BRITISH SPEEDWAY MARCH 28, 2025

(SPEEDWAY 1)

UNBEATEN DUO SPEARHEAD WITCHES’ VICTORY

EMIL Sayfutdinov and Tom Brennan were both unbeaten as Ipswich raced to a 67-23 demolition of Belle Vue in the second leg of their KO Cup quarter final.

The Witches already led by ten points from the away fixture, but they really cut loose on their own circuit at Foxhall with Sayfutdinov scoring a full 12-point maximum whilst Brennan marked his home debut with 10+2.
All seven riders from the dominant hosts won at least one race as they recorded a total of nine 5-1s, with the Aces’ sole success coming in Heat 6 with a 4-2 from Dan Bewley (7) and Tate Zischke.
Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “It couldn’t have gone any better, superb over both meetings this week. We’ve started the season super strong.

“We’ve set ourselves big expectations for the whole season now, and big targets. There’s still improvement to be had in certain areas but overall, for a start to the season, it’s great!
“Belle Vue are the champions, and we know they’ve started the season slowly in other years and gone on to end the year as the champions. We managed to take advantage of that which pays testament to our preparation and our determination to get through straight from the off.

“The boys have put a lot of work in, and they weren’t rusty coming into the season. They’re a very gelled unit already from how much time we’ve rode together so that’s obviously given us a bonus going forward.”
Belle Vue boss Mark Lemon said: “There’s something peculiar about the last couple of meetings. Our boys underperformed and I have some theories behind it, but until we do some testing on some equipment and product, it’s hard to know.

“To have all the team not fire and to come away with only one race win is very unusual, so I think we need to have a good investigation through the camp.
“I’m not firing off any alarm bells at the riders, but it just seems a bit of a coincidence that none of us performed.
“I’m not going to take anything away from the Witches, they rode extremely well and they’re a very good outfit. We’ve just got to do some soul searching and work out why the performance has been so poor.”

(SPEEDWAY 2)

KING’S Lynn set up a local derby KO Cup semi-final showdown with Ipswich by winning 53-37 at Oxford to repeat their margin of victory from the first leg.
Testimonial man Niels-Kristian Iversen enjoyed a super night on a track he called home two decades ago as he scored 14 points from five rides, only missing out on a full maximum to Spires skipper Maciej Janowski in Heat 7.

Chris Harris weighed in with 11 for the impressive Stars, whilst Jan Kvech (7+3) was involved in 5-1s in each of his final three rides in a strong all-round display.
The hosts weren’t helped by the withdrawal of new signing Peter Kildemand after a crash in his first ride, with Janowski topping their scorechart on 9+1 – a total matched from seven rides by reserve Francis Gusts, who completed a positive first week in British Speedway.

King’s Lynn manager Rob Lyon said: “It was a solid performance, and with the way we’ve set the team up it’s worked really well in the first two matches.
“Everybody has chipped in with good, solid points all the way through really. Oxford had some bad luck tonight with Peter Kildemand crashing out, and one or two other bits, but our team rode well and we deserved to win.

“Niels is riding a bit like the Niels of old at the moment, which is a good sign. As we know, he rode pretty well in the second half of last year, and he’s continued that confidence and form, and it’s really good to see. He looks good, he looks quite dominant, and it bodes well.
“We knew realistically the tie was ours to lose, but we said we wanted to try and win tonight and keep the run going. That’s what we wanted to concentrate on, and if we could do that there would be no worries anyway, so that’s what we did and it worked out okay, and we’re really happy.”
 
(SPEEDWAY 3)

LEICESTER were taken to a last-heat decider by much-improved Birmingham in the second leg of their KO Cup quarter-final at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park.
The Lions were always set to progress on aggregate after a big win in the West Midlands earlier in the week, but at home the scoreline was just 46-44 in their favour with Max Fricke and Sam Masters combining to squeeze out Michael Jepsen Jensen for a 3-3 in Heat 15.

But the big turning point had come two races earlier when the previously unbeaten Matej Zagar was timed out for the Brummies after mechanical trouble, with Fricke and Masters then taking a 5-1 over Tobiasz Musielak.
Masters top-scored with 10 and Fricke added 9+2 as the Lions set up a semi-final clash with Sheffield, but the visiting heat leaders gave them plenty to think about as Musielak scored 12, Jepsen Jensen picked up 10 and Zagar nine before his bike problem.

Leicester boss Stewart Dickson said: “It was a bit too close for comfort, but it was a very good meeting and it takes two teams to tango.
“I had a feeling it would be a lot more competitive than it was on Monday night, I’m not saying that was a freak result because we rode very well, but if we’d lost like that at home we would have been hurting and we would have wanted to come back for the second leg and show we were a better team.

“So fair play to them, but at the end of the day we got the win and I think that was important. I know we’re through on aggregate but it’s always pleasing to win on the night, and there was some really good racing.”
Musielak said: “We are all new at Birmingham so it was difficult to catch the right set-up (on Monday), actually we didn’t catch anything.
“Tonight was much better and we were leading the way for almost the whole meeting.
“We were disappointed to lose the lead after Heat 13 – but this is speedway. We’ve shown that we can really fight with the other guys though and that’s how it should be.”

(FIXTURES)

MONDAY MARCH 31:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1: King’s Lynn v Belle Vue 7.30
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT TROPHY: Birmingham v Leicester 7.30

THURSDAY APRIL 3:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1: Oxford v Ipswich 7.30, Sheffield v Birmingham 7.30

FRIDAY APRIL 4:
SCOTTISH CUP 1st leg: Edinburgh v Glasgow 7.30