Joe Screen and Martin Dugard revved up for next weekend's British Grand Prix with scintillating displays at Arlington Stadium on Saturday night.

Screen led the rout as Eastbourne Eagles knocked the spots off Oxford Cheetahs for the third time season and kept up their Elite League title challenge with a 54-36 victory.

His 17 points was the highest score by an Eastbourne rider at Arlington this season and came just days after he posted an 18-point maximum at Coventry and followed another match-winning 16-point effort at Peterborough.

Screen, a regular on the Grand Prix circuit, is flying, but so is Dugard, who has plenty to prove when he rides on a wild card at Coventry next Saturday. While Screen's only defeat in six rides came at the hands of Oxford skipper Steve Johnston, Dugard was unbeaten in four outings.

It was a good job for Oxford that Johnston was around. He finished with two wins and 14 points from six rides, which included beating Screen in a thriller in the fastest time of the night.

It looked as though the visitors might go through the match without winning a race, but Johnston's two victories and another by Todd Wiltshire in the last five heats gave the scoreline more respectability than Oxford deserved. Grand Prix men Wiltshire and Jimmy Nilsen managed to muster just eight points between them.

For the most part, Johnston appeared to be the only man prepared to mix it with the opposition, Nilsen even finishing last behind Eastbourne's new signing Per Wester.

Wester proved an instant hit with the fans with his all-action style which, on first impressions, could earn him something of a reputation as a wild man on the track.

He went from second to last on one bend in his initial outing, outrode Nilsen for his first Elite League point and then came off.

You wouldn't have bet on Wester completing four laps next time out either when he reared at the start and only got the bike down as he went into the first turn, but he did and went on to finish second behind Screen.

The Swede had five rides for his paid four points and got blown away by Johnston, Screen and Wiltshire in his last race, but Eagles clearly think they have a potential star on their hands, with or without the raw edges.

Eagles led 36-18 after nine heats, thanks mainly to a trio of Screen-inspired 5-1's involving Dean Barker, Wester and Barker again.

Wiltshire and Mark Lemon stemmed the tide with a maximum in heat 11, and Johnston's wins in heats 12 and 14 sparked a couple of 4-2's for the visitors.

Fittingly, Screen had the final word, winning heat 15 and gaining revenge over Johnston for his one reverse of the night.

Eastbourne: Joe Screen 17, Martin Dugard 12, David Norris 10, Dean Barker 8, Petri Kokko 4, Per Wester 3.

Oxford: Steve Johnston 14, Lukas Dryml 6, Mark Lemon 5, Todd Wiltshire 5, Jimmy Nilsen 3, Ales Dryml 2, Jan Staechmann 1.