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“EPIC ENCOUNTER” AHEAD

3 August 2025 by
“EPIC ENCOUNTER” AHEAD
Phil Lanning
 

BELLE VUE boss Mark Lemon is expecting another “epic encounter” with Ipswich.

The ATPI Aces take on the Witches in a battle of the top two of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership on Monday night at the National Speedway Stadium. 

It also sees a return to Manchester for home No1 Brady Kurtz after winning his third successive Grand Prix in Latvia and is now just three points behind series leader Bartosz Zmarzlik. 

Lemon said: “We’re now into August and it’s down to serious business with just six regular league fixtures remaining. 

“Now we move onto another huge fixture here in Manchester against Ipswich. 

“We are currently joint top of the league with the Witches and they have one meeting in hand. 

“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster results-wise against them this season. They caught us very cold in the KO Cup and comfortably beat us early in the year. 

“We then probably produced our best performance of the season to beat them in the first league fixture but frustratingly missed out on the bonus point in Suffolk. 

“There’s a good chance we will have to beat the Witches over two legs to retain our league title. So we need to show what we are made of.

“Last time here at the National Speedway Stadium both Jason Doyle and Dan Thompson were below par. I don’t expect that to happen again, so it’s likely to be a much more hard-fought clash. It should be another epic encounter.  

“In saying that, I feel that we are growing in stature as a team.

“Brady (Kurtz) and Dan (Bewley) have been outstanding while Jaimon (Lidsey) and Zach (Cook) are consistently delivering in the middle order. 

“We’ve got some very big and exciting fixtures coming up in Manchester with Birmingham and Sheffield still to visit. Then it’s the play-offs.” 

 

Teams:

ATPI Aces: Brady Kurtz, Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Zach Cook, Dan Bewley, Tate Zischke, Jake Mulford. 

Witches: Jason Doyle, Danny King, Adam Ellis, Tom Brennan, Emil Sayfutdinov, Dan Thompson, Jason Edwards.