their public feud into tonight’s National League Knockout Cup first round, second leg clash following Buccaneers’ comprehensive 59-31 first leg triumph.

Priest, fined £300 by the match official for his “father’s behaviour” during a pit side brawl following the on-track incident, said: “I have no problem racing him (Hurst) tonight because he’s just another rider, as long as he doesn’t try doing anything silly again.”

Hurst, fined £300 for ungentlemanly conduct and thrown out of the rest of the meeting by Watters, added: “We will just get on with it at Poole.

“They’ll be no hard feelings on my part. It’s racing, I’m out to win, the same as everyone.”

May, meanwhile, has distanced the Bournemouth riders and management from the hostile pits-side melee.

He said: “We kept out of the way as a team. We didn’t want to get involved.

“I just told the riders to stay on their side of the pits and remain focused on their racing.

“Luke conducted himself very well after the incident on the track.

“We got him back to our side of the pits as quickly as we could because we aren’t a club who want to be associated with that type of behaviour.

“It’s not why we’re involved in speedway. We’re here purely to race.”

Hornets’ joint team managers Laurence Rogers and Kevin Brown did get involved in angry words with the referee immediately after the brawl, though.

It resulted in Rogers being fined a total of £600 after an initial penalty of £300 for verbal abuse of Watters was promptly doubled when Rogers repeated the remark.

Brown was also fined £100 for verbal abuse – taking the total of fines handed out during the match to £1,300.

Newport promoter Nick Mallett is sticking by Hurst despite not condoning “these types of incidents”.

Mallett added: “Sam has been disciplined internally, although it’s a private matter and I’m not at liberty to reveal any more than that.

“Sam only works as a barman at a city-centre pub, so he is unsure of how he’s going to pay the fine.”