BELLE Vue will soon be needing a bigger trophy cabinet after racing to victory in the 2023 Premiership Pairs competition at Leicester’s Pidcock Motorcycles Arena on Thursday night [June 29].
The club has not won a Pairs event since 2006 when Jason Crump and Simon Stead won the Elite League Pairs, and before that in the 1984 British League Pairs with Chris Morton and Peter Collins.
That means skipper Brady Kurtz and Dan Bewley become only the third Belle Vue duo to join this exclusive roster after defeating Peterborough in a thrilling finale in the Midlands.
The ATPI Aces qualified comfortably into the semi-finals with 32 points, along with Sheffield on 29 points, and only one behind the Panthers who were the surprise finalists to qualify straight through.
The Tigers gave Bewley and Kurtz very little trouble as they breezed through the semi-final to defeat them 7-2, which they then repeated against the Panthers pair to win on the night.
Bewley was amongst the top scorers overall with 20 points while Kurtz complimented him with a solid 12, and a hiccup in his mandatory outing resulted in Rising Star Jake Mulford failing to score.
Kurtz said: “We’re delighted with this result. I know Lemmo [Mark Lemon] really wanted this trophy and I think going into this we felt we were one of the stronger pairings.
“After the way things turned out when we last came to Leicester as a team, it was nice to be able to turn that around and get such a good result.
“We started of strong and just seemed to build on our performance all night until we got to the semi-final and the final, and at that point we really had things dialled in.
“This is a tricky track because it’s not only deep but it’s technical as well , and for me personally it’s one of my more challenging circuits and I’m sure Dan would say the same.
“I think I was more nervous for the semi-final to be honest because Jack [Holder] and Toby [Musielak] are very accomplished riders so to get one over those guys was nice.
“And even in the final, Richie [Worrall] had been superb all night so we had that very much in mind but we made good starts in each and as a result, we’re the Pairs Champions!”
The ATPI Aces return to the National Speedway Stadium on Monday, July 3 at full strength against the Wolverhampton Wolves, tapes up at 7:30pm.
Meeting tickets, race day programmes, hospitality and south stand parking are now available to reserve online at bellevue-speedway.com/events.
RESULT – PREMIERSHIP PAIRS, LEICESTER – THURSDAY, JUNE 29 @ 7:30PM [IND]
QUALIFYING SCORES:
PETERBOROUGH 33: Richie Worrall 23, Ben Cook 8, Jordan Jenkins 2.
BELLE VUE 32: Dan Bewley 20, Brady Kurtz 12, Jake Mulford 0.
SHEFFIELD 29: Jack Holder 16, Tobiasz Musielak 13, Dan Gilkes 0.
LEICESTER 26: Max Fricke 19, Drew Kemp 5, Justin Sedgmen 2.
IPSWICH 26: Danny King 18, Erik Riss 8, Dan Thompson 0.
KING’S LYNN 22: Nicolai Klindt 22, Thomas Jorgensen 0, Anders Rowe 0.
WOLVERHAMPTON 21: Steve Worrall 16, Sam Masters 5, Leon Flint 0.
SEMI-FINAL: Kurtz, Bewley, Holder, Musielak – [Belle Vue beat Sheffield 7-2].
GRAND FINAL: Kurtz, Bewley, R.Worrall, B.Cook – [Belle Vue beat Peterborough 7-2].
Image: Belle Vue Speedway