BRITISH SPEEDWAY JUNE 27, 2023

(SPEEDWAY 1)

IPSWICH MAINTAINS THE FIGHT

IPSWICH boss Ritchie Hawkins says his side will still fight to defend their Premiership Pairs title – despite being forced into a change from their initial plans.

Skipper Danny King and Erik Riss will represent the Witches at Leicester on Thursday, after club No.1 Jason Doyle was ruled out of the event.
Hawkins said: “Danny played a big part in winning the event last year and Leicester is a track he likes, so he will be looking to do the same again this year.

“The plan was for him to be paired with Doyley, but as I’m sure some people have seen a Polish fixture has been re-arranged and they take priority over this event so he will be forced to ride there.
“Consistency is the key; we will probably have to attack it a bit differently this year. I don’t know the stats, but I wouldn’t have thought Doyley dropped many points over the five rounds last year.
“It is an easy format to work out, no last places and you get through. We need to be consistent and team ride together.”

(SPEEDWAY 2)

BELLE Vue extended their lead at the top of the Sports Insure Premiership to seven points with a 49-41 win at Peterborough.
The Aces continued their excellent record at the East of England Arena but were given a tough battle by the bottom club, with Vadim Tarasenko making a successful home debut for the Panthers.

Tarasenko won four races and scored 14 points from six rides, but the Aces had the league points in the bag with a 5-1 from Dan Bewley (12+1) and Brady Kurtz in Heat 13.
Bewley said: “I think all of us were very happy to come here, we all love this track but we in no way underestimated the Panthers especially now they’ve made some changes.

“I think that showed in how they raced, they’ve got some good riders who gave us a good run at Belle Vue last week and here on home shale we expected more of the same.
“This is another big result for us. Meetings will soon start to run out in the race for the play-offs and we need to give ourselves the best chance possible of defending our title.”

Panthers manager Rob Lyon said: “The riders all gave 100 per cent and they took the fight to Belle Vue, but they are pretty good around our place and they have been for many years.
“It’s very difficult and five race wins tells its own story, but there were positives and obviously Tarasenko has adapted well on his first time round here. “We just need more race winners, and once we get that maybe we’ll be in the game.”

(SPEEDWAY 3)

WOLVERHAMPTON slammed King’s Lynn 65-25 to run up the biggest victory in the Sports Insure Premiership this season.
Home reserve Zach Cook scored his first-ever full maximum as he went through the card with a 15-point haul, whilst Steve Worrall was also unbeaten with 13+2 from five rides and skipper Sam Masters had ten from four – whilst Ryan Douglas also joined the points feast with 13+3.

Wolves won 12 of the 15 races and enjoyed 11 heat advantages, with the Stars’ sole success coming from guest Nick Morris in Heat 15 as they took a 4-2.
Morris won three races to finish on 11 points, picking up nearly half of the visitors’ total on his own.

Wolves manager Peter Adams said: “Normally when you get meetings like this the racing is poor as well, but I thought it was quite entertaining tonight, and it’s nice to stretch our legs and get a big win under our belt.
“Obviously the opposition was poor, there’s no getting away from that, but all of our boys were in the groove.

“We thought it was going to be a tough match and we got off to a good start and just kept our foot on the pedal throughout.”
Newly appointed Lynn boss David Hoggart said: “The guys rode their hearts out and it wasn’t for a want of trying.

“What we need to do is keep everyone working together, pulling together, hopefully I can bring some stability through to the end of the season and if the guys can start enjoying their speedway again, they’ll start scoring points again.”

(SPEEDWAY 4)

LEICESTER’S Max James and Mildenhall’s William Richardson have been promoted into the line-up for the British Under-19 Final at Birmingham on Wednesday.

The two riders get their chance due to a broken collarbone suffered by Joe Thompson, whilst Harry McGurk is unavailable.
The meeting reserves will be Mark Parker, who has recently made his debut in the NDL and is currently associated with Edinburgh, and former Plymouth NDL rider Eli Meadows.

(FIXTURES)

WEDNESDAY JUNE 28:
BRITISH UNDER-19 FINAL: Birmingham 7.30

THURSDAY JUNE 29:
PREMIERSHIP PAIRS: Leicester 7.30

FRIDAY JUNE 30:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Scunthorpe v Oxford 7.30
BSN SERIES FINAL 1st leg: Glasgow v Poole 7.30
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Edinburgh v Berwick 7.30
JULIE LEWIS MEMORIAL: Redcar 7.30

SATURDAY JULY 1:
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Berwick v Edinburgh 7pm