Peter Karlsson is the new Brighton Bonanza speedway champion.

The Swedish star roared away with the £1,000 winner's prize in a dramatic finale to the sixth indoor spectacular at the Brighton Centre last night.

It was Karlsson's first appearance in the event, but his triumph on the mini-track took few people by surprise.

One of the cleverest exponents in the business, Karlsson had targeted the annual winter tournament, ringing promoter Jon Cook to ask to be included in the star-studded international line-up.

Once he had got his ticket to Brighton, Karlsson made the rest look relatively easy.

He won four of his five races en route to the final and then beat American Bobby Schwartz in a hair-raising battle to lift the crown in front of a packed crowd.

Schwartz was first out of traps, but Karlsson bided his time, snapping at his heels for the best part of the six laps until the one-time Eastbourne Eagles' golden boy from California left the smallest of gaps.

Karlsson was through it in a flash, his front wheel flying in the air, and the rest is now history.

Behind Karlsson, the race finished in some confusion as first Australian Mark Lemon disappeared from the fray and then Schwartz's team-mate Shawn McConnell crashed heavily into the boards.

When the dust had settled, Schwartz took second place and McConnell was awarded third spot by referee Chris Gay.

Schwartz, who also won four out of five before the final, had earlier inflicted the only defeat of the night on Karlsson in another thrilling wheel-to-wheel duel.

You could sense Karlsson was the man they all had to beat, however, from the time he won his opening race, coming from last to first.

While Karlsson celebrated, the unluckiest rider turned out to be another Swede, crowd favourite Magnus Zetterstrom, who was the only man to beat Schwartz in the heats.

Zetterstrom was the third highest points scorer but missed out on an automatic place in the cash stakes when he overcooked it in the semi-final run-off, allowing Lemon to squeeze into the final.

Eastbourne's David Norris finished level on points with Lemon but missed out because Lemon beat him when the two riders met in the heats.

The only previous winner in the field, Brent Werner, also missed the cut, failing to win a race after kicking off the afternoon pairs competition with a hat-trick of victories.

Martin Dugard pulled out of the meeting after picking himself up from a couple of big crashes to be first across the line in the pairs final.

With team-mate Norris pinned at the back, it was not enough to stop the remarkable Schwartz and McConnell, whose combined ages are 89 years, from lifting the title for the third successive year.

Denmark's Charlie Gjedde earned one of the biggest cheers of the night. When he managed to complete four laps. Gjedde was excluded three times and fell in his other race, drew five blanks in the afternoon and failed to score a point in ten attempts.

Scorers: Bobby Schwartz 14, Peter Karlsson 14, Magnus Zetterstrom 12, Shawn McConnell 11, Scott Nicholls 10, David Norris 9, Mark Lemon 9, David Howe 8, Seemond Stephens 8, Brent Werner 7, Edward Kennett 6, Krzysztof Kasprzak 3, Glenn Cunningham 3, David Mason 3, Oliver Allen 3, Charlie Gjedde 0.

Semi-final run-off: McConnell, Lemon, Nicholls, Zetterstrom (ex).

Final: Karlsson, Schwartz, McConnell (f), Lemon (f).