BRITISH SPEEDWAY OCTOBER 24
Date: Sunday October 24, 2021
(SPEEDWAY 1)
DAN Bewley completed a sensational final week of the season with victory in Belle Vue’s Peter Craven Memorial on Saturday.
Bewley, who had won the FIM Speedway of Nations with Great Britain last weekend, scored 14 points in the qualifiers and then took the six-man Grand Final at the National Speedway Stadium.
Ryan Douglas and former Aces favourite Max Fricke completed the podium finishers with Chris Harris, Luke Becker and Nick Morris also reaching the Final.
Bewley said: “I knew I had to make a decent start, to stay out of trouble if nothing else! With more than four riders in the semi and the final, it looked a bit chaotic at the start.
“I chose gate 2 and when I came to the tapes I tried to check out a little bit so I wasn’t distracted by all the bikes and all the activity around me. It’s probably the best gate I’ve made all year, so I just focused on staying in front for the four laps.
“It is a very special way to end my speedway season. It’s an awesome way to wrap things up. It really is an honour to win this meeting.”
(SPEEDWAY 2)
POOLE took a big step towards winning the Championship KO Cup with a 47-42 first-leg victory at Edinburgh.
Mid-season signing Benjamin Basso starred for the Pirates with 13+3 from seven rides at reserve, whilst skipper Danny King scored 13 from five including three race wins.
Richie Worrall scored 11 and Sam Masters 10 for the Monarchs, whose home season ended in disappointment, and they will look to turn around the Cup Final in Dorset on Wednesday.
Poole co-promoter Danny Ford said: “I am hugely proud of this team and with this performance today.
We fought back immediately after getting a 5-0 against us in Heat 7 and then kept the pressure on Edinburgh, so much so that we were able to turn things round and get the victory.
“To win away from home with two riders not scoring all meeting and having a heat when we didn’t produce a finisher shows great resolve of character amongst the team.
“But we are only at half-time, we still must finish the job and we can be sure that Edinburgh will be going into the second leg with absolutely nothing to lose.”
Monarchs boss Alex Harkess said: “Our riders tried hard but were not at their best which was disappointing. Our top riders seem to have lost their gating touch this week and that has cost us.
“I have no complaints about their effort and Heat 15 was a real thriller to finish Monarchs’ home season. All four riders within a couple of yards and I doubt Sam Masters has ever had to work harder for a race win. We will head for Poole to do our best, as always.”
(SPEEDWAY 3)
MILDENHALL clinched the National Development League title with an emphatic 56-34 victory at Armadale on Saturday.
The Fen Tigers were already top of the table and just needed to avoid a catastrophic defeat to protect their race points advantage – but they did far more than that and produced a display of champions against the Devils.
Heat leaders Jason Edwards and Jordan Jenkins led the way with 16+1 and 13+1 respectively, whilst late-season signing Nathan Ablitt weighed in with 11+1. Tom Woolley scored 11 for the hosts.
Armadale boss Alan Budzynski said: “I’m disappointed certainly, I thought we would get a win today. The conditions were tricky, but we can’t use that as an excuse because they were tricky for everyone.”
(SPEEDWAY 4)
DAN and Joe Thompson both scored maximums as Leicester wrapped up their National Development League campaign with a 54-36 home win over Belle Vue.
Skipper Joe racked up 16+2 from six rides whilst brother Dan collected a full 15-point score and also broke the NDL track record at the Paul Chapman & Sons Arena.
The result means the Lion Cubs could climb from their current sixth place depending on results elsewhere this week, whilst the Colts weren’t helped by the withdrawal of Paul Bowen due to a hand injury suffered in a Heat 2 crash. Jack Parkinson-Blackburn top-scored with nine.
Cubs boss Dave Howard said: “It’s really good to end the season on a high after what’s been a difficult season, and to get a display like that with everyone putting in 100 per cent and fighting for every point.
“The improvement Dan and Joe have shown in the Championship has really shone through in the NDL, and Tom (Spencer) has been solid all season, he’s had a really good year despite the fact that he’s got a back injury at the moment.
“I believe we were the only team to have three first-year riders, and if you look at Ben (Trigger) and Mickie (Simpson) from their first race this year to now they’ve clearly made big improvements, and Kai (Ward) tonight was fighting for every single point – that was his best performance of the year as well.”
Colts co-boss Graham Goodwin said: “It was just a first bend bunching incident that, unfortunately, Paul came off the worse for. At this stage it’s too early to say but it’s looking like a potential scaphoid injury, if not broken fingers, so we will just have to wait and see what the x-rays say.
“Being reduced to six riders made an already tough meeting even tougher but full credit to the lads, they never flinched, and they really stepped things up.”
(FIXTURES)
MONDAY OCTOBER 25:
LADBROKES OLYMPIQUE: Wolverhampton 7.30
TUESDAY OCTOBER 26:
CHAMPIONSHIP GRAND FINAL 1st leg: Glasgow v Poole 7.30
NO PRESSURE ON ZMARZLIK AFTER LATVIAN GP WIN