BRITISH SPEEDWAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2025
(SPEEDWAY 1)
WITCHES’ GRAND FINAL QUALIFICATION
IPSWICH charged into the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership Grand Final with an emphatic 59-31 second leg win over Belle Vue at Foxhall.
The Witches took just four races to cancel out the six-point deficit they faced at the halfway stage of their play-off semi-final, and the key phase of the meeting saw them take back-to-back 5-1s in Heats 9 and 10 to go 12 points up overall.
Their progression was secured with maximum points from Jason Doyle and reserve Jason Edwards in Heat 12, and they marched on to further extend their advantage.
Tom Brennan led the scoring with 12+2 and there were also major contributions from Doyle (11), Dan Thompson (10+3) and Danny King (10) on a night where the home side adapted better to conditions following afternoon rain.
Manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “We certainly weren’t complacent, which is something we have been guilty of in the past and I am really pleased with the boys. They were 100 per cent focused on winning and not on track conditions.
“The will to win outshone everything tonight and that is what got us the victory. I know it was a big margin in the end, but it didn’t feel that way in the first half of the meeting where it was tight.
“For us, it was a bad toss for us to lose but we negotiated those first four heats well and then in the second half of the meeting we stepped it up a gear.
“The result can be exaggerated a bit because once Belle Vue know they’re beaten, it can be hard to carry on for them. I’m delighted with the boys and the attitude they showed tonight, they got their rewards from it.”
The Witches will now face either Leicester or Sheffield in the Grand Final, with their home leg to be staged on Thursday September 25 and the opener three nights earlier.
(SPEEDWAY 2)
BELLE Vue manager Mark Lemon admitted Ipswich proved a step too far in their defence of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership title.
The Aces have not enjoyed their trips to Foxhall this season and Thursday’s play-off semi-final second leg provided a further addition to their run of defeats in Suffolk as they went down 59-31 for a 22-point aggregate defeat.
Norick Blodorn gave them a race win in Heat 1 as the Aces started with a 4-2 but it was largely downhill from there as middle-order duo Jaimon Lidsey and Zach Cook both suffered crashes, whilst star spearhead Brady Kurtz and Dan Bewley totalled just eight points between them.
Lemon said: “We’ve been here four times this year and obviously our performances have been pretty poor. To execute that in a play-off semi-final, it’s a horrible feeling to be quite honest.
“The boys tried everything, they just couldn’t get off the starts. You can’t give anyone a head start on a track that’s so one line.
“It’s the way it is. You can’t take anything away from Ipswich, they’ve been the best team all year. We had a couple of spills too, but we had 12 lasts, you’re not going to win anything with those results.
“We’ve got a young team. I was banking on seeing more progress than we had, but experience cost us at the end of the day. I’m proud of the boys regardless. It’s disappointing, it’s going to hit home pretty hard.”
(SPEEDWAY 3)
SCOTTISH rivals Edinburgh and Glasgow clash in a mouth-watering first leg of their Cab Direct Championship play-off semi-final at Armadale tonight (Friday).
The visitors finished top of the table with the Monarchs in fourth place, holding on despite home and away defeats to the Tigers in the closing part of the regular season.
That was one of three successes for Glasgow on their neighbours’ circuit in 2025, with the 47-43 league win matching their result in the Scottish Cup, and they also won 46-44 in the BSN Series. Edinburgh, meanwhile, won 49-41 in the first leg of their MAXiCab KO Cup quarter-final.
But Monarchs skipper Paco Castagna insists it all starts afresh in the play-offs, with Edinburgh at full strength and Glasgow forced into changes.
The Tigers are without Dan Thompson and Villads Nagel who are on SGP2 duty in Vojens.
Nicolai Klindt and Simon Lambert come in to guest, whilst Dayle Wood stands in for the injured Max Perry at reserve.
It’s the first time the clubs have met in the play-offs for four years, with Glasgow winning their semi-final in 2021 after a big result at home, whilst Edinburgh were victorious in the 2015 Grand Final.
Castagna said: “We know what to expect. We know how strong Glasgow are and have been this year. They are first in the league and they are not the best in the league by any mistake.
“But on the other side, we were predicted to be low in the league and we have finished fourth. We deserve the play-offs and that’s where we are. We’ve upset a few predictions.
“The club should be very, very happy to achieve the goal which was put in front of us at the start of the year, which was to get into the play-offs, so we should already be happy. Now whatever we do now is extra.
“For me, the main thing is to be strong in the home match and try to get as much lead as we can – first of all of course, get a win!”
EDINBURGH: Victor Palovaara, Paco Castagna, Justin Sedgmen, Michael Palm Toft, Kye Thomson, Jonatan Grahn, Jordy Loftus.
GLASGOW: Chris Harris, Simon Lambert, Nicolai Klindt, Leon Flint, Kyle Howarth, Dayle Wood, Freddy Hodder.
(SPEEDWAY 4)
A BUSY weekend in Vojens sees Belle Vue skipper Brady Kurtz chasing the World title, his team-mate Dan Bewley going for a bronze medal, and fellow British racer Robert Lambert looking to book a top-seven spot for 2026 qualification.
Meanwhile ahead of Saturday’s Danish GP, Friday sees the final round of the SGP2 series featuring Ipswich and Glasgow star Dan Thompson, and Belle Vue and Redcar racer Jake Mulford.
Thompson, who made the Last Chance Qualifier at the last round in Riga, Latvia will be aiming for a top four finish and will be at least hoping to make the Final.
Similarly Mulford will be going out to better his two previous scores where he has found the competition tough. In Round 1 in Sweden he scored two points, and he failed to score in the Latvian round.With both Thompson and Mulford having already turned 21, this will be their last shot at success in this event.
Then on Saturday morning the Vojens venue will host SGP4, which is now classed as a World Championship for riders between the ages of 11 to 13 riding 190cc motorcycles.
Great Britain will be represented by British Youth rider Fraser Buckle, who is currently placed second in the domestic 125cc standings behind Lewis Hague.
Buckle will be competing against riders from 10 other countries including representatives from Australia, Argentina, America, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, Holland, Norway, Latvia and of course the host country Denmark.
(FIXTURES)
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 12:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF S/F 1st leg: Edinburgh v Glasgow 7.30
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Berwick v Workington 7pm
BRITISH YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP: Edinburgh 1.30
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 14:
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF S/F 1st leg: Redcar v Poole 7.30
CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP: Workington v Berwick 3pm
BRITISH YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP: Glasgow 12pm
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15:
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF S/F 1st leg: Leicester v Sheffield 7.30
