BELLE Vue have been forced into a reshuffle ahead of their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership trip to Ipswich on Thursday (7.30pm).
The ATPI Aces, who raced to a dominant 62-28 win over the Witches in Manchester on Monday, will be without their top scorer from that meeting, Zach Cook, when they race at Foxhall.
Cook racked up 16+1 from six rides at the National Speedway Stadium but he is required to turn out for his Polish club Lodz in a clashing fixture at Rybnik.
Aces boss Mark Lemon has opted to operate rider replacement for Cook, who has been placed at No.2 in the riding order with everyone except skipper Brady Kurtz able to take an additional ride.
Unfortunately Jason Doyle has been ruled out a return to Foxhall following his Wroclaw GP crash last weekend. The Aces have given Doyle as long as possible in a bid to be fit, but with the former World Champion unable to make it, they have called up GB stalwart Chris Harris to guest.
Harris has been a regular visitor to Foxhall this season as his King’s Lynn team have already made three appearances, and he has also guested for Northampton and scored double figures.
First job for the Aces in Suffolk will be to look to secure the aggregate point, this being the rearranged Round 1 fixture where they hold a 12-point advantage from a home win in April.
Despite some difficulties on the road, the Witches have a good record on their own circuit this season, having won all five matches so far.
By a quirk of the fixture list and rain-offs, though, Ipswich have only faced two different opponents at home, with three matches against King’s Lynn and two against Northampton. They are yet to face any of Belle Vue, Sheffield or Leicester on their own circuit.
The previous visit of the Aces was postponed shortly after start-time last month due to heavy rain, but this time around sweltering conditions are forecast to continue on Thursday.
Lemon said: “The team has really been growing, and on Monday night at home to Ipswich they did an exceptional job.
“You can see the confidence has been rubbing off on each other, and now we go down to Ipswich on Thursday and let’s see how we fare there.
“Obviously we don’t want to come back from Ipswich with our tails between our legs, we certainly want to put on a performance there and come away with something.”
Aces fans not making the long trip to Suffolk can keep in touch with all the action on BSN, with passes available from https://www.britishspeedwaynetwork.co.uk/ .
IPSWICH: Tom Brennan, Danny King, Richard Lawson, Scott Nicholls, Tobiasz Musielak, Philip Hellstrom-Bangs, Jason Edwards.
BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Zach Cook R/R, Peter Kildemand, Norick Blodorn, Chris Harris, Tate Zischke, Will Cairns.