BRITISH SPEEDWAY JUNE 3, 2025

(SPEEDWAY 1)

BRUMMIES DEFEAT ACES

BIRMINGHAM made it back-to-back wins in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership with a tense 47-43 victory over champions Belle Vue at Perry Barr.

With the scores level heading into Heat 15, Dan Bewley was penalised for touching the tapes and the Aces star had to take a 15-metre handicap.
Home duo Matej Zagar and Tobiasz Musielak then got the better of Zach Cook on the opening lap of the re-run and raced clear for a 5-1 to give the Brummies their first win on their own track this year.

Zagar starred against his former club with 14 points from six rides with Musielak adding 11+1 and Rising Star Jason Edwards impressed with 8+4. Bewley also scored 14 for the visitors with Jaimon Lidsey on ten and Cook 9+1.
Birmingham boss Chris Adams said: “We’re on a roll, aren’t we! In all seriousness though, all the lads pulled together as a five man team really with Keynan (Rew) and his injuries and already using R/R at No.1.
“We didn’t have too many race winners, but we did enough to get there in the end.

“Tensions got a bit high but we stayed focussed and got the job done.”
Aces manager Mark Lemon said: “It’s obviously a frustrating ending. That’s sport, that’s what gets your heart pumping.
“There’s fine lines in a close meeting in the top-flight and every decision is critical.
“Unfortunately the decisions went against us a little bit. Heat 15 is tough to take but there’s not much you can do about it. No one is to blame or point the finger at.”

(SPEEDWAY 2)

LEICESTER piled the pressure on Premiership KO Cup holders Sheffield with a 54-36 win in the first leg of their semi-final on Monday.
Ryan Douglas scored a 14+1 paid maximum for the Lions who had lost their previous home match against Birmingham but hit back in style over the Tigers.

Douglas completed his full house with a win over Jack Holder and Josh Pickering in Heat 15 whilst skipper Max Fricke picked up 10+1, and reserve Drew Kemp (8+1) was involved in two key 5-1s in the closing stages of the meeting.
The Tigers had seven race winners but were unable to find full consistency throughout the meeting, and they therefore face a recovery job in Thursday’s second leg. Holder top scored with nine points.

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “Every one of my riders deserves great credit, which they’ll get over the next day or so, because to beat Sheffield by 18 points is very good.
“I did bring them down to earth very quickly to say not to get ahead of ourselves because Sheffield could wipe that lead out in five heats on Thursday, but that was just to make sure they were on their toes!

“The track was certainly better than last week and the riders enjoyed it, and they should take the plaudits because they did the business against a very good team.”
Pickering (7) said: “We all started off on the back foot and they got off to a pretty handy lead straight up.
“Throughout the middle I felt like it was relatively close and then towards the end they finished strong.
“But they’ve still got to come to us on Thursday and we’ve been quite dominant at home this year. So hopefully we can turn things around, that’s the aim of the game, and I do feel collectively 1-7 we can do enough to do the job.”

(SPEEDWAY 3)

KING’S Lynn established a six-point advantage over local rivals Ipswich to leave their Premiership KO Cup semi-final well poised ahead of Thursday’s Foxhall return.
The Stars won 48-42 at the Adrian Flux Arena with Czech racer Jan Kvech starring at reserve with 16+1, whilst Chris Harris dropped just two points as he scored 13 from five rides.

Kvech and Harris teamed up for a vital 5-1 in Heat 14 to build the lead again for the home side after the Witches had worked hard to get back level from six down as they went into the closing stages.
Richard Lawson with nine was the Stars’ other main scorer, whilst Emil Sayfutdinov collected11+1 for the visitors and both Tom Brennan and Danny King notched ten.

Stars boss Rob Lyon said: “I’m happy with the win, and it’s morale boosting to get a win against Ipswich at any given time even though they were a little bit weaker.
“We’ve had our own problems this year already, so we’ll take the win. Six points isn’t ideally where we wanted to be, but we’ve proved already this year that we can go to Ipswich and do some damage, so I think it’s all to play for.
“The win was the main thing, and at least we’ve got a lead to go with and something to fight for. We’ve definitely got the riders to do it, and it’s up to them to produce it on the night and take us through to the Final.”

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “I’m disappointed not to win, a couple of the boys had tough nights. I feel we should be good enough to win there still even missing Jason (Doyle) and Dan (Thompson), so to come away with a defeat is disappointing.
“Six points is not disastrous, and it leaves the tie finely poised and exciting going into Thursday.
“I can’t complain about the effort from the team, it was superb as always and it will need to be the same on Thursday and it will be a big task to pull the points back, but we are more than capable of doing it.”

(FIXTURES)

WEDNESDAY JUNE 4:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Oxford v Glasgow 7.30
NATIONAL LEAGUE RIDERS’ DEVELOPMENT INDIVIDUAL (HARBOUR MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIP): Poole 7.30

THURSDAY JUNE 5:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1: Belle Vue (43) v Birmingham (47) 7.30
PREMIERSHIP KO CUP S/F 2nd leg: Ipswich (42) v King’s Lynn (48) 7.30, Sheffield (36) v Leicester (54) 7.30

FRIDAY JUNE 6:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Edinburgh v Oxford 7.30, Glasgow v Poole 7.30, Scunthorpe v Berwick 7.30