SPEEDWAY season in Manchester got off to a rocky start for defending champions Belle Vue after they fell short 43-47 to Sheffield at the National Speedway Stadium.
It promised to be a meeting of epic proportions, and the action was at a fever pitch right from the word go as the TruPlant Tigers picked up from where they left off at Owlerton.
But it was far from easy picking for the visitors, as the ATPI Aces snatched every opportunity to reign in their attempts to gain a foothold, which they did with style.
Their efforts ultimately brought the evening down to a last-heat decider, in which the big guns were summoned for both sides with the aim of stealing all three league points.
It was the Sheffield duo of Jack Holder and Tobias Musielak who brought home the result, getting the better of the ARTPI Aces pair of Brady Kurtz and Jaimon Lidsey in a red-hot grand finale.
Captain Kurtz once again led by example with a double figure score of 11 points, with Lidsey complimented him with 9 points on his return to the National Speedway Stadium.
He said: “This is only our second meeting of the season and to judge our prospects based off the last 30 heats I don’t think accurately reflects what this team is capable of.
“A few of the boys were struggling tonight. Dan [Bewley] had a bit of a shocker but he’s not one to settle for that, we all know what he can do around the NSS and I’m sure he’ll bounce back.
“There’s a long way still to go this year and I think once we’ve ironed out these early snags, we’ll be back on top and we’ve got a couple of weeks now to regroup before the next one.”
Next week’s action sees the rerun of the Peter Craven Memorial in Manchester on Monday, April 3 with almost all of the original field set to star in Belle Vue’s flagship event.
Meeting tickets and race day hospitality are available to pre-book at bellevue-speedway.com/events.
Meeting tickets and hospitality bookings from the original staging on March 20 will be valid for this meeting.
RESULT – BELLE VUE V SHEFFIELD – MONDAY, MARCH 27 @ 7:30PM
Belle Vue ‘ATPI’ Aces 43: Brady Kurtz 11, Jaimon Lidsey 9, Norick Blodorn 7, Tom Brennan 7, Charles Wright 5+1, Dan Bewley 4+1, Jake Mulford 0.
Sheffield ‘TruPlant’ Tigers 47: Jack Holder 11, Tobiasz Musielak 10+1, David Bellego 8, Lewis Kerr 8, Kyle Howarth 4+2, Dan Gilkes 4+1, Adam Ellis 2+1.
Aggregate Score: 85-95; Sheffield Win Aggregate Bonus Point
Premiership Points: Belle Vue 0 Sheffield 2(+1)