THERE’S little time to breathe for the Belle Vue ‘Cool Running’ Colts as, 24 hours after they faced them in Manchester, they’re off to Northside to face the Workington Comets on Saturday, August 26.
Despite several challenges to overcome, the Mancunian side triumphed 49-41 on Friday night, moving third in the NDL table and take an 8-point lead to Cumbria for the return fixture.
After missing some key figures at the National Speedway Stadium, the Play Off hopefuls are back to full strength at Northside, as our their Cumbrian rivals.
Although well out of Play Off contention, the Comets have vowed to make life difficult for their Mancunian counterparts as they continue their battle to qualify for a shot at this year’s title.
It’s been nearly 6 years since the Cool Running Colts raised the trophy in 2017 and, with three matches still remaining, they are still mathematically able to make the top two.
In the build-up to this meeting, several of the Belle Vue riders have taken the opportunity to practice at the Northside track with many of them already having taken a strong liking to it.
And while the heads up has given them something of a confidence boost, club No.2 Matt Marson says his team are far from complacent ahead of what he believes will be a challenging afternoon.
He said: “A lot of the boys have been putting in the practice time at Northside, it’s a really nice track with some good facilities and I think we’re all just looking forward to getting up there.
“We had a great night at home 24 hours ago and we do have that small lead on aggregate, but the scores on the night go back to zero and our magic number will be 46.
“But I think we’ve got the firepower and the knowledge to do what needs doing and being back to full strength with James [Pearson] and Sam [Hagon] with us is a huge plus.
“Had those boys been with us at home I feel we could’ve made it a more comfortable cushion, but if we can do that without them then we should be able to do even better with them.”
The Cool Running Colts travel to Workington on Saturday, August 25 for their penultimate away fixture at Northside against the Comets.
Then, the ATPI Aces round off an extended bank holiday of racing with their final calendar fixture in the Premiership on Monday, August 28 against the Leicester Lions.
Meeting tickets, race day programmes and hospitality are now available to pre-book at bellevue-speedway.com/events. South stand parking is sold out, but St. Peter’s School will be open on the day.
WORKINGTON V BELE VUE – SATURDAY, AUGUST 26 @ 3:00PM, [NDL]
Workington ‘GT Tyres’ Comets: Connor Bailey 9.54, Sam McGurk 7.00, Luke Harrison 6.77, Luke Crang (C) 4.84, Ace Pijper 6.67, Elliot Kelly 4.15, Harry McGurk 3.00; TM: James Denham
Belle Vue ‘Cool Running’ Colts: James Pearson 8.67, Matt Marson 5.81, Sam Hagon 8.17, Freddy Hodder 5.81, Jack Smith (C) 8.44, Jack Shimelt 3.00, Luke Muff 4.57; TM: Steve Williams & Graham Goodwin
Aggregate Score: Workington 41-49 Belle Vue
Image: Ian Charles