A tough night at Sandy Lane saw Belle Vue ATPI Aces defeated 53-37 to the Oxford Spires, despite an early strong offensive from the ATPI Aces.
The early stages of the evening saw both sides locked in a stalemate that was broken by a 5-1 from the home duo of Maciej Janowski and Charles Wright in Heat 3.
But even then, the home side struggled to put some distance between themselves and the ATPI Aces, who kept the pressure on with a succession of shared races.
The Spires, though, continued to chip away at their rivals but it wasn’t until as late as Heat 12 that they bagged two vital race advantages that would ultimately win them the meeting.
It sets the stage nicely for the return fixture at the National Speedway Stadium, with the two sides set to meet this coming Monday, July 22, for their next encounter.
Triple British Champion Dan Bewley top scored for the ATPI Aces with an impressive 12 points while skipper Brdy Kurtz put in 6+1 and Ben Cook added 6 of his own.
Team boss Mark Lemon said: “We must give credit where credit is due. Conditions were tough tonight with the track surface being far from ideal, but Oxford handled it better than we did and had a bit more fire power.
“Being a dry day, a lot of water was put down overnight which made the track patchy in places and things were a little stop-start as a result.
“But we have no excuses. We were simply got outperformed on the night and didn’t race to our capabilities, but now we know what we must do to turn things around come Monday.
“A 16-point deficit is not an easy margin to overcome but we have closed bigger gaps than this in the past and if any team can do it, this team can.
“We know our strength lies in our home performances and that our form away from home this season has been something of our kryptonite but that is probably down to the improved strength of the Premiership League this season.
“It just makes those aggregate bonus points even more crucial as we come into the final stretch ahead of the Play Offs. But for now, we put this one to bed and move onto Monday’s home leg.”
The ATPI Aces pick up their home campaign against the Spires at the National Speedway Stadium on Monday, July 22, where they aim to recover from a 1st leg 16-point deficit.
Meeting tickets, race day programmes, hospitality and south stand parking are now available to pre-book online at bellevue-speedway.com/events.
RESULT – OXFORD V BELLE VUE – THURSDAY, JULY 18 @ 7:30PM [P2]
Oxford ‘OXS’ Spires 53: Rohan Tungate 12+1, Chris Harris 12+1, Maciej Janowski 9+1, Erik Riss 8+3, Charles Wright 7+2, Drew Kemp 4+1, Ashton Boughen 1
Belle Vue ‘ATPI’ Aces 37: Dan Bewley 12, Brady Kurtz 6+1, Ben Cook 6, Jaimon Lidsey 5+1, Norick Blodron 4, Jake Mulford 2+2, Antti Vuolas 2.
Image: ©Belle Vue Speedway