BRITISH SPEEDWAY SEPTEMBER 3, 2024

(SPEEDWAY 1)

AUSSIES STEER TIGERS TO AGGREGATE LEAD

SHEFFIELD have built up a significant 20-point lead in the first leg of the Premiership KO Cup Final with Jack Holder and Josh Pickering both scoring six-ride maximums.
The Tigers defeated Ipswich 55-35 at Owlerton, limiting the Witches to just one race win as their Australian duo dominated.
Holder reeled off six wins for an 18-point maximum whilst Pickering raced to 17+1, and Chris Holder added support with 10+1 whilst there was an important contribution at reserve from Jason Edwards.

Keynan Rew was the sole Witches’ winner whilst Jaimon Lidsey top-scored with seven, and they face an uphill task to hold onto the silverware in the second leg at Foxhall on Thursday.
Tigers boss Simon Stead said: “Jack and Picko were both untouchable and they have both taken things to another level over the past month or so.

“It was great to see Jason riding with so much confidence – he battled away all night long. He’s constantly taking things on board and he’s reaping the rewards.
“The most important thing is that as a team, we’ve all knuckled down to put ourselves in a really strong position, but there’s still more to come and we’ve got 15 races to go where we just need to keep doing what we’re doing and plug away for the points.”
Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “It was a far bigger deficit than we were looking to pull back on Thursday.

“It is quite clear that we have lost our race winners, and we are not winning enough races without them. That was the big difference and there were heats that we needed to attack for heat advantages.
“There were other heats where we shouldn’t drop points and we did, and we have left ourselves a big task on Thursday.”

(SPEEDWAY 2)

KING’S Lynn ended Leicester’s unbeaten run in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership with a 48-42 win in their final home match of the season at the Adrian Flux Arena.
The result means the Stars have now won their last five fixtures, despite their injury problems, and in the space of under a week they have taken home victories over the top three in the league table.

Czech star Jan Kvech underlined his impact since signing in mid-season, and he combined with captain Niels-Kristian Iversen for a 5-1 in Heat 15 to hand the Lions their first defeat in 11 matches.
Kvech scored 12 with Iversen adding 10+1, whilst Max Fricke (10+1) was top scorer for the visitors who host the return fixture on Thursday before heading into the play-offs.

King’s Lynn manager Rob Lyon said: “When you consider that we’ve to patch the team up every week, it’s testimony to the Lynn riders and also all the guests that we’ve used that we’ve managed to pull off these wins.
“It’s been tremendous really, and tonight topped it off. Leicester are the in-form team, possibly favourites for the play-offs, and they had a full squad apart from Sam Hagon, so it’s a fantastic result for us.”

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “Our big run was always going to come to an end sometime, and we just need to try and start again and get another run going, but we’re not too despondent.
“I thought we put up a good effort, but they were just that bit better. They’ve taken some good scalps at home and compared to the last time we were there you could see they were riding with a lot more confidence, so fair play to them.”

(FIXTURES)

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 4:
CAB DIRECT KO CUP SEMI-FINAL 1st leg: Oxford v Redcar 7.30

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R2: Leicester (42) v King’s Lynn (48) 7.30
PREMIERSHIP KO CUP FINAL 2nd leg: Ipswich (35) v Sheffield (55) 7.30

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Edinburgh (40) v Glasgow (50) 7.30
CAB DIRECT KO CUP SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Redcar v Oxford 7.30, Scunthorpe (29) v Poole (60) 7.30