Ipswich Witches v Belle Vue Aces

Report

EMIL Sayfutdinov and Tom Brennan were both unbeaten as Ipswich raced to a 67-23 demolition of Belle Vue in the second leg of their KO Cup quarter final.

The Witches already led by ten points from the away fixture, but they really cut loose on their own circuit at Foxhall with Sayfutdinov scoring a full 12-point maximum whilst Brennan marked his home debut with 10+2.

All seven riders from the dominant hosts won at least one race as they recorded a total of nine 5-1s, with the Aces’ sole success coming in Heat 6 with a 4-2 from Dan Bewley (7) and Tate Zischke.

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “It couldn’t have gone any better, superb over both meetings this week. We’ve started the season super strong.

“We’ve set ourselves big expectations for the whole season now, and big targets. There’s still improvement to be had in certain areas but overall, for a start to the season, it’s great!

“Belle Vue are the champions, and we know they’ve started the season slowly in other years and gone on to end the year as the champions. We managed to take advantage of that which pays testament to our preparation and our determination to get through straight from the off.

“The boys have put a lot of work in, and they weren’t rusty coming into the season. They’re a very gelled unit already from how much time we’ve rode together so that’s obviously given us a bonus going forward.”

Belle Vue boss Mark Lemon said: “There’s something peculiar about the last couple of meetings. Our boys underperformed and I have some theories behind it, but until we do some testing on some equipment and product, it’s hard to know.

“To have all the team not fire and to come away with only one race win is very unusual, so I think we need to have a good investigation through the camp.

“I’m not firing off any alarm bells at the riders, but it just seems a bit of a coincidence that none of us performed.

“I’m not going to take anything away from the Witches, they rode extremely well and they’re a very good outfit. We’ve just got to do some soul searching and work out why the performance has been so poor.”

IPSWICH 67: Emil Sayfutdinov 12, Adam Ellis 11, Tom Brennan 10+2, Jason Doyle 9+2, Jordan Jenkins 8+2, Dan Thompson 8, Danny King 7+2.
BELLE VUE 23: Dan Bewley 7, Jaimon Lidsey 5, Brady Kurtz 5, Jake Mulford 3, Norick Blodorn 2, Tate Zischke 2, Zach Cook 1.
Ipswich win 117-63 on aggregate

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Photo credit: JEFF HIGGOTT