BRITISH SPEEDWAY JULY 23
Date: Friday July 23, 2021
(SPEEDWAY 1)
GREAT Britain’s three European 250cc finalists compete for a World title this weekend as they ride in the FIM World 250cc Championship at North German venue Cloppenburg.
Ace Pijper, Luke Harrison and Max James have based themselves in Europe since last weekend’s action in Torun in preparation for today’s (Friday) semi-finals.
The World Final itself will take their place at the same venue on Saturday evening.
Youth Boss Neil Vatcher said: “We witnessed last weekend the quality of the Youth riders at this level, and now we go to Cloppenburg not just with riders from Europe but the best riders at 250cc from around the World!
“It was fantastic experience that Ace, Luke and Max gained last weekend, and they all know the levels that they need to be at to achieve their goal of reaching the World Final on Saturday.”
(SPEEDWAY 2)
PETERBOROUGH’S magnificent away record continued with a 50-40 win at Sheffield to go back to the top of the Premiership.
Chris Harris starred at reserve with 16+1 for the Panthers, who led by six points early on before going 25-29 down after nine races.
But boss Rob Lyon utilised Harris to the maximum and No.1 Ulrich Ostergaard (11) won his last three races as the visitors collected all four league points.
For Sheffield it was a first home defeat, with Adam Ellis outstanding with 16, including four race wins – but the Tigers were outgunned in other areas of the team.
Lyon said: “I’m proud of the boys tonight and it was a good team effort. We knew it would be tough because Sheffield are a good outfit, especially around here and they’ve had some close meetings lately and always come out on top.
“I don’t like singling people out, especially when everyone has chipped in, but Chris was man of the match tonight. To score paid-17 when you’ve had an engine failure thrown in says it all.
“Ulrich was superb as well and the rest of the boys all played their part.”
Tigers boss Simon Stead said: “I’m obviously disappointed – but we’re not the only club to lose at home this year and we can’t dwell on it too much. These sorts of results are happening up and down the league for everybody.
“Have we got to improve? Yes, a lot, dramatically. But what do you do against Peterborough who score 19-points from reserve compared to just two for us?
“That tells its own story but we should have had a bit more strength in other areas as well.”
(SPEEDWAY 3)
KING’S Lynn stunned leaders Belle Vue with a dramatic 46-44 victory to finally gain their first home win of the season.
The Aces led by six points with four races to go but the Stars pulled off a remarkable comeback in new boss Alex Brady’s first match in charge.
Richard Lawson (17+1) took a tactical substitute ride in Heat 12 and gained a 5-1 with Erik Riss, and skipper Lewis Kerr and Connor Mountain then did likewise in Heat 14 to put the hosts ahead.
Although Dan Bewley (14+2) won Heat 15 for the Aces, Lawson and Thomas Jorgensen shared the spoils to the delight of the home crowd – with the Aces knocked off the top of the table although they did gain an away point.
Brady said: “It could not have gone any better. First and foremost, it was a great night of speedway and the result was the cherry on top of the cake. I am over the moon and could not have asked for any more from the boys.
“They did everything I asked of them. These boys know how to ride a bike, all they needed was a bit of belief that they could do it here at King’s Lynn and they have proved they can. Hopefully it is onwards and upwards from here.
Aces star Richie Worrall said: “We understand that people have high expectations of us. We have high expectations of ourselves, and we are disappointed that we couldn’t hang onto that lead.
“But realistically, we cannot win every meeting. We always aim to take at least a point from all our matches, and we’ve only failed to do that once this season.
“This wasn’t the same King’s Lynn team that we encountered earlier this year. They have regrouped and made changes since then, and they were changes that have strengthened them.”
SATURDAY JULY 24:
CHAMPIONSHIP: Eastbourne v Scunthorpe 6.30, Leicester v Poole 7pm
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Berwick v Mildenhall 7pm, Eastbourne v Kent (follows previous fixture)
SUNDAY JULY 25:
CHAMPIONSHIP: Glasgow v Edinburgh 3pm, Newcastle v Redcar 4pm
NO PRESSURE ON ZMARZLIK AFTER LATVIAN GP WIN