BRITISH SPEEDWAY WEEKLY BULLETIN 2024/24

Feature photo by: JEFF HIGGOTT

SHEFFIELD clinched the first Premiership team silverware of the season as they lifted the Knockout Cup at Ipswich on Thursday.
The Tigers took a 20-point lead to Foxhall in a repeat of last year’s Final, which had been won by the Witches, and they withstood some early pressure before securing a 45-45 draw in the second leg.

HERE’S the 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 scored what was effectively a 22-point maximum at home to King’s Lynn last Thursday. The Australian raced to six straight wins in the Lions 48-42 victory, which meant a Super Heat for the aggregate point – and he won that as well, teaming up with Sam Masters for a 7-2 to bank maximum league points for his side.
 
WITCHES BY EIGHT
IPSWICH won the first leg of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final against Leicester 49-41 – having been 16 points up with five races remaining.
Manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “Everyone has contributed and done well, it was a good performance. They all stepped up to the occasion and it is something we will need to replicate on Thursday.
“I know we have been underdogs since Emil’s crash, and we go into Thursday concentrated on trying to win the meeting and we will aim to do that. We will worry about the aggregate score later on in the meeting.”

LIONS RELIEF AFTER COMEBACK
LEICESTER boss Stewart Dickson admits words were spoken halfway through Monday’s play-off semi-final at Ipswich as the Lions suffered a disastrous start to the meeting before fighting back to reduce the deficit to eight points.
Dickson said: “We had a wee chat after Heat 7 and I said the only people they were letting down were themselves after the way they’ve performed in the second half of the season.
“We tried to keep it together and not let it get totally out of reach, and the 5-1 in Heat 15 was pivotal because I would have been happy to walk away with a 12-point gap, I was thinking that was as good as we could get.”

EMIL NO GO
IPSWICH manager Ritchie Hawkins has confirmed he will name an unchanged team for Thursday’s play-off semi-final second leg at Leicester, despite the return from injury of Emil Sayfutdinov in Poland at the weekend.
Hawkins said: “He is not fit enough yet to take on a full schedule. There is a big difference in racing one meeting at your home club and then having four or five days recovery when you are injured.

“That is a big difference to racing one day, taking a flight and travelling to another meeting in a different country and then doing the same again and not having any days off or rest.
“The facts are that he is not fit enough to race for us at the moment.”

TIGERS’ CUP JOY
SHEFFIELD skipper Kyle Howarth has dedicated their Premiership Knockout Cup triumph to the club’s supporters.
The Tru7 Group Tigers claimed the first silverware of the season with a 100-80 aggregate victory over Ipswich last week.
Howarth said: “We really dug deep, we all chipped in as a team and we won as a team. To bring another trophy to Sheffield for a third straight year is a great result and I’m really proud of all the boys.
“That was for the Sheffield fans who I want to say a big thank you to for all of their support week in, week out – that’s for those guys.”

STARS’ STRONG FINISH
KING’S Lynn weren’t quite able to complete the season with a sixth straight victory, but they ran play-off qualifiers Leicester close last Thursday before going down 48-42.
Manager Rob Lyon said: “At one point we were comfortable, but Max Fricke was superb tonight and their top end just had too much firepower for us.
“But the boys did a great job again. They all gave 100 per cent effort so I’m really pleased with them, and taking it to the last heat shows the form we’ve been in for the last five or six meetings. It was a good effort.”

NEWS IN BRIEF
BELLE Vue are back in action next week as they host the first leg of their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final against Sheffield on Monday… BIRMINGHAM have again put back the Alan Grahame Memorial four team tournament, which will now take place at Perry Barr on Monday September 30.

CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP…

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
Oxford’s 17-year-old ASHTON BOUGHEN enjoyed a sensational run of form capped with a first-ever 15-point maximum at senior level when he went through the card at Redcar. Boughen also scored 10+1 at home to the Bears in the Cab Direct KO Cup, and 13+1 at Glasgow in the league, in a remarkable run of scoring.

PIRATES ARE COOKING
POOLE skipper Ben Cook overcame a first-ride penalty for touching the tapes to lead his side into another Cab Direct KO Cup Final with aggregate victory over Scunthorpe, as their trophy quest continues on three fronts.
Cook said: “It was a bit of a silly one in my first heat when I touched the tapes but after that it was back to normal proceedings, so it was good for the boys as we showed what we can do here and we can get a win here.
“We just need to do it when it really matters in the next few weeks, but everything is going good at the minute. This is a good sign as we go into the business end of the season.”

BOUGHEN BRILLIANCE AT REDCAR
OXFORD youngster Ashton Boughen admitted he’s a big fan of the Redcar track after stunning the Bears with a 15-point maximum at the ECCO Arena to help the Cheetahs into the Cab Direct KO Cup Final.
Boughen said: “I’m really pleased with my maximum. It feels like all the hard work is paying off and things are coming together.
 “I really like the Redcar track. You can ride anywhere and build your speed up and I love racing on the outside line, while I’ve figured out my starts and got a lot better at those.
“This is the first track where I raced, just over two years ago in a practice session. I came with my dad and we didn’t even know how to start the bike.”

COMETS’ SEASON A SUCCESS
WORKINGTON promoter Andrew Bain says the club have enjoyed a terrific return to Championship level having booked their play-off place at the first attempt.
Comets will face Poole in the semi-finals this week, with their first challenge being to improve upon their record at Wimborne Road so far in 2024, before the home return on Saturday.
Bain said: “We know we will have to perform much better in Dorset than on our earlier visits, to have any chance of winning.
“Moving up to the Championship was a massive step, in only our second season of operating, but we’ve had a competitive, entertaining team and a successful season.”

SCORPIONS LOOK TO SET THINGS UP
SCUNTHORPE will know their requirement at home in the Cab Direct Championship play-offs as they visit Oxford in the first leg on Wednesday – chasing a better result than the 20-point defeat they suffered on their previous trip to Cowley in the league stage.
Promoter Rob Godfrey said: “We don’t want to be chasing anything like a 55-35 scoreline in the second leg. We do need to keep it tight at Oxford, but having said that I don’t want to be setting any targets.
“If we can be getting anything close to 40 points at Oxford in the first leg, that will be great but equally let’s not get disheartened if it doesn’t happen because we can, on our day, thrash people round here.”

HARRIS THE DIFFERENCE
GLASGOW boss Cami Brown hailed the brilliance of Chris Harris who raced to superb Heat 13 and 15 wins over Oxford star Sam Masters to ensure the outgoing champions rounded off 2024 with a home win over the Cheetahs.
Brown said: “Chris is simply incredible. He is the best No.1 in the league and one of the best riders this country has ever produced.
“We are very proud to have him as a Tiger. His final two rides in Heats 13 and 15 were unbelievable. To beat Sam Masters from behind on both occasions is different class.
“It got very tight at the end but Harris was the difference. His two wins at the end got us over the line.”

PICKERING – I COULD BE BACK!
EDINBURGH No.1 Josh Pickering has confirmed he won’t return to Armadale next season as he looks to climb the speedway ladder in Poland, having joined Polish club Leszno.
But Pickering stressed his love for the Monarchs after leading them to victory over fierce rivals Glasgow in their final home league match, which moved them off the foot of the table.

He said: “If I do ride in the Championship again in future, it won’t be anywhere else than Edinburgh.
“I wanted to go out on a high with a 15-point maximum as well as beating Glasgow, so it was a disappointing last race but in the end of the day we still got the job done and it was a good win for the team.”

A CLOSE FOUGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
BERWICK co-owner Jamie Courtney says the Championship has thrown up close, entertaining contests in 2024 – and that the Bandits have fully played their part in that.
Courtney said: “Some will only look at the results and the final league table and declare the season a disaster, others take a more forensic approach and recognise the last heat deciders that could have gone either way.

“If you take the top two out of the equation there is no doubt that this has been one of the least predictable, most even Championship campaigns for a number of years.
“Every team has been capable of taking points off the others and more than just us were left ruing a piece of mechanical misfortune, a tapes exclusion or a refereeing decision which turned the final result against them.”

NEWS IN BRIEF
PLYMOUTH ended a tough season with a 54-36 defeat at Workington, with Dan Thompon once again impressing greatly with a 15-point haul… REDCAR’S team campaign is also at an end after their Cab Direct KO Cup exit last Friday, but there is still track action to come at the ECCO Arena this season starting with the Championship League Riders’ Championship this Sunday.
 WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE…

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
Belle Vue captain FREDDY HODDER became the third winner of an event in the National League Riders’ Development Series when he took victory at Berwick last Saturday. Hodder triumphed on his home track in the Championship, joining Sam Hagon and Joe Thompson as previous winners in the new competition this year.

NEWS IN BRIEF
BELLE VUE face a busy week on the road in the WSRA NDL as they visit SHEFFIELD on Thursday and then EDINBURGH on Friday… The second of those matches is the second half of a double-header at Armadale as the Monarchs Academy also take on Scunthorpe/Sheffield with a 7pm start… Meanwhile the British Youth Championship concludes in Scotland this weekend with rounds at Edinburgh on Saturday and Glasgow on Sunday.

FIXTURE PICTURE…
 
 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 11:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 1st leg: Oxford v Scunthorpe 7.30, Poole v Workington 7.30

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 12:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Leicester (41) v Ipswich (49) 7.30
WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Sheffield v Belle Vue 7.30

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Scunthorpe v Oxford 7.30
WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Edinburgh (33) v Scunthorpe/Sheffield (57) 7pm, Edinburgh (34) v Belle Vue (56) (follows previous fixture)

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 14:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Workington v Poole 3pm
BRITISH YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP: Edinburgh 1.30pm

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15:
CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: Redcar 3pm
BRITISH YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP: Glasgow 2pm

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 16:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 1st leg: Belle Vue v Sheffield 7.30

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Sheffield v Belle Vue 7.30

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20:
WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Edinburgh (34) v Leicester (56) 7.30

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 22:
BRITISH UNDER-19 FINAL: Oxford 3pm

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 23:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP GRAND FINAL 1st leg: TBC v TBC