BRITISH SPEEDWAY JULY 4, 2025

(SPEEDWAY 1)

TERRIFIC TIGERS TOP OF TABLE

SHEFFIELD are back on top of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership after a hard-fought 50-40 win over Birmingham at Owlerton.
The Tigers went into the fixture operating rider replacement for No.1 Jack Holder, who was ruled out at short notice due to a family emergency.

It took the home side until Heat 14 to secure victory with the Brummies putting in a much -improved performance compared to their previous visit to South Yorkshire.
The Tigers’ top two of Chris Holder and Josh Pickering were both in fine form with 16 and 14+1 respectively, whilst for the visitors Tobiasz Musielak scored well on his old home track with 14+1, and British Under-21 Champion Sam Hagon enjoyed his best night in the top-flight with 8+1 from the Rising Star berth.

Sheffield boss Simon Stead said: “It was important to get back to winning ways.
“It was under difficult circumstances again – but some things are more important, and Jack’s family comes first and we send them our best wishes.
“The fact we managed to get a result without him is a bonus.”
Hagon said: “Sheffield’s a bit like Belle Vue, it’s a hard place to go to – but we did better away against them than we did at home recently.
“Ten down at Sheffield’s not too bad considering they’ve still got Pickering and Holder who do go very well around here.”
 
(SPEEDWAY 2)

LEICESTER moved six points clear of ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off rivals King’s Lynn with a 53-37 win at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park.
The Lions took control with two early 5-1s against a Stars side who were without three of their regular top six, but Richard Lawson and Chris Harris ensured they remained competitive.
Lawson inflicted a rare home defeat on Max Fricke as he ended on 14+2 from seven rides, and Harris won his last two outings to end on 11.

Lions skipper Fricke totalled 13+1 whilst Drew Kemp impressed at reserve with 10+2 and Ryan Douglas scored 10.
Kemp said: “It was a really good win for the guys tonight. I think King’s Lynn are on our tails and chasing us for that play-off spot, so to get one over on them was a good result for us.
“I think we’re all coming into form how we should be, Joe (Thompson) is chipping in with points and making some good starts, Max is as good as ever and we’re all pretty consistent.
“That’s what we need and what we were lacking at the start of the year, but we all seem to be finding our feet and I think it shows.”

King’s Lynn boss Rob Lyon said: “It was a creditable effort, and without being too defeatist we were trying to be realistic. It was damage limitation, and we had to try and keep it as close as possible.
“I felt we did as good a job as we could, to be fair. There were a couple of unlucky situations with Richad having an engine problem when he was in a good position, and the referee’s call in Heat 13 (disqualification of Niels-Kristian Iversen).
“Generally it wasn’t too bad, the boys tried hard with what we had, and they put on a respectable show. We’ll now be assessing things over the weekend and see what we can put out on Monday.”

(SPEEDWAY 3)

DAN Thompson and Jake Mulford represent Great Britain as the FIM SPG2 (World Under-21) series gets underway in Malilla tonight (Friday).
Belle Vue and Redcar racer Mulford made it through the rain-affected qualifier at Glasgow on May 24, where the event was abandoned after 12 heats and the final classification resulted in him claiming second place overall.

Thompson (Ipswich/Glasgow) was unable to take his place in the qualifier due to a fractured scaphoid, but he received a permanent Wild Card selection by the series organisers as prior to the injury he had been in fantastic form – including winning the British Semi-Final with a 15-point maximum and finishing seventh in the British Final
Thompson said: “It will be good experience. It’s something that I wanted to achieve, and I wanted to be there.
“I’ll give it my all, I’ve got some good equipment out there and some really good people helping me, so I’ve got to say thank you to them.

“I don’t have any expectations but it’s my last go at it, so I want to go out there and do my best, that’s why I’ve put really good equipment there and I’ve been lucky to have the support, so I’ll go and mix it and enjoy the experience.”
The SGP2 series is run over three rounds, starting in Sweden tonight before moving on to Latvia in August and Denmark in September.

Mulford and Thompson will face extremely tough competition with the top four from the 2024 series Wiktor Przyjemski (Poland) Nazar Parnitskyi (Ukraine), Mathias Pollestad (Norway) and Mikkel Andersen (Denmark) all returning.
Other notable riders challenging for the SGP2 crown will be Belle Vue’s Norick Blodorn and Oxford’s Mitchell McDiarmid, representing Germany and Australia respectively 

(FIXTURES)

FRIDAY JULY 4:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Edinburgh v Berwick OFF, Glasgow (46) v Oxford (44) OFF

SATURDAY JULY 5:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Berwick v Edinburgh 7.30, Plymouth v Scunthorpe 7pm

MONDAY JULY 7:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1: Belle Vue (43) v Birmingham (47) 7.30
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R2: King’s Lynn (43) v Sheffield (47) 7.30, Oxford v Ipswich 7.30
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT TROPHY: Birmingham v Kent 7.30