BRITISH SPEEDWAY WEEKLY BULLETIN 2024/04

Photo of the week by: Dave Payne…

WORKINGTON came back from six points down on Saturday afternoon to defeat Redcar 49-41 and complete a maximum haul against the Bears in the BSN Series. Captain Craig Cook scored a 14+1 paid maximum from five rides for the Comets, and he was well backed by Troy Batchelor (11+1) and Antti Vuolas (10), with Cook and Batchelor combining to clinch victory with a 5-1 in Heat 15.

HERE’S our latest news and fixtures from around the tracks up and down the country.

ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP…

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
LEICESTER captain MAX FRICKE put in his best performance of the season with a 15-point maximum against former club Belle Vue last Thursday. It repeated his score from the Aces’ previous visit to the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena, Beaumont Park last June.

ACES UP TO SECOND
BELLE Vue responded well to last week’s defeat at Leicester by putting in another strong home display to defeat previously unbeaten Ipswich 55-35.
Aces manager Mark Lemon said: “The boys have just put on a sterling effort, very professional.
“We’ve got to take into mind that Ipswich were a little bit depleted, it’s never nice going out on track when you haven’t got your team that has bonded together.
“But it’s a great result for us, and the aggregate point is always important.”

LIONS BACK ON COURSE
LEICESTER enjoyed a successful week with convincing wins at Birmingham and at home to Belle Vue to put an indifferent start to the season behind them.
Manager Stewart Dickson said: “There are still one or two riders to go into another gear, but when your No.1 (Max Fricke) is scoring a 15-point maximum and you have 12 race winners at home, it’s a really good sign for us.

“Dougy (Ryan Douglas) is now making good starts, Sam Masters is dialled in, and I must also mention our reserves because they outscored Belle Vue’s, and that’s really important, we need to be doing that at home.
“Overall it was a seven-man team effort, not everybody can ride well every meeting, but we did enough to get a convincing win and everybody is positive.”

WITCHES SEEK BELLE VUE ANSWERS
IPSWICH boss Ritchie Hawkins wasn’t panicking after Monday’s defeat at Belle Vue especially with two riders missing – but he says finding the key to the Manchester venue will be important in future.
Hawkins said: “We were missing a couple of riders and Dougy (Ryan Douglas) did a great job replacing Danny (King). Doyley (Jason Doyle) was a massive loss and maybe he would have given us a shout for the bonus point but overall, I don’t think it made a massive difference to the result.

“If we knew what we need to do there, we would have put it right by now and we are constantly working on it as we will be on every visit there this year.
“We need to improve around here, and it will be something we will be working on.”

STEAD PRAISE FOR TRACK STAFF
SHEFFIELD manager Simon Stead says the Owlerton track staff deserve top credit for getting the circuit into raceable condition for last Thursday’s opening home win over King’s Lynn.
Stead said: “I have to say we’ve got one of the best track teams going and it’s amazing really how good that track was.
“Some of the things I’ve seen because of the weather we’ve had in recent months here stunned me if I’m being honest and Graham (Trollope – track curator) and his team have had so much work to do.

“It was incredible how they’ve turned things around though and then on top of that for it to be as good as it was and to produce some of the racing that it did, full credit to them and a big thank you because it’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of hours under some difficult circumstances.”

TOUGH NIGHT FOR SPIRES
OXFORD manager Peter Schroeck admitted he had exhausted all options to replace Rohan Tungate who was unable to reach the away match at Ipswich due to traffic hold-ups in Poland.
Schroeck said: “We contacted every rider we could of a suitable average, which is 75% of Rohan’s average. No-one was available, and in the end Jacob Clouting agreed to do it, but he couldn’t get away from work early.
“No-one is harder on me than myself and I know I made a mistake in Heat 14 and could have put a reserve out with Scott (Nicholls).
“I’m normally clued up, but there was so much going on towards the end of the meeting and I missed an opportunity there and that does frustrate me.”

SAM SEEKING HOME COMFORT

BIRMINGHAM manager Sam Ermolenko is hoping better weather will lead to consistent track conditions to help his side put some wins on the board in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership.
Ermolenko said: “As a rider you tend to think that you want your home track to help you a little bit.

“But it seems like the way the track has been treating the riders, they’re not finding the set-up because the track has been getting a little bit harder to get out the starts.
“But when you have the weather that’s been changing so much, it’s irregular right now, the track staff couldn’t really do much with the track to give our guys that little bit of advantage they were hoping for.”

STARS STRUGGLE AT SHEFFIELD
KING’S Lynn fell to a 58-32 defeat at Sheffield last Thursday with the absences of Niels-Kristian Iversen and Benjamin Basso due to injury leaving them in a depleted state.
Manager Rob Lyon said: “It was always going to be difficult with two riders injured this week but we had a great guest in Tom Brennan who I thought rode really well.

“But it’s always tough running rider replacement and with this team that Sheffield have got it was always going to be an uphill task for us.
“There’s not a great deal I can say about it and there’s not a great amount of positives to come out of it.”

CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP…

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
PLYMOUTH youngster DAN THOMPSON made a mockery of his 4.86 average in the Cab Direct Championship with a sensational display for the Gladiators at Oxford where he scored 11+1 in a narrow defeat, defeating Scott Nicholls along the way. He then added 11+2 on his home debut against Scunthorpe.

GAMEPLAN WORKS FOR SCORPIONS
SCUNTHORPE won at Redcar on Friday to set up BSN Series group deciders against Workington, with both teams on a maximum five points from their clashes with the Bears.
Manager David Howe said: “I am proud of the way kept on battling away. This was the first time we’ve really been put under pressure this season and the boys came through.

“I told the boys before the meeting that the BSN Series is not like the league, because there’s so few meetings and you have to keep on winning in it.
“We’ve now put ourselves in a situation where we know an aggregate victory in the two meetings against Workington would take us through into the semi-finals.”

DOUBLE DELIGHT FOR COMETS
WORKINGTON are firmly in the frame for BSN Series qualification after defeating Redcar at home on Saturday to complete the double over the Bears.
Promoter Andrew Bain told Workingtoncomets.com: “Our top riders showed their experience again in Cookie (Craig Cook) and Troy (Batchelor) with brilliant scores.
“But our new lads Antti (Vuolas) and Tate (Zischke) were outstanding and are certainly getting to grips with things at the GT Tyres Arena and in British Speedway.”

BANDITS SET AWAY MATCH TARGET
BERWICK manager Stewart Dickson says improving indifferent away form from recent years is an important target for the 2024 season.
Dickson said: “I’ve looked at performances in recent years and they have been ordinary to say the least, especially away from home. I want that to change in 2024.

“We want to be good business both at Shielfield and away from home, producing performances which encourage our fans to travel with us in the knowledge that they will see a team focussed on the job in hand.
“Glasgow and Edinburgh are good business for Berwick Speedway when they come to Shielfield Park. I want my team to be seen as good for other track’s business as well as our own.”

MORE TO COME FROM TIGERS
GLASGOW gave their home campaign lift-off with a vital 50-40 BSN Series win over Berwick – and boss Cami Brown says the Tigers will get better.
He said: “I do feel our boys need more meetings. They are still a bit rusty.
“We’ve got a brilliant spearhead in Chris Harris and Steve Worrall and we needed them to get us over the line.
“But there’s lots of positives for us. Paul Starke was excellent, James Pearson battled hard and Ace Pijper came good in the end.”

PIRATES CHASE ANOTHER CUP RUN
POOLE promoter Dan Ford has stressed the club’s determination to regain the Cab Direct KO Cup trophy this season after losing out to Scunthorpe in the Final in 2023.

They kick off with a quarter-final tie against Edinburgh and Ford said: “The goal is quite simple. We want to be in the final again and go one better this season.
“To do that we of course have to start by getting past Edinburgh and with us staging the first leg it is important not only to win the meeting, but to put a big score on the card so that we go up to Scotland next month with something to defend.”

MASTERS – LET’S MAKE IT EASIER!
OXFORD were taken right down to a last-heat decider by Plymouth in the BSN Series last week and Sam Masters, who scored a 15-point maximum, hopes they can finish the job somewhat earlier next time!
Masters said: “I’m not keen on last-heat deciders – I prefer the team to win by a few points. But it was exciting for the fans to watch tonight.

“Winning last-heat deciders is good – but the problem is sometimes they can go against you.
“When I was younger, I used to get much more worried about them. As I’ve gained experience, I’ve realised you can’t win them all, and even when you do lose them and feel you’ve let the team down, it’s not just down to that, it’s how the whole meeting has gone.”

NEWS IN BRIEF
REDCAR’S tough start to the season continued when captain Charles Wright crashed out of their home defeat to Scunthorpe on Friday – and the Bears were then in a good position at Workington the following day only for No.1 Danny King to be involved in a heavy crash in his third ride, as they went on to be defeated… PLYMOUTH opened their home season with an impressive 51-39 Cab Direct KO Cup win over Scunthorpe, with Ben Barker scoring a 17+1 paid maximum, although it wasn’t enough to secure overall progression… EDINBURGH are set to finally get into home track action at Championship level when they host Berwick in the BSN Series this Friday, needing to turn around a narrow deficit of four points to secure the aggregate point.

WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE…

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
JODY SCOTT enjoyed a sensational start to his campaign with Oxford Chargers, scoring 13 points in the away win at Edinburgh including victory in the crucial Heat 15, and following that up with 13+1 in the home return against the Monarchs Academy.

CHAMPS OFF TO A FLYER
NDL champions Oxford secured back-to-back wins over Edinburgh in their opening WSRA NDL encounters, with Jason Garrad scoring his first-ever maximum at this level in the home fixture.
Garrad said: “It’s awesome to score a maximum for my hometown club around here – it’s where I watched speedway as a kid. I knew I could do it and now I’ve proved it.

“I didn’t come back last year to stop at National League level – if I could get up into the Championship that would be nice, to get as far as the Premiership would be a dream.
“At 36, I’m a bit older than most, but I believe the opportunities are still there and it is possible to ride speedway until your forties. I’m pushing forward and working hard at it the whole time.”

THREE OUT OF THREE FOR LION CUBS
LEICESTER have made a perfect start to the WSRA NDL season with their 55-35 win over Middlesbrough on Sunday being their third in succession.
Manager Dave Howard said: “Everybody had some really good rides, everybody had wins or paid wins, so it was another really good team performance.
“We’ve got two more home matches in May, so we want to get good wins out of those to put us in a good position for when we do most of our away meetings.”

ACADEMY CHASING RACE WINS
EDINBURGH were beaten 51-36 at Oxford on Sunday, following on from a narrow home defeat less than 48 hours earlier, and manager Scott Wilson has expressed concern at their lack of race wins.
Wilson said: “Connor (Coles) was struggling for speed all day, but he flew from the start, twice, in Heat 15 and looked good. Hopefully that’s a launch point for him now to start winning races regularly.
“That was our problem today – just not enough race winners. It’s something we need to change.”

PHILLIPS HAPPY TO BE SKIPPER

MIDDLESBROUGH captain Danny Phillips says he’s proud to be leading his hometown club as the Tigers embark on their first campaign in the WSRA NDL.
Phillips said: “To captain and ride for my hometown club is a real proud moment for me and overall, I think it will be a really good year.

“The signing of Jake (Mulford) gives us a really strong top three. Jake and Ben (Trigger) are experienced at this level and they are both good riders. Once we get into the swing of things, I think we will be hard to beat!”

NEWS IN BRIEF
THE new Scunthorpe/Sheffield team races for the first time this week when the Tiger Cubs host Middlesbrough at Owlerton, with Jack Smith having stepped in for the injured Nathan Ablitt… Belle Vue’s next fixture is on May 12 when the Colts travel to Leicester, who picked up an away win at the NSS on Good Friday.
 
FIXTURE PICTURE…

WEDNESDAY APRIL 24:
CAB DIRECT KO CUP Q/F 1st leg: Poole v Edinburgh 7.30

THURSDAY APRIL 25:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1: Ipswich v Sheffield 7.30, Leicester (43) v Birmingham (29) 7.30, Oxford v King’s Lynn 7.30
WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Sheffield v Middlesbrough 7.30

FRIDAY APRIL 26:
CAB DIRECT KO CUP Q/F 1st leg: Glasgow v Oxford 7.30, Redcar v Workington 7.30
BSN SERIES: Edinburgh (43) v Berwick (47) 7.30

SATURDAY APRIL 27:
CAB DIRECT KO CUP Q/F 1st leg: Berwick v Scunthorpe 7pm

 SUNDAY APRIL 28:
BSN SERIES: Workington v Scunthorpe 3.30

MONDAY APRIL 29:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1: Birmingham v Belle Vue 7.30

TUESDAY APRIL 30:
BRITISH UNDER-21 QUALIFIER: Plymouth 7pm

WEDNESDAY MAY 1:
CAB DIRECT KO CUP Q/F 2nd leg: Oxford v Glasgow 7.30
BSN SERIES: Poole v Plymouth 7.30

THURSDAY MAY 2:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1: King’s Lynn v Birmingham 7.30, Leicester v Ipswich 7.30, Sheffield (43) v Oxford (47) 7.30

FRIDAY MAY 3:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Glasgow v Workington 7.30, Redcar v Scunthorpe 7.30
CAB DIRECT KO CUP Q/F 2nd leg: Edinburgh v Poole 7.30

SATURDAY MAY 4:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Berwick v Poole 7pm
CAB DIRECT KO CUP Q/F 2nd leg: Workington v Redcar 3pm
BSN SERIES: Plymouth v Oxford 7pm

MONDAY MAY 6:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1: Belle Vue v Birmingham 12pm, Ipswich v King’s Lynn 2.15, Oxford v Leicester 7.30

WEDNESDAY MAY 8:
BSN SERIES: Oxford v Poole 8pm