LEICESTER suffered a night to forget in almost every respect as they were crushed 61-29 by Belle Vue at the National Speedway Stadium on Monday.
The Manchester venue has rarely proved to be a happy hunting ground since the Watling JCB Lions stepped up into the top flight, but that takes nothing away from the disappointment of the display on this occasion.
The Lions were outpowered virtually from start to finish by the home side, and there were only mere crumbs of comfort from a meeting where most things went wrong.
The good news was a successful return for Dan Thompson, who rode strongly for paid-10, and his bike also prevented home captain Brady Kurtz from scoring a maximum when it finished second in Heat 13 in the hands of Ryan Douglas.
But the reason Douglas was borrowing his team-mate’s machinery was because of two disastrous races on the spin which rather summed up the Lions’ night as a whole.
Douglas was chasing Jason Doyle hard in Heat 11 but lost control on the exit of the second bend and crashed heavily into the fence, thankfully emerging without injury.
Then in Heat 12 when he was taking a tactical substitute ride he found himself trying to fend off Aces youngster Will Cairns, only for his bike to give up the ghost, which then necessitated the switch for the next race.
Douglas then pulled off a mighty effort to keep Kurtz at bay in Heat 13, although he wasn’t able to prevent Doyle from completing a 12-point maximum in his first appearance since replacing the injured Dan Bewley.
But at that stage of the proceedings it was all about damage limitation in any case, because the Aces were utterly dominant in the first half of the meeting especially.
The home side raced to five 5-1s in the first seven races, two of them from the pairing of Kurtz and Norick Blodorn, whilst Cairns joined Doyle for maximum points over Lions skipper Sam Masters in Heat 4.
Leicester’s only respite came when Kyle Howarth rode strongly to win Heat 2 ahead of Tate Zischke, and when Douglas and Thompson both popped out of the start for a 5-1 over Zach Cook and Peter Kildemand in Heat 5.
Whilst Belle Vue’s run of 5-1s was stemmed from the midway point, the Aces still kept on extending their lead with 4-2s as realistic thoughts of the aggregate point were eliminated as far as Leicester were concerned.
And a strong finish to the meeting took the home side over the 60-point mark as Cook and Zischke collected maximum points in Heat 15 before Kurtz won the last race, with Thompson second ahead of Blodorn at the end of a bad night for the Lions.
Manager Stewart Dickson said: “It’s very, very disappointing by Leicester’s standards in the Premiership since we came up. We’ve had our backsides well and truly scalped tonight.”
The Lions’ next Premiership fixture is away at King’s Lynn next Monday (June 22), but on Sunday at 3pm they host the British Semi-Final at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park.
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1
BELLE VUE 61:Brady Kurtz 12+1, Jason Doyle 12, Norick Blodorn 10+1, Peter Kildemand 9+1, Tate Zischke 7+2, Zach Cook 7, Will Cairns 4+2.
LEICESTER 29: Dan Thompson 9+1, Kyle Howarth 5, Ryan Douglas 5, Joe Thompson 3+1, Sam Masters 3, Drew Kemp 3, Nick Morris 1.
Photo credit: IAN CHARLES
