BRITISH SPEEDWAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

(SPEEDWAY 1)

BELLE VUE CLOSER TO PREMIERSHIP GLORY

BELLE Vue took a giant stride towards the Premiership Grand Final with a stunning 52-38 win at Ipswich in Thursday’s first leg.

The Aces found themselves under early pressure as they dropped 9-3 down after two races but then responded in style, and piled on the agony for the Witches in the second half of the meeting.
Heat leaders Matej Zagar (12+1) and captain Brady Kurtz (11+1) led the way in a solid team effort with reserve Norick Blodorn involved in three 5-1s.

For the Witches, Jason Doyle raced to a five-ride 15-point maximum but the remainder of their top five proved unable to give the necessary support, with Rohan Tungate scoring just one point after coming to grief in Heat 3 when being passed by Zagar.
Kurtz said: “We were hoping to keep things close, but we never expected we would come away with a 14-point lead. 

“There were places where we had a little bit of luck, that’s for sure, but we’re certainly not complaining about it and we’ve more than done our job at Foxhall.
“The whole team has been fantastic, and Cookie [Craig Cook] has been a great substitute for Max [Fricke], but it will all come down to Monday’s result. We fully expect Ipswich to fight back in the second leg and we’re not taking anything for granted.”

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “We were great for 10 laps and then after Rohan’s crash it fell to bits. We had machinery problems and that incident with Rohan.
“We have been saying it all season that we need to improve at home otherwise we will get punished, and we certainly did today.

“You could see all the signs that it should have worked, but it didn’t and even without the bad luck we were not good enough. We have said all season we need everyone to start clicking together and it has not happened again. We have had the worst night of the season with the anticipation of it being the best beforehand.”
 
(SPEEDWAY 2)

ARMADALE host Belle Vue tonight (Friday) in a meeting which will decide the final play-off qualifiers in the National Development League.

The Colts require one league point from the match to make it into the top four, which would be at the expense of Oxford.
Both sides are at full strength with the Devils having their own objective to climb above Plymouth in the battle to avoid the wooden spoon.

Colts star Nathan Ablitt said: “It’s a track we love to race and I’ve had one of my best meetings for Poole there this year, so I would say confidence is high. “With no exaggeration, we know our whole season is riding on the result against the Devils because we know we must get the win to get into the play-offs. 

“But we’re not going to put any further pressure on ourselves. We’ve got everything to gain by going all-out and we’re confident we can finish the job and get into those play-offs.”

Armadale No.1 Lee Complin said: “It would be good for us to make sure they don’t get the point we need and boost ourselves, we will all get together and make it clear that every point is vital, and we all need to work together and see what we can do.
“They are a good side, but we are on a little run and want to finish strong.”
 
(FIXTURES)

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30:
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Armadale v Belle Vue 7.30

SATURDAY OCTOBER 1:
CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Glasgow (30) v Poole (60) 3pm
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Leicester v Berwick 7pm

MONDAY OCTOBER 3:
PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF S/F 2nd leg: Belle Vue (52) v Ipswich (38) 7.30, 1st leg: Wolverhampton v Sheffield 7.30

TUESDAY OCTOBER 4:
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Plymouth v Armadale 7pm