BELLE VUE captain Brady Kurtz goes for the hat-trick in the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy as the new speedway season gets underway in Manchester on Monday (7pm).
Kurtz won the event in 2024 ahead of his ATPI Aces team-mate Dan Bewley and former club skipper Max Fricke, and he repeated the feat last year ahead of Jack Holder and Bewley.
On both occasions, Kurtz was successful in the six-rider Final which has become the traditional decider of the event and produces one of the most spectacular sights in the sport.
Bewley and Fricke are two riders who are also likely to be in contention in another top-class line-up which features six of the Aces’ regulars, along with four-time winner Jason Doyle.
Kurtz said: “It’s always cool to open the season with the Peter Craven Memorial, and it’s become quite an event in the last few years.
“I feel it’s a meeting that a lot of people want to ride in, and it’s had a hell of a line-up, so it’s been nice to win the last couple of years!
“Another win would be nice, but it’s just nice to be on the bike, to ride against some good riders and see where we are before the season starts.
“I’d like to be in the front in the Final and not see the other riders, but it’s quite difficult in that line-up!
“It’s cool, it’s an event that you don’t really get to see, only in the Golden Helmet (Pardubice), so it’s nice that we’ve got a track that we can actually fit six riders on, and I’m looking forward to it – hopefully I’m one of the six!”
There is one change to the originally announced line-up as Fredrik Lindgren has had to cancel his trip to the UK for family reasons, which also meant him missing Nicolai Klindt’s Testimonial at King’s Lynn on Sunday.
Former British Champion Adam Ellis, who won the title at the National Speedway Stadium in 2021, steps in to replace Lindgren.
Tickets for the Peter Craven Memorial, which culminates in a five-rider semi-final and six-rider Final, remain on sale from: https://www.bellevue-speedway.com/tickets .
For those supporters unable to attend on the night, the event will be livestreamed with our colleagues at BVTV. The stream will get underway from 6.30pm and passes can be purchased from https://www.bvtv.live .
PETER CRAVEN MEMORIAL TROPHY DRAW: 1 Nicolai Klindt, 2 Peter Kildemand, 3 Jan Kvech, 4 Chris Holder, 5 Tom Brennan, 6 Norick Blodorn, 7 Max Fricke, 8 Jason Doyle, 9 Niels-Kristian Iversen, 10 Brady Kurtz, 11 Zach Cook, 12 Dan Bewley, 13 Tate Zischke, 14 Chris Harris, 15 Adam Ellis, 16 Rasmus Jensen. Reserves: Will Cairns, Freddy Hodder.