BELLE Vue race their final away match of the regular ROWE Motor Oil Premiership season when they visit top-four contenders Ipswich on Thursday (7.30pm).
It could also be the forerunner to a play-off semi-final between the clubs, although Witches do still have a little work to do to confirm their place.
As far as the ATPI Aces are concerned, top spot in the league table is effectively confirmed, and the final tick in the box mathematically will be made if they complete matters as far as the aggregate point is concerned.
With a 62-28 advantage from a huge victory at the National Speedway Stadium in the reverse fixture in late June, that should be well within their capabilities, and the Aces will look to score far more than 29 points on the night – especially with a potential return trip to Foxhall in the offing later this month.
If the teams do end up first and fourth in the table they will meet in the semi-finals, and Ipswich are currently in the driving seat to take the final play-off place.
However, if they lose at home to the Aces and King’s Lynn defeat Leicester at the Adrian Flux Arena, the fight for fourth will go down to the East Anglian rivals’ respective final fixtures next week.
Thursday’s team news sees Ipswich declare a full-strength line-up, including Scott Nicholls who is scheduled to make his comeback after just over a month out with a broken collarbone.
The Aces are without Rising Star Will Cairns, who is in Denmark for the final round of the SGP2 series which takes place at Vojens on Friday. His place is taken by former Colts No.1 Sam Hagon, who returned to form at Championship level with Glasgow last weekend.
Manager Mark Lemon said: “After Monday’s results it’s looking like Ipswich are in the hot seat to qualify for the play-offs over King’s Lynn, but that’s not really our focus at the moment.
“We’re going to Ipswich to do a job on Thursday, and it will be our normal routine.
“Then when the play-offs come around, we’ll tackle whoever is in front of us.”
Aces fans not making the trip to Foxhall can follow all the action on Ipswich’s live stream from https://witchestv.co.uk/ , whilst live scores will be available from the BSP’s official updates service at https://live.britishspeedway.co.uk/ .
IPSWICH: Richard Lawson, Scott Nicholls, Danny King, Tom Brennan, Tobiasz Musielak, Kevin Juhl Pedersen, Jason Edwards.
BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Norick Blodorn, Peter Kildemand, Zach Cook, Jason Doyle, Tate Zischke, Sam Hagon.