REIGNING Premiership Champions Belle Vue delivered yet another impressive 47-43 home win at the National Speedway Stadium to take all three league points on offer against the King’s Lynn Stars.
Severe weather surrounded the National Speedway Stadium in the build-up to tapes up, with thunder, lighting and torrential rain wreaking havoc in the surrounding areas.
But the home of the ATPI Aces was spared the brunt of the heaven’s wrath and the meeting got underway at 8pm as scheduled, and it was a strong start for the home team.
Dan Bewley and Tom Brennan delivered an emphatic 5-1 to launch the Belle Vue offensive but the MacInnes Stars were not prepared to let them have things all their own way.
Throughout the night, the visitors produced enough heat advantages of their own to keep the ATPI Aces honest but each was matched by the Mancunians to keep the scores in their favour.
But Heat 12 saw Artem Laguta team up with Michael Palm Toft to bring the scores to within 4 points with two races to go, putting major pressure on Belle Vue’s Charles Wright and Norick Blodorn.
Their crucial 5-1 in Heat 14 not only sealed the aggregate win for the bonus point, but also the win on the night for the reigning champions.
Jaimon Lidsey was denied another maximum haul but the king’s Lynn pair in Heat 15 but still top scored with 12 points while Dan Bewley brought home 9+1 and Tom Brennan added 8+1.
Brennan said: “King’s Lynn really gave it to us tonight! There was a lot of speculation about how the result would look tonight and I’ll admit I never thought it’d get that close.
“On paper, though, they are a good team and since bringing Laguta in it has made them much stronger but we are more than a match for them as we showed on track.
“We were a bit concerned with how the weather was before tapes up and the track staff did a fantastic job and we not only got the meeting on but it was a fantastic meeting to boot.
“It’s amazing for us to reach the halfway stage and be comfortably at the top of the Premiership table. There’s still a lot of work to do before the play offs though, but so far things are going very well.”
The ATPI Aces head to Leicester on Thursday, June 15 before returning to the National Speedway Stadium next Monday, June 19 against the Peterborough Panthers.
Meeting tickets, race day programmes, south stand parking and hospitality are now available to pre-book at bellevue-speedway.com/events.
RESULT – BELLE VUE V KING’S LYNN – MONDAY, JUNE 12 @ 8PM [P1]
Belle Vue ‘ATPI’ Aces 47: Jaimon Lidsey 12, Dan Bewley 9+1, Tom Brennan 8+1, Norick Blodorn 7+1, Brady Kurtz 6, Charles Wright 5+2, Jake Mulford 0
King’s Lynn MacInnes’ Stars 43: Nicolai Klindt 12, Michael Palm Toft 11+2, Artem Laguta 8, Kye Thomson 4, Thomas Jorgensen 3+2, Jason Edwards 3, Frederik Jakobsen 2
Belle Vue Win The Aggregate Bonus Point 96-84
Image: Ian Charles