Belle Vue Fire Warning To Premiership Rivals

Belle Vue fired out a warning to the rest of the Premiership as they demolished league leaders Sheffield with a 58-32 victory at the National Speedway Stadium on Monday night.

It was a powerhouse display from the on-song Aces who took the chequered flag in 13 of the 15 races to avenge the 54-36 defeat at Owlerton back in May and leave the Tigers with no answer.

The issue of the new July averages saw a change to the riding order, with Tom Brennan celebrating his 21^st birthday by moving up into the top 5 at the expense of Jye Etheridge, whilst Matej Zagar’s excellent run of form since joining the Aces meant his elevation into the No.1 jacket.

And the new opening pairing of Zagar and Brennan got Belle Vue off to a winning start with a 4-2 advantage as the Slovenian powered away to take the win, with Brennan trying everything to pass Craig Cook whilst also having to fend off the attentions of Jack Holder from behind.

Etheridge was a fast starter in heat 2, and as he moved wide to block the outside run of Justin Sedgmen, he created a gap up the inside for teammate Norick Blödorn to join him in a 5-1 maximum.

It was another 5-1 in the next with skipper Brady Kurtz coming around the outside to join Charles Wright, with the Aces pair seeming to spend the rest of the heat racing each other.

Sheffield’s first race winner came from an unlikely source, as young reserve Connor Mountain outpaced Blödorn and Max Fricke, but his British Champion teammate Adam Ellis could make no impression at the back.

Kurtz and Wright recorded their second maximum in the next race, before a thrilling heat 6 in which Zagar and Ellis passed and re-passed numerous times, whilst Brennan and Sedgmen raced shoulder to shoulder in the battle for third place – The Aces’ rider coming out on top in both of these individual duels.

Belle Vue continued to pile on the pressure, and the league points were decided as early as heat 10 when the Aces moved into a 42-18 lead thanks to a 5-1 win from Zagar and Brennan, with the Aces No.1 clearly enjoying himself by blasting through from the back to take the win.

Although there was a big gap in the scoreline, this belied some breathtakingly close racing as Belle Vue dominated but the visitors threw everything at them to try to stay in contention.

A run of three shared heats slowed down the Aces steamroller, with Adam Ellis coming in as a Tactical Substitute in heat 12, and Jack Holder becoming the only rider to stop Zagar when he claimed only Sheffield’s second heat win of the night in heat 13.

The Aces were denied the chance to hit 60 points when Max Fricke suffered an engine failure whilst on a 5-1 with Charles Wright in the final heat.

Aces scorers:   Brady Kurtz 11+1, Matej Zagar 11, Charles Wright 10+1, Max Fricke 8+2, Norick Blödorn 7+1, Jye Etheridge 7, Tom Brennan 4+1.

Belle Vue are back in Premiership action at the National Stadium on Monday (11 July) when they take on King’s Lynn who, despite their lowly league position, put on a battling performance to pick up a consolation league point with a 48-42 defeat on their last visit to Manchester in May.

The Belle Vue Colts then take on Mildenhall in the National League next Friday (15 July).

Pictures by Ian Charles