BRITISH SPEEDWAY MAY 6, 2022

(SPEEDWAY 1)

GT BRITAIN WELL REPRESENTED

GREAT Britain have four riders competing in Saturday’s qualifiers for the newly revamped FIM World Under-21 Championship.

The series is now to be known as SGP2 and the qualifying rounds take place at Swedish venue Gislaved, Daugavpils in Latvia, and Slovenian venue Krsko.
Tom Brennan, Drew Kemp and Jordan Palin all head to Sweden, whilst Sam Hagon races in Latvia, with only four qualifying places available from each meeting.

Places in the qualifiers had originally been allocated to Leon Flint and Dan Gilkes, but both have unfortunately had to withdraw due to injury.

GB Youth boss Neil Vatcher, who will be in Sweden, said: “This is the biggest meeting of the season for our four riders, and with Finals taking place on the same weekends as the SGP in Prague, Cardiff, and Torun this is an extra incentive to make it through.

“It is certainly going to be a really tough weekend as having seen the line-ups for all three rounds, the Swedish round seems to have the majority of the top World Under-21 riders in this qualifier – including the current FIM World 21 Champion Jakub Miskowiak, and the Under-21 star of the Swedish team at last year’s Speedway of Nations, Phillip Hellstrom-Bangs.”

The Young Lions would like to thank the continued support of the British Youth Sponsors – Nuneaton Speedway Supporters Club, Wessex Marine, Rentruck of Rochdale, Friends of Speedway, Foxbury Motors, RMCS Racing, ATPI Travel,  Abrams Insurance, Northern Scaffolding and Royle-T Racing .

(SPEEDWAY 2)

IPSWICH made a winning start to their Premiership campaign, defeating Belle Vue 47-43 at Foxhall on Thursday.

The Witches built up an eight-point lead by Heat 6 and controlled the meeting with Troy Batchelor top scoring on 10 points, whilst Jason Doyle won three races despite suffering from a perforated eardrum.

There was some reward for the Aces when Brady Kurtz (11+1) and Matej Zagar (11+2) recorded a 5-1 in Heat 15, which secured them a league point from the meeting.

Ipswich boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “It was great to start our league campaign with a win, a much-needed win, and we have started the league season well now and it is all good going into Monday.

“Everyone has contributed points tonight and contributed to the win, and we were pretty solid all meeting getting a lot of 4-2s, so I think it was a good performance.

“Batch was superb, he is improving every meeting for us and long may that continue. Having Starkey (Paul Starke) back was a big bonus even though he was hampered by machinery problems in one race, but he came back from that well to put in a couple of important performances.”

Aces manager Mark Lemon said: “Every point is important and can make all the difference come the play-offs, and we know we have got a team here that is more than capable of winning away from home.

“We saw some very impressive riding from Matej and Brady to close the gap and deliver us the consolation league point, so we are quite satisfied with that.”
 
(SPEEDWAY 3)

TOBIASZ Musielak struck a stunning 15-point maximum as Sheffield beat Peterborough in their Premiership opener on Thursday.
The Tigers defeated the reigning champions 51-39 at Owlerton after another impressive display from Simon Stead’s side.

Musielak steamed to five wins out of five, whilst heat-leaders Jack Holder (11+2) and Adam Ellis also contributed double-figures.
The Panthers were improved on their performance from Bank Holiday Monday at Belle Vue, and could have snatched a league point in Heat 15, but they conceded a 5-1. Reserve Benjamin Basso again impressed with 12 points.

Stead said: “We continued where we left off really from our early League Cup results and I think that was a really, really solid display from us against good opposition, considering we’ve not been here for a considerable amount of time.

“I think we were a little bit rusty, but ultimately we’ve got the job done.
“It probably looks more convincing than it actually was; Peterborough kept us honest for a long period of time in the match. But it’s nice to get off to a winning start in the league and we look forward to the next one.”

Panthers manager Rob Lyon said: “It was a much, much better performance on the night than Monday which is a bonus, and a positive going forward.
“Sheffield are a tough team this year, they’re strong all the way through and Musielak was on fire tonight.

“We were hanging onto their coat-tails for pretty much most of the match and I thought we were in for a point, certainly two thirds of the way through we started coming back into it. But fair play to Sheffield, they just pulled away again.”

(SPEEDWAY 4)

GLASGOW boss Cami Brown believes his Glasgow side could face their toughest test of the season so far against Plymouth tonight (Friday).

The Gladiators travel north aiming to inflict a first home defeat of the season on the Tigers, and they include former Glasgow man Chris Harris as a guest at No.1 for Edward Kennett. Dillon Ruml and Jason Edwards stand in at reserve.

The home side have their own guests with Edinburgh’s Kye Thomson and former favourite Paul Starke stepping in for Ben Basso and Tom Brennan, who are overseas for SGP2 qualifiers.

Brown said: “I think this will be our toughest test yet, because they will have a very strong top four.
“It is never ideal to be going into a big meeting without two of our own riders, but the calendar has worked against us.

“Nevertheless, we bring in two good guests. Paul knows Ashfield well and Kye had an excellent meeting for Edinburgh on Sunday, so we know he can get round our track.

“We took a maximum seven points from the weekend’s matches, so it is vital we don’t undo our good work.”

(SPEEDWAY 5)

ARMADALE bid for their first win of the National Development League season when they host Oxford tonight (Friday).

The Devils lost home and away to Berwick in April, but good news is a clean bill of health for George Rothery and Josh Embleton, who both crashed at Shielfield Park.

The Chargers bring in impressive talent Ace Pijper to guest for Sam Hagon who is on SGP2 duty.

Armadale boss Alan Budzynski said: “I’m confident that our heat-leaders will lay the foundation of points required for a win, and I know the reserves have been practising hard over the past couple of weeks, so I’m sure we are in for an exciting night of speedway.”
*LIVE STREAMING: http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk/emtv .

(SPEEDWAY 6)

BELLE Vue host Leicester in the NDL at the National Speedway Stadium tonight (Friday) – with the visitors racing for the first time this season.
The Colts defeated Plymouth at home on Good Friday and return to full strength with Jack Parkinson-Blackburn and Nathan Ablitt both back in the side.

The Lion Cubs include 15-year-old Max Perry for his debut at reserve, with his birthday last week meaning he is now eligible to race at this level, and they also have former Colts rider Connor Coles at No.3.

Colts youngster Freddy Hodder said: “Leicester have got some pretty tough riders who know this track very well but on paper it feels like we have a greater balance, so I think it could be a close one.

“I’m really excited to be getting back to racing. I had a great meeting against Plymouth, so I really want to build on that and score a few more points.
“The main goal for us is, of course, to win the meeting and I’m sure Leicester will give us a really challenging match but I think we’ve got what it takes to get another big win.”

Lion Cubs boss Dave Howard said: “Teams are going to be strong at home, and it’s what you can get on those away tracks and trying to pick up at least a point every time you go to places.

“We’re the last team to start, but it’s a really exciting year ahead, because there’s potential growth in basically everybody in the team.”
 
(FIXTURES)

FRIDAY MAY 6:
CHAMPIONSHIP: Glasgow v Plymouth 7.30
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Armadale v Oxford 7.30, Belle Vue v Leicester 7.30

SATURDAY MAY 7:
CHAMPIONSHIP: Leicester v Oxford 7pm
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Berwick v Belle Vue 7pm

SUNDAY MAY 8:
CHAMPIONSHIP: Newcastle v Glasgow 4pm