BELLE Vue’s National League title pursuit was given a major boost on Friday night after the Cool Running Colts demolished the Kent Royals 67-23 at the National Speedway Stadium.
The home team were keen to put in a strong performance following their defeat at Iwade last month and challenge for the all-important aggregate bonus point.
And they started things off emphatically with three consecutive 5-1s to take control of the meeting on the night while narrowing the 18-point aggregate deficit to just 6 points.
Three further 4-2s and two more 5-1s in their favour soon destroyed Kent’s aggregate advantage and put paid to any plans they had of taking a win back to the south of England.
The Cool Running Colts conceded a 3-3 in Heat 9 after Freddy Hodder caught grip on the inside line of turn four and clouted Royals guest Jacob Hook, with both riders uninjured in the incident.
The latter half of the evening played out in similar fashion to the early stages, with the only shared race again conceded in Heat 15 after James Pearson packed up on the last turn of the last lap.
But that didn’t stop the young Aussie from hitting double figures, finishing his night on 12 points along with Sam Hagon and skipper Jack Smith top scoring with a paid 14+1 maximum.
Club No.2 Matt Marson said: “We were a bit gutted not to hit 70! But joking aside, we are all super stoked with this performance and we couldn’t have asked much more of ourselves.
“We were gutted to away from Iwade empty-handed and we were hoping to get the two league points, and the aggregate if we could and we’ve managed to get all three.
“I think with them missing Nathan Ablitt really hurt them, he rode for Belle Vue last year but even so I think we were expecting a bit more of a challenge than we got.
“We were cautiously optimistic about our chances of getting the bonus so to go from 18 points down on aggregate to winning by 26 is a job well done.”
The ATPI Aces take their Premiership campaign on the road to Wolverhampton on Monday, July 10 before heading down to Ipswich’s Foxhall Stadium on Thursday, July 13.
They return to the National Speedway Stadium on Monday, July 17 when the Ipswich Witches make their second trip to Manchester this season, tapes up at 7:30pm.
Meeting tickets, race day programmes, hospitality and south stand parking are now available to pre-book at bellevue-speedway.com/events.
RESULT – BELLE VUE V KENT – FRIDAY, JULY 7 @ 7:30PM [NDL]
Belle Vue ‘Cool Running’ Colts 67: Jack Smith 14+1, Sam Hagon 12, James Pearson 12, Matt Marson 8+2, Paul Bowen 8+2, Luke Muff 7+3, Freddy Hodder 6+1
Kent ‘Iwade Garage’ Royals 23: Jacob Hook 9, Ben Morley 6+1, Tom Woolley 5, Sam Woolley 2+1, Connor King 1, Rhys Naylor 0, Eli Meadows (No8) 0, Jack Kingston r/r
Belle Vue win 103-77 on aggregate
Image: Ian Charles