REIGNING Premiership Champions Belle Vue have all but sealed their place in the 2023 play off top four after a stunning 49-41 win over Ipswich to secure three more league points to their tally.
The ATPI Aces bagged the bonus aggregate point following their impressive win at Foxhall last Thursday to take the overall 95-85 result and remain ten points clear at the top of the table.
It couldn’t have been a better meeting for the Eurosport cameras to capture as an ecstatic crowd packed the National Speedway Stadium to witness their latest triumph.
But the Tru Mix Witches didn’t go down without a fight as they made every effort to salvage their league title hopes and held the home team to a nail-biting stalemate in the early heats.
Brady Kurtz and Connor Bailey broke the deadlock in Heat 4 with a much needed 4-2 in favour of Belle Vue, but the Witches were right there one race later to again draw the scores level.
With every attempt to pull away, their opponents stubbornly refused to give any ground to the ATPI Aces and, again, by Heat 9, the scores remained level at 27 apiece.
It wasn’t until Heat 10 that the home team found something of a rhythm and Dan Bewley and Norick Blodorn delivered the first 5-1 of the night to create some much-needed breathing space.
From there, the reigning champions went from strength to strength and forged ahead to victory, with Ipswich left to ponder what could’ve been.
Tom Brennan topped the score charts for Belle Vue with 10+4 while Swedish SGP winner Dan Bewley added 9+1 and skipper Brady Kurtz 8+1.
Bewley said: “This was a brilliant result for the boys. I threw a few points away, but I think the secret to the strength of this team is the fact that we can compensate for those who have an off night.
“Ipswich put up a good fight, maybe even more than we were expecting initially, but they are a good team on paper, and they were out to prove a point tonight, so we had to work very hard.
“There were a few close calls and some controversial decisions, but we overcame all of the challenges on the night, and it was real team effort from everyone to win.
“We’re going pretty good at the minute. We’re in the play offs now and the plan going forward is to keep putting in the points, have some fun and see how far we can go.
The ATPI Aces head to Sheffield on Thursday, July 20 to face the TruPlant Tigers in the Sports Insure Premiership, tapes up at 7:30pm.
Words: Hayley Bromley
Images: Ian Charles
