PREVIEW: BIRMINGHAM v IPSWICH (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM)

BIRMINGHAM face a tough opening home ROWE Motor Oil Premiership encounter tonight (Monday) when in-form title favourites Ipswich visit Perry Barr.

The Brummies were a bogey team for the Witches last year, getting the better of the Suffolk side twice in their final two meetings, but the visitors are now back at full strength and have made a terrific start to 2025.

Two riders face their former clubs with Tom Brennan having switched from Birmingham to Ipswich over the winter whilst Keynan Rew moved in the opposite direction to the West Midlands.

And Rew is hoping the Brummies, whose performances have been wildly inconsistent so far, can improve substantially on their home KO Cup defeat to Leicester a fortnight ago.

He said: “It was definitely a tough meeting, I’m not going to hide that fact.

“We all struggled and we just simply weren’t making starts, it’s pretty simple – and it’s hard to win races around here when you’re not making starts.

“I think I’ve come to a few conclusions so hopefully I can factor that in for the next home meeting and I’ll be ready to go.”

Ipswich boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “We will go to a place where we had mixed fortunes last year and they were a team we had difficulties against.

“They probably had the best record of anyone against us when they were struggling but we know we can do well there.

“We will go there with confidence but maybe after Oxford, expectations can be lowered a little bit. We will have to perform very well if we want another win.”

BIRMINGHAM: Tobiasz Musielak, Jonas Jeppesen, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Keynan Rew, Matej Zagar, Antti Vuolas, Jason Edwards.
IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Danny King, Adam Ellis, Tom Brennan, Emil Sayfutdinov, Dan Thompson, Jordan Jenkins.

SCB Referee: Seth Perkin

LIVE STREAMING: https://watch.britishspeedway.co.uk