BRITISH SPEEDWAY WEEKLY BULLETIN 2024/28

Feature photo by: STEVE DIXON…BELLE Vue celebrated their second top-flight title in three years after winning at Leicester in last week’s ROWE Motor Oil Premiership Grand Final.
The Aces, who already led by 18 points heading to the East Midlands for the second leg, took a 49-41 victory on the night for an emphatic 26-point aggregate success.
World No.4 Dan Bewley completed a sensational unbeaten Grand Final performance with his second 15-point maximum in succession, whilst captain Brady Kurtz was also unbeaten with 11+1 at the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena, Beaumont Park.

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

ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP…

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
British Champion and World No.4 DAN BEWLEY raced to a 15-point maximum in the second leg of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership Grand Final at Leicester, to complete a stunning unbeaten show across both meetings in the title decider.

LEMON PROUD OF ACES’ GLORY
BELLE Vue boss Mark Lemon heaped praise on his ROWE Motor Oil Premiership title heroes after they secured gold at Leicester on Thursday.
Lemon reserved special credit to skipper Brady Kurtz, who lifted the trophy at Beaumont Park and then qualified for next year’s Grand Prix series just 24 hours later.

Lemon said: “I’ve just got to give credit to this team. I said it was a pretty special bunch when I put it together at the start of the season, and it paid dividends.
“Special mention goes to our Captain Courageous. Brady has had a stellar season, he’s been struggling with injury and to battle through that and deliver time and time again has been fantastic. He’s led us like a true captain, he’s been inspirational.
“We’ve worked and had a process in place, the boys have stuck to their guns and I felt we’ve been under-rated for a long time. They’re a special group, they’ve delivered and I’m just so proud of them. To win another league title for Belle Vue Speedway is amazing.”

LIONS DIPPED AT VITAL TIME
LEICESTER manager Stewart Dickson admitted his side weren’t quite in their late summer form when they went into the play-offs.
The Lions had put together a ten-match unbeaten run to become title favourites in some quarters, but after edging out Ipswich in the semi-finals they fell to a 26-point aggregate defeat to Belle Vue in the decider.

Dickson said: “We needed the form that we were in to last another two or three weeks. It kind of just dropped I felt as we reached the play-offs.

“We did remarkably well from fifth place to get to second place, and we were fighting for first place at one time, and I knew we weren’t quite on that form, but you think it might come again.
“I watched the celebrations, and I would like that to happen to Leicester. We’ve done it in the Championship, but the Premiership is proving a step too far for me so far, but we’ll be back again next year to give it another go.”

CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP…

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
Oxford reserve LUKE KILLEEN provided massive support to the Cheetahs’ top two in the 51-39 Grand Final first leg victory over Poole, including crucial wins over the visitors’ top two of Tom Brennan and Richard Lawson. Killeen scored 12+1 from five rides and will also be a key figure in the return, having scored 11+3 on his last visit to Wimborne Road.

CHEETAHS HAVE THE ADVANTAGE
OXFORD skipper Scott Nicholls was pleased to play his part in the 51-39 win over Poole in the first leg of the Cab Direct Championship Grand Final – despite a tough start to the meeting.
Nicholls was involved in a trio of 5-1s in Heats 11, 13 and 15, combining with Sam Masters in the latter two to help the Cheetahs extend their advantage into double figures.

He said: “It was a proper team effort to get a good result tonight. I had a shocking start to the meeting and changed bikes. I wasn’t happy with myself at that point.
“When it’s a big night like tonight, you want to hit the ground running, but it took me a couple of rides to get it right.
“By the time we entered Heat 15, the worst-case scenario was that we would take a four-point margin to Poole for the second leg on Wednesday. But we got the 5-1 and it means we will take a 12-point lead there, which is awesome.”

MIDDLO: START WILL BE CRUCIAL
POOLE manager Neil Middleditch says his side have to hit back in the early stages of the second leg of the Cab Direct Championship Grand Final on Wednesday.

Pirates trail Oxford by 12 points and Middleditch wants them to make immediate inroads into the deficit, with memories of last year’s decider against Glasgow when the visitors defended successfully from the off.

Middleditch said: “It is what it is and we have just got to hit them hard early doors and try and make up as much of the deficit as early as we possibly can.
“It is not exactly a mountain, I would say it is more of a very steep hill. Twelve points is a little bit disappointing especially as we worked so very hard in the early stages to stop them from getting away from us.”

SCORPIONS – STILL A GOOD YEAR
SCUNTHORPE promoter Rob Godfrey says the club can still reflect on a strong season despite falling short of major silverware.
Scorpions were eliminated in the play-off and Cab Direct KO Cup semi-finals, and they were beaten by Poole in the BSN Series Final, by which time their team was somewhat depleted for injury and family reasons.

Godfrey said: “When we reflect on this season, we will realise that we’ve had a pretty good season, reaching the semi-finals of all three main competitions, and got as far as the Final in the case of the BSN Series.
“We’ve been the third best team in the Cab Direct Championship and there’s another six teams who would swap our season for theirs.”

WSRA NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE…

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK
Belle Vue reserve CHAD WIRTZFELD returned from injury and enjoyed a sensational end to the season with a 16+2 haul from seven rides in the Colts’ win over Sheffield on Monday.

COLTS CLAM SECOND
BELLE Vue No.1 Sam Hagon completed a strong NDL campaign with a 13-point haul in Monday’s 55-35 win over Sheffield which ensured runners-up position for the Colts in the league table.
Hagon said: “We can be very proud of what we achieved, and to finish with such a huge win over Sheffield was just what we wanted to do, but it wasn’t without its challenges.
“In the first couple of races conditions were a little more tricky and I was off with the set-up, but I managed to sort things out and end strongly.”

FIXTURE PICTURE…

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 9:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP GRAND FINAL 2nd leg: Poole (39) v Oxford (51) 7.30

TO BE CONFIRMED:
CAB DIRECT KO CUP FINAL: Oxford v Poole, Poole v Oxford