A bumper crowd were treated to a masterclass of racing from Belle Vue as they added three Premiership points to their tally after defeating Wolverhampton 47-43 in Manchester.
The ATPI Aces first locked horns with the Parrys International Wolves at the National Speedway Stadium at lunchtime, with both teams fervently chasing vital league points.
The opening stages of that meeting saw the lead swing to-and-from between the two sides with a succession of 5-1s continuously levelling the scores.
But the home team eventually dug in their heels to establish their authority and held the visitors to the sword for the remainder of the afternoon.
Norick Blodorn, the newly crowned German national champion, proved the match winner for the ATPI Aces after scoring his first double figures at home alongside top scorer Max Fricke.
He said: “This was a big result for the team, but equally a big result for myself because this was the first time I’ve scored double figures at home.
“I think we can be happy with how this meeting went. We knew Wolves were going to give us a tough afternoon and they delivered on that.
“A few of the boys were struggling but this is a team where we can pick up the slack if someone is having problems and as the match went on it felt like we were getting better.
“Three points was what we wanted and we’re not that far off confirming our place in the Play Offs but we still have work to do to earn that place.”
The return fixture at Monmore green proved equally challenging for the ATPI Aces, who put in an exceptional effort to keep things close but eventually went down 50-40
It was a case of deja-vu as, after four heats, the scores were level pegging at 12 apiece with neither side prepared to give up.
A handful of heavy crashes, however, saw both Tom Brennan and Charles Wright come to grief, with both forced to withdraw from the meeting with injuries sustained.
By the business end of the night, the Parrys International Wolves had found their mojo to deny the ATPI Aces a point, but not before the visitors delivered a final 5-1 to claw back some pride.
Aces boss Mark Lemon said: “We came to Wolverhampton well prepared for this meeting but we just got caught on the hop with injuries unfortunately.
“We lost two of our guys tonight and our thoughts are with Tom [Brennan] who has gone to hospital to be examined for a back injury.
“Ultimately we were decimated by those incidents and taken down to just five riders, which put pressure on the rest of the boys.
“But we can’t take anything away from Wolverhampton, they are very good around their home track but we need to put this one to one side, regroup and get ready for Sheffield next week.”
The ATPI Aces complete their regular home fixtures next Monday, September 5 with another War of the Roses local derby against the Sheffield Tigers.
Meeting tickets, match day programmes, stadium parking and hospitality are now available to reserve at bellevue-speedway.com.
